PUBLISHED 03 March 2021
Poetry by Heart - Year 7 House Competition 2021
Even in these challenging times, AKS pupils across Year 7 persevered during Spring Term with their efforts to commit a poem from this year’s ‘Poetry by Heart’ anthology to mind. This process reached its culmination on Tuesday 2nd March, as twelve finalists performed, remotely and articulately, to an audience of their peers, judges, and other staff, via Teams.
In previous years, the best Year 7 performers have advanced to a lunchtime House final in the intimate space of the Drama Studio, to be judged by English staff and a school governor; this year’s ‘Teamscast’ event was similarly scrutinised by four staff and governor judges on the lookout for all manner of things, ranging from evidence of understanding to accuracy to dramatic appropriateness. Whilst no House points were up for grabs this time around, the judging process produced 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place individual successes.
The usual eclectic blend of poetry from across generations duly ensued, supported from afar by Year 7 enthusiasts and applauded by staff, as this annual and very popular AKS event ran its course of offerings from T S Eliot to Marriott Edgar to Roald Dahl, with over 70 people on the call hanging on every word.
Everyone is to be warmly commended for their efforts and willingness to participate, especially our twelve finalists who had been brave enough to not only recite poetry in front of their socially distanced friends and peers, but also to click the button which turned on their webcams in order to do so! No mean feat and a treat for their audience when they did so.
The outcome this year was as follows:
Sophia M 1st
George C 2nd
Lilly G and Oliver S 3rd =