Year 4 Poetry Workshop & Festival

Over the course of last week the Multi Story Theatre Company worked in four Romford schools with a variety of year groups. Ardleigh Green Infants, Broadford, Ardleigh Green Juniors and Mead Primary, all took part in an inspiring Poetry Week celebration.

The ambition for the week was to engage the children in the joy of speaking poetry out loud: how do the words sound and feel as they’re spoken, where does the poem connect with you – head, heart or body?

One of the joys of the week was seeing how the children responded to a challenging collection of poems. Several of Carol Ann Duffy’s poems were featured and these bought out the best in every age group. In fact, the more complex and challenging the poem, the more mature the response.

“As theatre practitioners and workshop leaders we can honestly say that leading these Poetry and Performance workshop weeks is one of the most satisfying experiences of the year. It’s really moving to watch the quality of the children’s understanding of the world developing through their engagement with poetic language. It is also so pleasing to see a group of schools working together to champion the performing arts and use them to inspire the children!”

Bill Buffery (from the Multi Story Theatre company)

As a cluster we offer the pupils a wide range of opportunities to showcase their skills and talents: poetry, spelling, sports and maths. Seeing them all collaborate and enjoy the language of some great poems was a real joy. To also share that with parents from all four schools made the event even more memorable.

Malcolm Drakes - Executive Head 
The last word comes from an Ardleigh Green pupil. 

“Our poem was ‘Begged’ by Carol Ann Duffy. It was great fun to read it out loud as it was packed with tricky rhymes, alliteration and twists. I did feel nervous, but I loved the performance and want to do it again.”