This year we launched Poetry Slam on Monday October 2nd.  We invited Matt Abbott , a Wakefield born poet, into school to showcase his poems and talk to us about performing.  He hosted an assembly for KS1 and one for KS2.  According to Matt his poetry  for children centres around playful rebellion, challenging societal stereotypes, and facing the struggles of modern life.  Matt worked closely with Y3 and he challenged them to write poems themselves and offered frames to help them organise their ideas into stanzas.

Throughout the week each class read poetry from a range of genres: limericks , simile and metaphor poems, performance poetry and  narrative poems with rhyme. They focussed on the meaning of words in context, rhythm and rhyme, structure and imagery.  Each class also wrote their own poems.  Many classes have published their poems in a class anthology as they were so impressed with the results.

In addition to this, pupils were challenged to choose a poem, and learn the poem off by heart ready to perform in front of the their peers.  Winners from each class then took part in the POETRY SLAM FINAL in the main school hall.  Judges from each key stage were selected and they were faced with the very difficult task of choosing one winner from each phase.  They were judged on their :  facial expressions, clarity of pronunciation, body language , eye contact , use of gestures and pace.  All these skills have been a huge part of our oracy work across school.

Out of the hundreds of hopefuls who took part we eventually had some winners...

KS1- Lincoln

LKS2- Eithne, Joshua and Neve

UKS2- Frida

All winners received a trophy!

POETRY SLAM 2022

Our Poetry Slam competition is a brilliant opportunity for pupils to showcase their performance skills.  They can perform their own poem or a poem of their choosing either as an individual, pair or small group.  Each class chooses two winners and then the class winners compete across their key stage  performing to a larger audience.  Judges consider clarity of pronunciation, voice projection, eye contact, facial expression, gestures and posture.  Last year we launched the  Poetry Slam week with a fun packed assembly held by local poet and creative writer Conrad Burdekin.  He helped us recite some of his poems and we created some of own own.