ENGLISH: Young poets learn from acclaimed writer

An acclaimed Teesside writer has been helping our young poets perfect their entries for the fifth annual Paul Hullah Poetry Prize, reports English teacher HELEN MARS. See their final compositions, below 


WHILST the lower school were celebrating classroom achievements at our prize-giving, a select group of fourth formers were engaged in an exciting new extracurricular activity. This year, for the fifth Paul Hullah Poetry Prize, pupils whose poems had been shortlisted by their class teachers were invited to a one-off poetry workshop with a professional writer. Their poems were on a wide variety of topics, from taps to Paradise Lost, all inspired by the title 'The Magic and Marvel of the Mundane'.

Andy Croft (pictured) of Smokestack Books https://smokestack-books.co.uk/about.php, a writer of over seventy novels and collections of poetry, spent the afternoon working with pupils on rhyme and metre, helping them to hone and redraft their already impressive first attempts. His wit and erudite comments made for a lively and entertaining afternoon. (Hopefully this will inspire even more members of the RGS community to enter the third annual Ripon poetry festival, which Mr. Croft chairs.) 

The pupils' final versions have now been sent to Dr Hullah in Japan, and we await his verdict eagerly....

Millie Lock

Anna Millions