8 October 2024
Ms Amanda Owens, Librarian
Multiple slam champion poet Ash Dickinson, who has performed all over the world and published several collections of his poetry, led Woldingham’s National Poetry Day celebrations on Thursday 3 October.
Following a performance at assembly to the whole school, students in several lower school classes worked with Ash during the morning to create some wonderful poetry of their own in forms including haiku and shadorma, as well as a form of Ash’s own creation - a ‘six-wheeler’, where one word is taken from each of six rows in a grid of words to create a poem. Here’s an excellent example, written by Freya in Year 9:
Dog Show
Let’s bring them a show they won’t forget
Loud and clear, present your rosette
Take a breath, nice and slow
Walk the circle, paws are proud
Your dog and you,
Impress the crowd.
At lunchtime, Ash’s performance of some of his poems, including Shower Gel, Fox Fishing and Page Against the Machine, were enthusiastically received at an open session in the Live Lounge, after which students were keen to ask him questions and gain advice about their own writing.
We also launched our annual poetry competition on National Poetry Day. I am looking forward to reading students’ poems on this year’s theme, Counting, which they have until Friday 8 November to submit.