Poetry Slam Stars

On 16 April, Year 9 students worked with Leeds based poet Andy Craven-Griffiths to compete in a highly enjoyable and challenging poetry slam. In the morning, they participated in a warm up session, discussing and workshopping questions selected to get them thinking about issues in the world around us. Then they produced poetry in groups for four or five.

All groups performed their poetry, with five lucky teams selected to further edit and redraft their work over the course of the afternoon. Working under timed pressure, students refined their work and chose their words carefully, ensuring that their work had the impact they wanted.

After a second round of though-provoking performances, two finalist teams were chosen to take part in the inter-schools poetry slam final on 11 May, as part of the Words In The City festival.

The winning teams were:

Lewis, Shamil, Tahrimul, Tanisha Ruba, and Max with their poem “Pressure”.

Rod, Haleema, Mohammed, and Abdullah with their poem “We Don’t Understand”.

Andy Craven-Griffiths said: “The standard today has been brilliant. It’s just a shame not everyone can go through!”

Students were equally enthusiastic about experiencing their first poetry slam. Meer in Year 9 said the day was “Really fun and creative, and helpful for English too.”