PUBLISHED 02 March 2023
As March burst onto the scene, the AKS Drama Studio was delighted to welcome that cherished calendar favourite, the Year 7 ‘Poetry by Heart’ competition, scheduled, as always, to loosely coincide with World Book Day activities and involving all pupils from this year group in the process.
Sixteen finalists graced this year’s event and delivered an eclectic blend of poems including those from schooldays past (like Carroll’s evocative nonsense in his ‘Jabberwocky’) and more playful offerings (such as Dahl’s modern spin on the tale of ‘Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf’). House loyalties were fierce in the crammed Drama Studio as proceedings began, with the Year 7 audience and competitors ready to experience the finalists’ performances, all, of course, having attempted to memorise a poem themselves during the course of Spring Term’s English lessons. It felt very much like a shared enterprise, just with House points at stake!
Everyone in Year 7 is to be applauded for their good humour and backing of the participants, who not only had to find it within themselves to recite poetry in front of their peers, but aimed to satisfy the judging criteria overseen by the panel of Mrs. House, Mrs. Culpan, Mr. Hayden and Mrs. Lucking.
Whatever they were after was obviously in evidence, as the top three performers on the day all scored in excess of 40 out of 47 possible marks – no mean feat!
The outcome this year was as follows:
Individual
Freddie J (Samlesbury) 1st - see Freddie's winning performance here
Will K (Leighton) 2nd
Adrianna E (Gawthorpe) 3rd
House
Samlesbury: 146 points
Gawthorpe: 142.5 points
Rufford: 128.5 points
Leighton: 94.5 points