Education Roadshow
South West England 2003
06 November 2003
Some poems from Jackie Wills' visits:
The River Bed
A twinkle in the stream attracted the thirsty horse
Naked men had rode her friends away
They had deserted her
All that stayed were a pair of paw-prints,
And their owner slinking in the water
The horse laid her head down to drink,
But something caught her eye
She looked up and saw
Green lily-buds open like gaping fish-mouths
She also saw a dog
Who had spotted a bird
That thought she was not seen
Then the horse wondered
Is the water clean?
She heard horses
Looked up and saw only trees
How could they leave me?
Rebekah
***********************************
The Wolf
The wolf is resting his eyes.
Can I get some sleep?
His face is the colour
Of ice-cream.
He has eaten rabbit
For his dinner.
The yellow behind him
Looks like a dragon.
His tail rests on a
River of mud.
Ben
***********************************
Two Silk Swans
Bodies like white silk
Shining in the sun
Golden orange leaves
Floating to the ground
As in a rainbow shower
Trees like snakes winding up
Reaching for freedom
Two white sheets searching for water
Will I ever get there?
Chelsea
************************************
Monkey
A monkey can't cook,
it can't lay an egg.
A monkey can't drive a car,
it can't look at a heart,
it can't get stuck up a tree.
A monkey can climb a tree.
It can eat ants.
A monkey can speak to Tarzan.
Gina
***********************
Crocodile
A crocodile can't fix a car
or fly, a crocodile can't talk.
A crocodile can't pick up paper
or put on clothes and fly a kite.
A crocodile can't wear shoes,
play hopscotch or climb a tree.
A crocodile can't draw a hairdresser,
walk on its back legs or play Monopoly.
But a crocodile can swim fast
underwater, with its eyes open,
and wag its tail.
A crocodile can eat eight fish
in one go, can open its mouth
wide as a shelf and snap it shut
like knives banging together
or glass smashing.
Reception and Year 1 Class, Gulworthy School
**************************
Reincarnation
He came back as the wheel of a roller-blade
rolling down a hill
by the beach, on a road,
rolled and rolled on the feet of a young man.
Tom
************************
Reincarnation
He came back as a slimy bit of seaweed
Floating along the dark English Channel
Moving in and out of the boats and dodging
The fish as it goes.
Charlotte
*************************
Postman
He came back as an address,
the address of the old post office,
his initials in the postcode TA2 043,
his death in the street name:
Gunshot Lane.
Whenever anyone passes the house
a shiver goes down their spine,
their stomach turns. It is said
his ghost is there, sorting letters,
checking addresses.
Group poem
Buckland St Mary Primary School
27 October 2003
Hi Weblog Readers,
Mandy Coe here, updating her diary of the roadshow.
Back home now in Liverpool. What an adventure it was. I spent last week visiting two schools near Taunton. I was made very welcome and as they were both fairly small schools, managed to work with all the year groups.
I am going to post up some of the group poems which I hope the children see as they should be very proud of them.
My favourite comment on the roadshow was heard in the staffroom when teachers were talking about the National Poetry Day programme on BBC Radio 4. Roger McGough had been presenting it from the Poetry Society in London: "and now it's here on our doorstep" one teacher said.
This is a small country made much larger by Railtrack. Even the shortest journeys can become epic! But in rural areas where the buses only run twice a week to get from one doorstep to another, is something to be celebrated. But this teacher was talking about another sort of connection - plenty of teachers told me that these visits left them with the feeling that they have plugged in to a a realy useful poetry/education resource.
My visit to Spaxton Primary School was on the Friday, the last day before the break. I expected a bit of clock watching at least - with children eager to get away. But the time to go home came and went. They wanted to stay and read aloud every poem they had written. Children hung around the school gates with me as I waited for my taxi. "When will you come again?" they asked.
These children loved poetry!
T H E C L O U D - E L E P H A N T
The cloud-elephant is watering the world.
He is big, grey and fluffy.
We get wet
when he's in the sky.
We wish he would
blow slowly by.
Willow class, reception.
North Curry Primary School, Taunton
S K Y P O E M
The moon is a beach ball.
We threw it into the sky.
It bounced down,
a glowing rock.
We flung it back up.
The stars are the sparkle
from a magician's wand.
With a flick
he chucked them up
and they got stuck.
The sun is a smile.
We grinned so hard
it made a mark in the sky.
It shines and sparkles
all day.
Beach Group,
North Curry Primary School, Taunton
T H E S C A R Y
The scary lives in the sea.
The scary sometimes frightens me.
He might eat us.
He might eat all of us.
The scary is blue
with green spots.
He has teeth,
he has lots!
He smells of rotten fish
and we wish, we wish
twice
that the scary would get nice.
Class One, Spaxton Primary School
Bridgewater, Somerset
M U M K E N N I N G
She's a...
cake maker
cough taker
sweet seller
story teller
spider slayer
bingo player
dinner cooker
love maker
Year Three, Spaxton Primary School,
Bridgewater, Somerset
T H E S H I N I E S T S U N
Sunshine-sunny-sun lives in the clouds.
