Sixth form leaders of the Young Writers Group, Jess and Evelyn, certainly weren’t stuck for words on Wednesday October 2^nd. Over thirty students from across the school performed or read poems of their choice to support the school’s annual National Poetry Day Celebrations. This year’s theme was Truth: a more apposite theme, considering today’s fraught political and social climate, there couldn’t have been. Over the lunchtime hour the school’s Hall played host to the sounds of words and ideas and theories and statements all about – Truth.

From Shakespeare to Kaur, words resonated with the walk-in walk-out audience. Stay for a minute or an hour; the idea was to engage and inspire simply through the power of the spoken word. From Year 7 to Year 13 we heard mesmerising tales of love; of acceptance; denial and shape shifting. Eleanor’s gorgeous zeitgeist self-creation; Mia’s self-reflective echoing repetition ‘She’s the girl…she’s the girl’ and Jess’s ‘I want to be everything I thought I never was’ were just a few of the haunting lines that shone. Like Lily Yang’s painfully beautiful feathers and pain rendition; it’s what’s between the lines that leaves us with as much to consider as what’s actually there: that’s where we find the real Truth.

All performers were rewarded with home baked biscuits – to further nourish the creative soul.

Ms Litterick, Head of English