Celebrating National Poetry Day

Poetry has a central place in the curriculum from the earliest years at Heritage, helping pupils to attend closely to language, rhythm, imagery and meaning, and to encounter some of the best that has been written.

So on 2 October, National Poetry Day, we were delighted to welcome local poet Lindsay Fursland, who began the day with a special Senior School assembly. He shared some of his own work and reflected on the process of writing poetry, before leading workshops throughout the day.

Pupils experimented with different ways of getting started, responded to visual prompts through ekphrastic poetry, and thought carefully about drafting, rewriting and refining their work. Many were keen to share what they had written and to ask Lindsay questions about poetry beyond the classroom.

Year 11 took a different approach, with a university-style unseen poetry lesson using poems in foreign languages to focus attention on structure, punctuation and form rather than meaning alone.

And poetry spilled into the rest of the school day too, with teachers opening lessons by sharing poems of their own choice – some familiar, some unexpected, and even a few written by teachers themselves.

It made for a wonderfully lively celebration of language, imagination and close attention.

Thank you, Lindsay, for giving your time so generously and for helping make such a memorable day.