Thursday 8th October was National Poetry Day which was celebrated country wide judging by the high media (radio & television) and even higher social media presence.  Once again we celebrate poetry in the form of our annual poetry picnic which has been going since 2003/4.

This years theme was Light which gave an excuse for putting up some festive lights (not quite the right season for them yet), getting the candles out (battery operated, of course), and playing with torches, prisms and lasers (carefully).  Much fun was had by all, none the least Mrs Sinclair, the Librarian who was much amused by her purchase of remote control candles, let alone experimenting with passing light through prisms, faceted glass balls and water bottles.  We must than Mr McCaig, our science technician, for putting a tray of stuff together at the last minute as well as providing a fibre optic light.

We also read out some poetry for the poetry postcards from The Scottish Poetry Society as well as doing the tongue twister game – everyone in sequence reads a tongue twister.  If they stumble over words or get it wrong, they drop out.

In the run up to the day, all S1 and S2 pupils did some poetry writing during the library / literacy periods.  They were asked to have a look at some art work and write a few lines of poetry based on the image – what it portrayed? How it made them feel?

Some pupils then entered these for the poetry competition, with the closing date of Friday 30th October.

 

Poetry postcards were also delivered to classes during periods 1 and 2 with the teacher reading out the poem to their class.  This was a way of bringing poetry to a wider audience as well as trying to get the whole school involved.

Some comments:

It looked like a medieval meeting but fun!

I like how you did the tongue twister game.

It was fun and exciting.

It was great.

I quite liked the ambiance.

A wonderful, cosy event. It was over too soon! Not much you can do to address that problem in a lunch break.

I think it was really fun, good, and interesting.  I loved all the lasers.  They were so pretty.

Participants were also asked for ideas for improvement and of those that commented on this, most that the event was “good as it is” and another suggested having a quiz.  Now there’s an idea to think of.

All in all it was a very successful event with the pupils and staff who attended appearing to enjoy it.  Acknowledgments must got to all attendees, the staff who read out poems to their classes periods 1 & 2, and the pupils who helped, whether it was delivering the poetry postcards or helping with photographs and tidying up afterwards.  Without you, these events would be more difficult to pull off.

Thank You!  FS