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Year 11 Get Inspired at Poetry Live
24 January 2025
Members of the English department took Year 11 to the inspiring GCSE Poetry Live event at the Symphony Hall on Tuesday, where they heard some valuable examiner insights into how to succeed when encountering unseen poetry.
They were privileged to be in the presence of three poets from their GCSE anthology (Imtiaz Dharker, Simon Armitage, Carol Ann Duffy), and heard how key poems of theirs came into being. It was fascinating to hear from Duffy about how her poem 'War Photographer' was inspired through her acquaintance with an actual photographer.
Year 11 student Seher got a chance to have her question answered by the current UK Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage. Her question was "What responsibilities do you have as poet laureate?". In response, he said, "It's mostly writing poems for special occasions.” He then explained what it's like to be a poet laureate.
Seher and many others in Year 11 found the Poetry Live event very interesting as they heard from a range of poets and gained deeper understanding of the meaning behind some of their GCSE poems.
Seher added "I particularly enjoyed John Agard's part of the day as he presented his poem 'Half-Caste' with enthusiasm and excitement which made his part stand out from the rest. Overall, the Poetry Live was a worthwhile experience and hearing the poets present their poems was truly fascinating."
We look forward to some of our Year 11s and students from other year groups taking part in the Poetry Live 2025 Competition.
Poetry Live
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