Sally Bavage writes:
This term, class 5 at Weetwood primary school have been studying Extreme Earth and considering the range of changes that have, and must, happen if we want a future for our youngsters. A spring trip to the recycling centre in Leeds was the starting point for some very imaginative and original poetry, coordinated and led by local writer and published poet James Nash.
Working closely with their class teacher Joanne Parker, the pupils aged nine or ten collaborated to share vocabulary, shape and edit ideas, then create original writing about their thoughts and feelings on rubbish that would eventually contribute to the powering of 22,000 homes in Leeds. Many parents were able to hear their children as they read out their favourite lines, or the whole thing, in front of the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Councillor Al Garthwaite. If that made them nervous, it didn't show! They were so engaged in performing their work and keen to display how much they had understood about the need for recycling rubbish and utilising its potential to create energy.
Many of the pupils took the part of a specific piece of rubbish and traced their fate. We felt the menace of the approaching doom, heard the noise of the huge metal grab and the thud of landing waste, we smelt the sulphurous smell of sour milk, the honeysuckle scent of decay, we saw the black hole of doom where rubbish is consigned to the flames, empathised with packets taken from their home, but rejoiced in the power such finality gave to the people of Leeds.
A dreadful journey, launched into a dumper truck
A huge metal octopus ready to snatch!
More and more rejects join me
Left in darkness to await my doom
I see a confetti or rubbish
Dropped into a vast bottomless sinkhole
A chair leg told me our dreadful fate
Swallowed into the burning belly
Stolen from my family, taken from my home
The orange peel shrieks “Farewell world! My time is over”
Me, a Haribo packet and a mattress
I'm just a jacket, I have friends here
Just an old blue jacket in an abyss of waste
I was chucked away, not worthy of being recycled or composted
I am a forgotten teddy and this is my story
Transformed to energy, I have been reborn
There were so many insightful lines and such vocabulary! These youngsters have taken their visit to a recycling plant to the next level indeed and made their learning so real. Real Wow! moments
What did the children themselves think of the project? James Nash gathered the following remarks the day before the final assembly, in addition to a resounding “Yes!” when asked if they had enjoyed their poetry sessions:
‘I’ve got so much more confident in my writing’
‘Thought I’d be shy reading out my poem, but I
really enjoyed it’.
‘We had so much help from Mrs Parker and you, it
was brilliant to write about our trip to the dump’.
‘Our trip gave us so many ideas’.
‘I learned that even published poets get their work
edited and marked by someone else’.
And the parents at the performance gave pretty much the same resounding answer - “Very excited” - when asked if their children had commented at home. They were keenly looking forward to seeing the children perform too, having had poems recited to them, or been told in no uncertain terms they mustn't miss it, or just been enthused by their child's pride in upcoming performance.
Staff who work with year 5 include Mr Greenwood, teaching assistant, who was simply delighted by one young boy whom he supported to become more confident with his English. “He asked me to work on it with him during the lunchtime and performed his own work with real confidence for the first time. Brilliant!”
Deputy headteacher Sara Westlake was just so pleased by the extraordinary way some pupils had performed way above expectations. “How marvellous it is to get the opportunity to work with a real poet; he has got so much out of our children that will stay with them. They won't forget this!”
After the readings, the Lord Mayor praised the youngsters for their extraordinary insights into the recycling plant that also powers the Civic Hall and her office! She also gave out an individual Leeds city pin badge to each child and commented on the civic 'bling' she was wearing in response to one of the questions posed by the young people.
The Lord Mayor has now attended five of the six poetry assemblies in local primary schools to which she was invited (she was previously committed on the sixth occasion) and has commented on how much the youngsters have got out of the poet-led workshops in both writing skills and performance experience. Headingley LitFest was honoured to have her come so often and show such empathy for the development of these young people.
No comments:
Post a Comment