By Mrs Graves (Head of English)

National Poetry Day is always a joyful day in the calendar of BGS, and this year, as so often before, we were really excited to see how the school community would get involved. This annual celebration of poetry provides our students with a platform to express themselves creatively, and engage with important themes. The theme this year was Refuge, a topic that holds significance throughout the year and it provided a fantastic prompt to get our students thinking more broadly about the world we live in. 

Students from Years 7 to Upper Sixth participated in a wide range of creative tasks that encouraged them to reflect on notions of safety and comfort, and why people might seek refuge, with a range of thought-provoking results. We also shared a number of poems about refuge with the school community, including Hope by Nicola Davies, from her collection Choose Love.  

Our older students, in Years 10 to Upper Sixth, embarked on a literary journey by delving into their set study text and exploring how ideas about refuge were represented. They were then tasked, in turn, with transforming and conveying these ideas creatively. Our younger students, in Years 8 and 9, were encouraged to take a more personal approach to the task. They contemplated what refuge meant to them individually and why this idea holds such relevance in today's world. Their responses were heartfelt and honest, offering glimpses into their thoughts on the importance of seeking refuge in a sometimes-challenging world. 

A notable change for this year's National Poetry Day was the movement away from Year 7 writing poems, as we have decided instead to explore reading and reciting poems with this year group to develop their appreciation of poetry as an oral form. This ties in with a lot of the work we do on poetry from a range of cultures and our exploration of Shakespeare in performance later in the year. 

National Poetry Day at BGS is a cherished tradition that not only fosters a love for the written and spoken word but also encourages students to think deeply about topical issues and we are, as always, immensely proud of the responses from across our vibrant and creative community.