Before half-term the English department led the ‘Empowered’ poetry competition as part of Black History Month, receiving 21 entries across KS3. The standard of every entry was extremely high, with all entrants being submitted for the national competition. Such were the quality of the submissions, the competition organisers even reached out to congratulate the school on our poems – each of which was chosen for publication!

Entries which the English department highly commended included those from: Viviana Frade, Carmen Layton and Madeleine Outteridge, all year 7.  Meanwhile the overall in-school winners were: Chelsea Brown, year 9, Camilla Aljabar and Holly Luker, both year 7.

Based around the theme of “Choices”, the competition considered the last 18 months, which have been hard, particularly for students, with school closures, isolation and general disruption to their education. The ‘Empowered‘ competition provided a platform to help students take back some control over their lives, helping them to find and use their voices to express themselves through poetry.

Below are two in-school winners poems from Camilla and Holly!