Once again, a team of four Year 9 QE students journeyed to the illustrious Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival, to take part in the annual Festival Poetry Slam. The Poetry Slam, organised by the Festival's Education Outreach team was hosted by acclaimed "Farrago Poetry", a spoken word and performance poetry organisation based in London.
Our four Year 9 students, along with teams from other local schools, started the day with several performances from professional Slam poets to whet their appetites and prepare them for the day ahead. They then undertook an intensive writing workshop led by John-Paul O'Neill and Ariel of Farrago Poetry, that allowed them to write their own material which they then crafted into a piece of performance poetry.
The afternoon was spent refining their poetry and performance with help from their teacher, Caroline Wilson and from the slam poets themselves. Before they knew it, it was time to head over to Budleigh Public Hall for the slam.
Parents, teachers and members of the public were treated to a real array of talent as all the teams performed their poems to the judges. Although we didn't win, both teams wrote richly descriptive, complex poems that they had every reason to be proud of.
All in all, the students had a great day and our thanks go to David Marston and Jennie Milverton of the Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival Education Outreach team for inviting QE students to participate in this enriching, exciting and worthwhile event!
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