A group of our Year 11 students travelled to the Poetry Live conference in Harrogate last week for a special opportunity to listen to some of the writers included in their GCSE Power and Conflict anthology perform and discuss their poems. Students were able to understand more about the poetic choices of Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, former Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, Imtiaz Dhaker and John Agard, which we’re sure will help enormously in their preparation for their GCSE English Literature paper in the summer.
Students also listened to sessions delivered by our exam board’s Chief Examiners, looking at how they might deal with unseen poems in the exam, as well as how to compare both studied and unseen poems. Our Year 11 students diligently took lots of notes and were fully engaged throughout. We cannot wait to read how their ideas have developed in upcoming essays!