Mrs Copp (Deputy Head of Junior School)

In response to the poetry from poets of World War One, Year 6 considered the perspectives of soldiers to create artwork, poetry and letters home.

During their work, they explored the poetic techniques used by the poets and attempted to follow the conventions in writing their own. The girls were challenged to identify some of the imagery from the poems and to consider the rhyming schemes used.

The work links to the central idea that human experience of migration is a response to challenges, risks and opportunities and at this poignant time of year, the girls have been able to consider some of the devastating effects of war and the concepts of peace, perspective and remembrance.

Sylvia (Year 6) wrote a sonnet inspired by Wilfred Owen and commented: “People say how War can be great and how you should fight for your country – but it is not great, it’s horrible. I wrote a sonnet about how a soldier was excited and was looking forward to going to war but he realised that war was not what people said it was, it was the opposite.”

Maddie (Year 6) painted a creative response to poems by Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen and observed: “I was thinking about how lots of greys and reds reflect in the flowers and the scenes in the poems – these were the main colours that you could see because of the fire, bombs and smoke, and skies full of grey clouds. The poems made me realise how horrible war is and how much that was lost.”

View the artwork, poetry and letters here.