Poetry please

Five IB students have had their poems selected in the nationwide Young Writers poetry competition. As explained on their website, "Young Writers is part of the parent company called Forward Press Ltd: the largest publisher of new poetry in the world. The British library currently holds almost two decades of Young Writers poetry and short stories in its national archive. By running annual, nationwide competitions for the past 18 years, Young Writers has promoted poetry and creative writing within schools. Each of these result in publications of regional anthologies. Young Writers showcase the work of today's school children. The imagination, energy and creativity which go into each Young Writers publication, make reading them hugely rewarding".

The theme of this year's competition was I have a Dream: Words to Change the World. With titles such as 'Shall I Dream?' 'Photoshop', 'Dreams', 'Insomnia' and 'Sooth for a Spinning World', the students responded to the theme in a variety of ways: personal, complex, moving, zany, optimistic and ironic.

The anthology I have a Dream 2009 – UK Poets, which will include the winning poems from Disha Banerjee Bhattacharya, Dylan Thomas, Emma Harvey, Piotr Zgorzelski and Tyra Lagerbergwill, be published this autumn.

Our talented students will also be take part in a new competition which just involves writing a "lyric" i.e. personal poem. English teachers will help students find inspiration and shape their poems. This work will be introduced as a strand of English classes, predominantly our Pre-IB English Literature classes and IB English Language A2 students.