About the Junior Poetry Slam

About the overall impact of the programme:

• The programme was brilliant. The children learned lots and seemed to mature as a result of performing in front of an unknown audience.
• Yes, the children gained knowledge about poems and their confidence was increased.
• It was great as the children were exposed to lots of different ways of bringing out their creativity and imagination for Poetry. It also allowed them to work well as a team and cooperate, sharing ideas.
• It was engaging and gave a purpose to what they were learning.
• Very inspiring in promoting poetry and the creativity that comes with it.
• Yes, the CPD for teachers was entertaining and interactive. The event was well organised and facilitators tried to meet the needs of my learners.
• It was such a great experience for the children, to work with a poet, to create poetry and finally to feel what it’s like to perform.
• The children loved it, developed their skills for writing poetry and the chosen children worked on their presentation skills. The whole class were also lucky to be exposed to some wonderful poetry from other schools.

About whether enthusiasm for poetry increased as a result of the project:

• Yes, children enjoy reading, writing and performing poems more than ever before. They excelled during the poetry slam as well as performing in front of their peers at school
• Yes, they now see poetry as ‘cool’ ~ Year 5
• Yes, they are much more enthusiastic in creating their own poetry and understanding the impact it could have
• Yes, The children have each talked about or referenced poetry almost daily since! Some have gone on to write poems in their spare time and for a competition

About working with a poet in school and its impact on pupils’ learning:

• Children became more aware of writing for a purpose and conveying experiences, opinions and feelings to an audience.
• It was brilliant to have a professional raise the profile of poetry across the school.
• Increased confidence and encouraged children to have their own style of writing.   Gave the project more of a purpose and increased enthusiasm by meeting a real poet
• My learners were able to view language as a means to communicate their identity and the activities were fun and interactive
• It contributed to our school values of community and respect particularly well. It made them confident to express themselves in this way.
• To have an ‘expert’ or someone who does it as a job brings some kudos with it. They enjoyed the poet’s energy and style.

About whether the visit of the Poet Coach benefitted their own teaching:

• Yes, I enjoy giving children even more freedom with their reading and writing as school teachers are often burdened with making sure national curriculum content is included in everything we promote when sometimes the children have interests of their own which take them into different directions.
• It has given me new and exciting ways to teach poetry and engage the children.
• It has made me more aware of the importance of building one’s imagination in poetry through brainstorming notes about themselves and what is important to them. The more relevant the topic is to their lives the more stronger and great their poems are
• Only to the extent that poetry is a powerful tool in English and to just use it more often (often tends to be something done towards the end of term).
• Yes, the layered approach to teach my learners poetry has proven to be s great support and allowed them to enjoy themselves during poetry rather than finding it difficult
• I always enjoy working alongside poets with a new/different voice and perspective. It’s been useful to have the training to give me ideas about how to approach written/spoken word learning.
• I learned some techniques to use with my class that develop language and performance skills