How did your school get involved in the Community Arts Partnership’s Seamus Heaney Award/Poetry in Motion Project?
We responded to the email sent around schools advertising the project.
How was your experience with the project?
Our experience with Poetry in Motion was wonderful. Maura, our assigned poet, had a wealth of knowledge and inspiration to share with our pupils. Our Year 9 class who took part were always eager to see her and get to work on the project. Although we study poetry as part of our KS3 English curriculum, it was lovely to give pupils some ringfenced time to create their own poems and read each other’s work “just for the joy of it”.
How do you feel the students responded to the project?
Our students thoroughly enjoyed the project. They are an ambitious and creative bunch, and approached the project with great enthusiasm. It was also a really great way of helping develop their confidence, both in their writing and their oracy, as they were given the opportunity to read their work aloud in sessions.
Your Class – 9G – won the class poem – Post Primary Individual award – What was the impact of this achievement for the school and the class?
We were so delighted to have won the Post Primary Individual Award for our poem ‘Friends’. Community and building strong relationships is at the forefront of our integrated ethos, and we decided we wanted to produce a poem that reflected the diversity of our community and showcased the value of friendship. The theme this year of “Write Where We Belong” was something that resonated with us, and gave us a chance to explore the different facets of our own identities and of those around us – for many pupils, they recognised that a big part of “belonging” in school came down to the friendships they cultivate, and from this our poem was born! Seamus Heaney is a part of our local fabric with our school being situated so closely to his Homeplace, so to win this award was especially meaningful for us.
Do you feel there was a benefit for the students through this Community Arts Partnership project?
Absolutely. It gave our young people time to truly enjoy the process of poetry. Having a visiting poet drummed up lots of excitement, and they were delighted to have their work acknowledged through receiving the award, and by having their poems published in the anthology. I would recommend this project to any school considering taking part, as would my pupils!