He is often lonely, but happy
when he's shining.
At night he goes to bed
to sleep and dream
of glowing mornings.
His wardrobe is full
of yellow clothes -
spiky yellow hats, yellow socks
and yellow wellies.
His favourite food is banana and chips,
sweetcorn and clouds.
Sunshine-sunny-sun wishes
he was the brightest, shiniest,
sparkliest sun in the universe.
Class One, Spaxton,
Bridgewater, Somerset
24 October 2003
(Coral Rumble)
The Education Roadshow is a fantastic idea! I enjoyed being part of the team and had the pleasure of working in a lovely school full of focused and enthusiastic teachers. It is always useful to combine working with staff and pupils. As I so often work alone it was helpful to work in a team situation - having the opportunity to share experiences and ideas. I hope this initiative will develop and involve other areas of the country.
24 October 2003
[Frank]
Back in the office ploughing through e-mails, letters and phone messages, and making taller and taller piles of paper. It's just not quite the same as Cornwall and Devon really.
As everyone's been saying (I should probably have said 'blogging' there - I am going to try to use that word as much possible here, after all, it may be my last chance), but yes, as everyone's been saying, the project has been a real success. It gave us a great chance to work closely with a brilliant team of poets. It also allowed us to make connections with some of the vibrant and exciting poetry and education activity in Devon and Cornwall. There is, of course, a lot more happening in both areas than we could hope to encounter in two weeks, but I am looking forward to ongoing contact with poets and educationalists working in the South West.
24 October 2003
Paul writes:
Not quite the last! Brixham College turned out to be a great experience. INSET was a very positive one on Wednesday (tho' a smaller group than I'd planned for, through sickness etc.) Missed the team that evening, but was tracked down (somewhat mysteriously) by the local mafia, in the persons of Patricia and William Oxley, who joined me in poetry corner at the bizarre Smugglers Haunt.
Next day the Brixham students were good to be with, did exciting and heart-warming work. A couple of 'v difficult' students (I had no idea who they were) also came up with poems which I praised (to teachers' and tutors delight. An altogether affirmative visit. Thanks, team.
24 October 2003
This may be the final entry... Valerie Bloom is in Wadebridge School, doing her last school visit, and then we trundle back to London Paddington. We'll miss the South West. I wonder where the next roadshow will take us? I'm putting in a bid for Aruba.
Andrew
24 October 2003
(Jean)
The Roadshow has been a big, complex operation. We started planning it many months ago, and there have been moments when it seemed as if the lovely fluffy project we'd raised from a pup was growing into a monster with big teeth intent on devouring the education department at one sitting.
So it's music to our ears when one of the advisers who joined us at Alverton Manor gets in touch to congratulate us on "a well-organised and enjoyable event". (Of course he didn't see me pulling all the briefing packs apart and re-assembling them at the last minute - just as well.)
We've been getting enthusiastic feedback from the poets too. Working as a poet in schools can be a lonely sort of job at times, and I've been hearing how good it's been to be "part of a team" and "supportively managed".
Best of all, one of the poets has described the project as "celebratory". We found so much to celebrate - people, places, poetry, ravishing countryside, lively towns and really good hot dinners.
23 October 2003
Penzance Library has a poetry group run by Zeeba Ansari, and we've had an invite to today's meetings. There can't be many groups keen enough to meet at 9.30 am! (You can see some of their work here. It really was a privilege to see such a supportive group working together on such a wide range of poems - from spriggans to Icarus, from libre to sonnets.
Here's a couple of quotes:
from To His Grace Henry VIII
[...]
And
as I to the
scaffold go with
royal collar
trimmed in fur
I'll cry out
loud for all
to hear
"Mercy to God
and the King"
then I'll tell
the people Your
Grace is great
and that I
deserve this
untimely fate
Judith A Buick
from To My Daughter,
On The Occasion Of Her Presentation To The Quobble: Some Motherly Advice
Do not quibble with the Quobble
For you'll find that he will gobble
All your words up in an instant,
Most certainly
[...]
Better women than you, my dear,
Approaching him with all good cheer
Have quailed and failed, struck dumb before
His oratory.
[...]
Elaine Butterfield
The library also runs a nice service for the reading group, in which it waives its reservation fee for the group's books in return for a critical report on each one. The group certainly seem to approve, and it helps the library answer the question "what should I read?"
Must run, I have a poet to collect.
Andrew
22 October 2003
[Andrew]
We have been exhausting Valerie Bloom with a full week of schools, so I'm doing the update. It sounds like all the schools have been enjoying the visits, as has Valerie; today's school (Delabole) has a giant made of local slate in the back who is going to influence all the poems. If it's not too cold, they'll get him to "read" them - there's a voice-tube in the back that makes your voice deep and boomy.
There's only a few days left of the roadshow. I'm going to miss the area. Fortunately I have a box of nostalgia-flavoured fudge to help.
