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A Special Assembly for World Poetry Day
28 March 2025
On Monday, the school celebrated World Poetry Day with a special assembly.
World Poetry Day is marked each year on March 21 and is designed to honour poets, celebrate poetry recitals and promote the reading, writing and teaching of poetry. Established by UNESCO in 1999, this year’s theme is about using the power of words for peace and inclusion.
To mark the occasion, House Captains and their Deputies created their own ‘Fridge Poetry Haikus’ as students arrived at the assembly. A Haiku is a very short poem, written in three lines but with 5 syllables in the first line, 7 syllables in the second and 5 syllables in the third line. Take a look at the pictures in the Image Gallery below to see which poems follow the pattern the closest! The House Captains and their Deputies worked on a huge magnetic board at the front of the Octagon and could only take their words from a random selection they were given. After the assembly, Mrs Macro judged the poems and the winners will be announced soon and awarded house points.
During the assembly we were also honoured to hear from various students who have embraced the power of poetry. We heard Auria’s poem ‘Poetry,’ Zoe’s poem ‘Dinner Time’ and Khushi’s poem called ‘Roots,’ which was the winning entry of a competition held in school recently.
A special highlight was a video message from former Birmingham Poet Laureate Matt Windle. Matt visited the school on several occasions to share his infectious enthusiasm for reciting poetry.
Matt said: “The theme of this year is poetry as a bridge for peace and inclusion; whatever that means to you, you can write about it. There is no right or wrong – that’s the beauty of poetry. So please, just enjoy putting pen to paper, fingers to keyboard and being creative.”
Thank you to all the students who contributed their poems to the assembly and the ‘Roots’ Poetry Competition. Special thanks also go to the English scholars Ecat, Millie and
Maya for leading the assembly.
World Poetry Day Assembly
Click image for full view
