Schools Poetry Project – Poetry and the Environment

National Poetry Day is on 6 October, and for We Are Lewisham's October Creative Challenge we are inviting your pupils to read, write and share a poem of protest or praise about the environment.

We know children and young people have a lot to say about climate change, clean air and the natural world. Poetry is an easily accessible way to communicate their ideas and connect with friends, family and the wider community.

Many teachers will be experienced teachers of poetry, and we would love to see the words of protest and praise that your learners produce. These links below are special resources created by the National Poetry Day organisation to support this challenge may provide a helpful starting point.

NPD22 Resource KS1-2
NPD22 Resource KS2
NPD22 Resource – KS3
NPD22 Resource KS4-5

If you are new to teaching poetry, these reminders may come in useful:
● The sound and rhythm of words is important in poetry – the usual conventions of grammar, or even making sense, don’t matter as much. Enjoy the freedom this gives your learners.
● Encourage them to read their work aloud – it’s an excellent way to edit as well as improving children’s oracy skills.
● Poetry doesn’t need to rhyme.

We would like to celebrate Lewisham pupils’ poems in a public way and will upload a selection of poems written for this challenge to the We Are Lewisham website and social media channels. We are also going to produce a printed anthology of a selection of poems from across all age ranges, as legacy to the Borough of Culture team. Please watch this space for more information.

To take part in the Poetry Creative Challenge please complete this short entry form online and upload your pupils’ poems – one per class. Each poem should be submitted as a separate Word document with the words of the poem and age and first name of the pupil/group name (if a collective poem) included as text. We understand that this may be an arduous task for teachers and so do not expect every single poem to be submitted, so we have capped the number of submissions to one per class, up to a maximum of 18 per school. These can be individual poems or collective poems written by a class group together. The deadline for submitting your school’s poems is midnight on Friday 11 November 2022.

Terms & Conditions:

1. All Lewisham schools are eligible to submit poetry written by their pupils from Key Stage 1-5.
2. Entries should be submitted by no later than midnight on Friday 11 November 2022.
3. Participation is free of charge.
4. Each school can submit 1 selected poem per class (this can be a poem written by a collective or individual) up to a maximum of 18 poems per school.
5. Poems should respond to the theme ‘The Environment – in Praise or Protest’.
6. Poems submitted should be original work produced by pupils for the purposes of the Creative Challenge and should not copy or plagiarise any other work.
7. Schools must confirm they have the permission of pupils and their parents/guardians to share poetry written by pupils for public display.
8. Where poems are shared and celebrated publicly, the age and first name of the pupil or group name (if a collective poem) will be included alongside the poem, as well as the name of the school.
9. A selection of the poems may be included in an anthology publication that will be distributed to local libraries across the borough.