Poetry Picnic - July 2022

On a day filled with elegant, engaging and elaborate poetry, how ironic that the only thing the English teachers could think all morning was “Rain, rain go away…”

Despite the Cross Trust Poetry Picnic starting with grey skies and ominous winds the clouds appeared to part and make way for a brief British summer when the competing schools arrived.

Students from our Year 7 cohort in King’s Hawthornes, Liverpool, Warrington and Bolton were not just meeting in our decorated courtyard for sandwiches and cake. They had been tasked with memorising a poem of their choice in the preceding weeks and now was their chance to perform to a full audience of their peers and a special guest judge.

Terry Caffrey is a renowned poet and writer. According to Authors Abroad: “He likes to make his workshops fun as well as educational so the children can see that reading and writing are positive experiences which should be enjoyed by all.” Every single word of that rang true last week.

Terry’s animated and amusing performances of his own poetry immediately set the students at ease and definitely inspired some of the more exuberant performances of the day.

After performing, Alfie from Year 7 said:

“It helped me not to feel nervous. I liked the way he did his poems - they had a good tune to them and I really enjoyed them.”

“I was nervous at first because there were so many students there. I had to remember the whole poem and try my hardest.”

Congratulations to Warrington for taking first place and well done to every single student who took part. While we may have taken second place in the competition, by all accounts the level of respect and welcoming hospitality on display from our students was first-rate.