On Thursday 24th January the English department welcomed Ash Dickinson, a published poet, to work with year 10 and 11 students on their approaches to poetry.
Ash introduced his own poetry and discussed his writing process. This challenged students’ preconceptions about poetry being old-fashioned and abstract- instead, this made poetry come alive and students could understand poetry’s place in modern society.
With year 11, Ash then tackled some of the poems from the EDUQAS anthology (which students will be assessed on in their GCSE exams). With year 10, Ash focused on unseen poetry and the analytical skills required to uncover layers of meaning. Students have praised his “enthusiasm, fun and interesting” persona and poetry and claimed that “it was useful to see poetry in a different way”.
We thank Ash for leading such enjoyable and worthwhile sessions that both staff and students really enjoyed.
