Sally Bavage writes:
Listening to poetry at Spring Bank Primary School
We were all Listeners
as year 5 performed their original poems based on the ghostly phantoms of The
Listeners, by Walter de la Mare. As
James Nash - the writer and poet commissioned by Headingley LitFest to work
once again with the pupils at the school – said, “If you are of a certain
vintage you will probably remember having read this at school!” Nods from a number of us in the audience, who
had turned out on a distinctly chilly afternoon to receive a warm welcome from
the youngsters and the staff.
An air of
excitement prevailed as they got ready, then absolute disciplined silence as
they gathered themselves and read out parts of their work – a single favourite
line, a micropoem, even the whole thing.
First, ideas about the stimulus poem had been shared, then original work
created, shared, edited, redrafted and reading practised for performance. Great respect was shown for each other in the
final session of sharing and performing their work with parents, carers, other
classes and other school staff. They
went through scared to triumph and pride.
Pretty daunting but a great life lesson.
The wind is
whistling; I am waiting impatiently
This is the
house where my family died
The cry of
lost souls
I dream to be
let out of this dreadful world
I hear the
echoes of the past
Wolves howl
against the moonlit sky
My dog is
digging up my grave
Very atmospheric
as we watched the snow swirling over the rooflights!
As Mr Brawley,
headteacher, said at the end: "Poetry keeps you in touch with your feelings
and enables you to really see the world."
Parents
comments included:
Fantastic
event. Children full of enthusiasm. More 'Poetry Please' (a reference to Roger McGough on Radio
4)
Great for the
children to meet and work with a poet.
Very inspiring for them and encouraging.
They enjoyed the topic and the chance to perform
A very
valuable event. Wonderful to see the
children engaged and create such wonderful work
The children
read their poems really well and confidently
A lovely
sharing of poetry. Fabulous ideas spoken
with confidence. Thank you
Great to hear
kids. Confidence boost to read out loud
and use voice – good/interesting use of language and clear appreciation of
poetry and narrative
And staff at
the school also had their say:
Really
encourages the children to think about language and create a picture
Caroline
Mitchell, year 1 teacher
Thank you to
James Nash for some excellent workshops with my class. The children have been inspired by the
sessions and have enjoyed writing and performing poetry.
Christina
Johnson, class 5 teacher
The workshops
have been fantastic! The level of
engagement for all the children has been great – even our reluctant readers
have been enthused and wanted to share their poetry with the class.
Vicky Loulie,
year 5 teaching assistant
The assembly
performance was excellent once again. I
taught the class last year and it was great to see every child reading their
poetry with confidence. James achieves a
lot in a short amount of time!
Luke Wrankmore,
year 4 teacher
My year 2
class worked with James on Superhero poetry last year -the confidence the
sessions instilled in children was wonderful to see and had lasting effects in
the weeks and months that followed. One
little boy who had arrived very recently from Syria was thrilled to be able to
read his poem.
The whole
school looks forward to James coming and each class clamours to work with
him. The quality of the language year 5
were able to use in their poetry this year was excellent. It's wonderful for them to have an insight
into how poets create poetry and it's made them very excited about learning
more about poetry in the future.
Jo Ward, class 2
teacher
And finally,
what of the children themselves?
The best thing? reading
out my work
What I have
learned: editing and redrafting
Why it's good to
share: you grow in confidence; you're proud of your work
What I will
remember: the life and work of a real poet
