School Library celebrations of National Poetry Day
Category: Blog, SLG Scotland
by Meg Davidson, Network Librarian (High Life Highland) and SLG Scotland committee member
Celebrations for National Poetry Day lasted all week for pupils and staff of Inverness Royal Academy this year.
Activities for the week were planned by the Library and the Reading Leadership Group, comprising pupils and teaching staff, with support from guidance staff and senior management.
The Reading Leadership Group decided to hold a Poetry Writing competition and invited pupils from all year groups to write a Haiku based on the 2024 National Poetry Day theme, which was “counting”. We had over a hundred entries. S6 prefects compiled a short list for each year group and local writer of Young Adult fiction, Laura Guthrie, was invited to judge the final winners from each year group.
It gives a gravity to the winners’ achievements to know that their work was picked out by a published author, but also, Laura was extremely generous with her time and gave personalised feedback to each winner, providing them not only with kudos of winning, but also some useful comments on their writing. The winners received a certificate and some Japanese snacks for their prizewinning Haikus.
S1 and S2 pupils in the Inverness Royal Academy have regular timetables library classes and we wanted to incorporate National Poetry Day celebrations into their lessons, so Library Assistant, Gillian Denovan, created a special poetry workshop to run during the week of National Poetry Day. The workshop consisted of stations with various activities to get pupils experiencing poetry in different ways.
They had the opportunity to watch Adam Gottlieb’s slam poetry performance; write their own Haiku; create found poetry by cutting words from old magazines (pupils really enjoyed this and had some brilliant results) and take the “Bat or Bard” quiz. There was also a table with a range of poetry books, for example classics, verse novels, contemporary poets, Haikus, Shakespearean sonnets, limericks etc. and pupils were given time to explore the different forms.
We had good feedback from the English teachers and the pupils about the workshops. There was a lively atmosphere and we can honestly say that the bulk of the chatter was about poetry.
It can be difficult to get pupils interested in poetry. I have had pupils tell me they are actually afraid of the poetry section. The workshops allowed pupils to approach poetry in a relaxed fun way. The many access points to poetry through having the different stations meant that pupils were able to find what kind of poetry experience was best for them.
