Burnham: Ormiston Rivers students become budding poets to mark National Poetry Day 2022

By Ben Shahrabi 17th Oct 2022

Local News by Ben Shahrabi 17th Oct 2022

This month, students at Ormiston Rivers Academy, in Burnham On Crouch, have been exploring 'found poetry' in honour of National Poetry Day.

The nationwide celebration of poetry is held annually on the first Thursday in October. It encourages children and young people to learn more about the literary genre.

Joanne Williams, Principal at the Academy, said: "It was lovely to celebrate National Poetry Day with our students, many of whom proved themselves to be budding writers and creatives.

"At Ormiston Rivers Academy, we want to ensure that our students are engaging with their subjects beyond the curriculum and developing a real love of learning.

"National Poetry Day was a great opportunity to build on that."

Year 7's Book Talk and Craft Club students tried out the technique of 'found poetry', which involves borrowing bits of text from different sources and giving them a new meaning.

Students picked out interesting key words from written stories or pieces of prose, to form poetry. They circled words and drew lines to connect them.

Finally, they illustrated each page with doodles to create an artwork.

The children used pages from The Haunting of Aveline Jones by Phil Hickes.

Alongside the 'found poetry', the day was also celebrated throughout the Academy, which is sponsored by Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT).

Students were introduced to a wide selection of poetry and songs during tutor time, enjoyed poetry books at break time and participated in a poetry workshop at lunch time.

This year, the official theme of National Poetry Day was 'The Environment'.

Students wrote poems based on the theme, which have been entered into the National Poetry Day competition, offering them the chance to win 'merit points' and a voucher.

Since 1994, National Poetry Day has engaged millions of people through events and activities throughout the country.

To learn more about it, visit the National Poetry Day website.