Cockshut Hill School, part of the Summit Learning Trust, has been celebrating National Poetry Day this week by welcoming poet Spoz (Esposito Giovanni) to the school.
National Poetry Day was founded in 1994 by the charity Forward Arts Foundation and encourages people to make, experience and share poetry. It is held annually on the first Thursday in October.
A local ‘Brummie Poet’ Spoz was Birmingham’s Poet Laureate and is an award winning performance poet, singer/songwriter, film maker, playwright and the poet-in-residence at Birmingham City FC. He was one of six ‘Bards of Brum’ in the 2022 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony.
During his visit learners participated in a poetry workshop and were encouraged to demonstrate their oracy skills, written creativity, leadership, teamwork and presentation skills throughout the day.
As part of their Annual Literacy Survey in early 2023, the National Literacy Trust asked more than 60,000 children and young people aged 8 to 18 across the UK whether they read or write poetry. In 2023, 26.7% of children and young people said that they read poetry in their free time at least once a month, with 16.3% reading poems on paper, 7.5% reading poems on screen and 2.9% reading poems across both media.
Next year, Cockshut Hill School intends to take learners to a ‘Poetry Live’ event where they will meet some of the poets they study for their GCSE Literature examination and hear representatives from the AQA exam board advising on approaches to their exams.
Marc O’Malley, Acting Principal at Cockshut Hill Said:
“I want to say a big thank you to Spoz for taking the time to come along and run a poetry workshop with some of our learners. I know that by the end of the session the group left not only feeling more confident about their oracy skills, but also with new found appreciation for poetry!”
ENDS
More information about Cockshut Hill:
- Cockshut Hill School is rated Good by Ofsted for Quality of education Leadership and management and Behaviour and attitudes and Outstanding for Personal Development.
- Ofsted recognised that leaders have “worked extensively to ensure that the school’s aim of ‘nothing but the best’ applies to every aspect of provision for students at Cockshut Hill School.”
