Rainford High embraced National Poetry Day. In form time, pupils learnt about different types of poetry, in both the written and spoken word, and created their own poems. In all lessons throughout the day, pupils engaged in a range of poetry activities related to the subjects they were studying. From acrostic poems about the meaning of Religion to its use as a revision tool for students studying GCSE History, poetry was alive across the school. Pupils particularly enjoyed seeing the written word come alive, with pupils acting out of poetry in Drama lessons and others doing a Spanish rap to explain the present tense.
To celebrate the event, the English department organised an in-house poetry competition with Year 8 pupils, with the best entries being submitted to the national Poetry Trials competition. A dozen Year 8 pupils were also fortunate enough to participate in a poetry workshop in Parr library by leading spoken-word poet, Steven Camden. Pupils participated in a variety of activities: trying tongue twisters, learning about the difference between concrete and abstract nouns and were given the chance to write their own poetry, being guided to write their thoughts on a page without stopping under the title of “It’s easy to..” Cameron Scott who went on the trip said “It was really fun. A lot more fun than I thought it would be as it gave us the chance to meet lots of new people and the poet was really inspiring.”
At lunch-time, pupils created a Poetree in our new, state-of-the-art library, showcasing their creativity through art and poetry. However, the buzz around poetry did not come to an end on Thursday, with a surprise visit from European Slam Poet Champion, Miko Berry, on Friday. Miko burst into lessons, much to the delight of pupils, performing his poems on subjects that resonate with school pupils, such as bullying, as well as his famous tongue twisters such as ‘red lorry, yellow lorry’ without making any verbal slip-ups. The news of Miko being in school quickly spread with his performance of the motivational ‘This is your day’ in the quad at lunch-time being eagerly anticipated and enjoyed by all.