Mrs Graves (Head of English)

Appreciating and respecting our environment is a key part of our ethos, so we were thrilled to find out that Environment was also the theme for this year’s National Poetry Day celebrations. We were keen to explore all the different ways in which our students and staff could draw inspiration from the environment, whether it was appreciating nature; thinking about protecting our environment and developing sustainable practices; or looking at connections between different cultures and how they shape the environments we live in.

For many years,  classes in Years 7-9 have taken part in creative activities on National Poetry Day itself (Thursday 6th October this year) and displayed their poems on our Poetree. This year, however, the tree has transformed, becoming part of the ancient forest outside Athens where Shakespeare’s young lovers meet in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The poems featured there will take that very particular environment as inspiration, as an introduction to Shakespear.

Exploring global approaches to nature poetry, Years 8 and 9 have been writing haikus, thinking about how the deceptively simple form can provide a real challenge in terms of conveying powerful images and emotions. Using their immediate environment for inspiration, we have loved seeing their responses.

Many of our colleagues also joined in with writing haikus which represented their own department’s approach to the theme. Those sent to us in other languages were an excellent reminder of the wonderful sense of cultural diversity we are so lucky to celebrate in our school community.

Not to be left out, our KS4 and KS5 students have also been getting involved. Upper Sixth Language students enjoyed some nostalgic work on how children’s books use rhymes to develop language acquisition, and The Fish Who Wished helped keep the focus on environmental messaging! Year 11 students, who are currently preparing for their IGCSE Literature exams, were also able to link their studies to the theme by considering the importance and representation of different cultural environments in The Whale Rider and Of Mice and Men.

Thank you to all of our students for their creative responses to this year’s theme. As always, we love seeing what you produce when the opportunity to be imaginative comes along!

Whale Rider, by Lily-Amber Robertson (Year 11)

In the old days,

The prisms of rainbows 

And the southern aurora 

Used to pose in the sky,

Waiting for their watchers. 

In those days, 

The land and sea longed for a helper,

A human, a protector.

It waited.

Waited for a seeding.

Waited for a gift.

Waited for its blessing to come. 

When the first of the ancients came, 

They filled the world with noise.

Beautiful noise,

That stilled the sea and hushed the land. 

When the song was over,

The land and the sea sighed with gladness. 

But that was in the old days. 

In the days when all man had to say was,

‘Karanga Mai, Karanga Mai, Karanga Mai’

Now, the noise was plangent and distressed.

The peace was disrupted and the beginning forgotten. 

Hui e, haumi e, taiki e.

Let it be done.