It's @PoetryDayUK today (though of course every day is 'poetry day'). At Grasmere School we often use poetry and other forms of creative writing to explore concepts across the curriculum. It deepens understanding, and promotes questioning. For example, you can't write an...

...account of being an astronaut leaving Earth, without having to find out a lot about what actually happens to the human body, mind and spirit in space.

In history lessons, Class 4 are learning about Dunkirk. They studied a poem by Megan Pattie this week, and responded to it...

...with their own poetry. Being a teacher is such a privilege. To be in a classroom where this is happening is a life-affirming experience. Upper junior children are capable of great great things... Here is Hope's poem.

Yet the flights of the waves, day nor dark,
Could not lap clear away the flitting anxiety.
And the cold brushed comfort from its remains -
Come a cold of no brittle frost, or a visual breath
But of a night drawn from within these men.

cont...

A dampened peace, the black devour upon foul scent,
Divide the deepest ancestry of friends
Tiresome orders cease as moonlit silences emerge,
A hopelessness untold but seen, with minds blank.
From the light comes peace and help.

There is no light.