Poetry Competition: Celebrating the written word!

Every year, a Trust-wide poetry competition is held. All students in Year 7 and Year 8 across all 18 secondary academies write a poem. This gives the students a real sense of achievement and allows them to experience the pleasure of being a poet.

The event was an opportunity for the winning students and staff to celebrate the great work they had produced. It really was a celebration of the written word! Six winners from each academy across the Trust eagerly travelled to the Education Exchange, unaware of who the winning poets were. The atmosphere was palpable as 130 children waited to see if they were the overall winners.  

The day was an amazing celebration as we hosted one of our acclaimed Reading Routes authors, Darren Simpson; author of great teenage fiction including Furthermoor and Scavengers. Alongside Darren, we welcomed Rob Bradley, world-champion word poet and free-style rapper to the stage. All the guests were astonished by the confidence with which the students took to the stage and performed! Each child eagerly adorned their medals and thoroughly enjoyed the magic of the day, and their impeccable behaviour was something for every academy to be proud of.  

At the end of the day the overall winners were revealed: The Year 7 overall winner was Zach G from The Laurel Academy with his beautiful poem entitled ‘The Appearance of the Flower’, and the Year 8 overall winner was Alex G from Hull Academy with his thoughtful poem about his experiences of having dyslexia.