21 October 2003
[Fiona Sampson] Tuesday at Alverton Primary,Penzance. My thoughts are all jumbled as it's taken me ages to get on-site and I know I'm going to be summoned to class any minute. Woudl like to say there's a great view of the sea... but they've very senisbly saved that for the clasrooms. I had to keep looking away this morning.
Frank visited us here this morning. he says he's written "headland" twice in one paragraph in his blog for the day. Must cehck up to see what he wrote.
Had very odd dreams all night: a combination of travel anxiety and counting dreams. Am I developing classroom phobia?
This is a great school: EVERYONE has been friendly, even when the taxi didn't turn up and I was (almost) late... now I've been summoned...
21 October 2003
[Frank]
Fiona is working with Alverton Primary School in Penzance today, and I've tagged along. This morning Fiona has been writing with a Year 3 class and a mixed Year 3 & 4. The children have written some brilliant riddles and poems imagining themselves as animals or objects. I particularly liked the 'I am a curry' poem. The teachers and the school have been really welcoming. Poetry really has an important place at Alverton. As the school is on a headland above Penzance, classrooms look out over the sea and the headlands.
Perhaps I'll try an 'I am an education administrator' poem for my next blog. This is probably my last on-the-road blog as I'm heading back to London this evening, but I'll add a grumpy I miss Devon and Cornwall blog tomorrow.
21 October 2003
[Anthony Wilson] Ashwater Primary School in North Devon has 48 children on role and is divided into two classes, one for each Key Stage.
The children in each class were very receptive to poetry, having had a rich diet of poems read out to them (at least one a day in the infants)and poets working with them in the past. I did an interactive reading with questions with both classes before following through some ideas in a writing workshop afterwards.
In the infants we looked at a selection of art postcards I had brought in. Children had to select one detail from their picture and then interrogate it: Where do you live; what do you see; what are you afraid of etc. We took one line at a time, making sure every child had a chance to get something down onto paper. The resulting poems were all written in the first person. By the end of the day, the poems had been typed and collected into a class anthology, with full colour drawings of each card next to each child's poem.
In the junior class we took a similar idea, only this time the children wrote in the voices of objects they knew well. The resulting poems ranged from the big black telly in the corner ('I dream of entertaining people at night'), to a chicken coop, to a window blind. The poems had a certain riddling quality and contained much observed detail and real emotion.
As I left the school, a small girl, putting on her coat, said: 'When I grow up I'm going to be a poet'.
21 October 2003
A lovely day. Thoughtful and interested children and staff. Thanks to everyone at Ashwater for looking after me so splendidly.
Anthony Wilson, Exeter
20 October 2003
[Frank]
Back again, this time in Redruth Library. The Library Service here in Cornwall have a network of writers groups and poetry groups, and if you visit the Cornwall Libraries website (www.cornwall.gov.uk/Library/default.htm) you can read poems by some of those who have taken part (follow the links via More Than Books to Poets' Corner).
Travelling at the weekend along the coast from Plymouth to Truro (Saturday) and then to Saint Ives and the western coast (Sunday) showed us some of the wealth of poetry activity in Cornwall. In Saint Ives we bumped into performance poet Dhyano, who I last saw performing in London in January. He is involved in a range of poetry, comedy and theatre workshops and events at the Saint Ives Arts Centre and the Salthouse Gallery. Run by poet and painter Bob Devereux, the Salthouse Gallery is another Cornwall poetry (and visual art) landmark. Bob also hosts the 'Cafe Frug' poetry and music events at Penzance Arts Club.
I picked up an interesting pamphlet on Cornish Dialect and the Cornish Language written by Pol Hodge, a poet writing in both Cornish and English. Thanks to a recommendation by Amanda Harris of KEAP, I also bought Volume One of Scryfa, an excellent journal of contemporary writing from Cornwall.
Better catch another train. Don't want to blog up the on-line drains.
20 October 2003
[Frank]
Da Deth! (my attempt to say 'Good Day' in Cornish, please e-mail corrections). It's 'de Lun' (Monday) lunchtime and I'm blogging from Camborne Library. As I signed in to use this computer I came face to face with a National Poetry Day display of teacups and poems by library users and then trundled into a hallway festooned with National Poetry Day posters. After a month of mailing NPD posters and packs, it's good to see them where they belong.
Today I'm in Camborne and Redruth visiting the Education Action Zone and Library Services. Andrew and Valerie left the hotel in Truro early this morning to drive up to Boscastle (between Tintagel and Bude) where Valerie will be working with students and teachers for the day.
It's been a while since I blogged I'm afraid, so lots to catch up on. It's been a week of firsts for me - my first clotted cream scones, my first cornish pasty, in fact, my first trip to this wonderful part of Britain. The weekend saw Andrew and I travel from the eastern border of Cornwall to the western coastline.
I must run for a train now, but I'll blog again soon.
click here for more of the Education Roadshow.
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