A STAND-UP poet brought creativity and comedy to lessons as she helped pupils to perfect their performance of prose.
Spoken word artist Kate Fox delivered a unique master class in poetry writing to students at Northallerton School and Sixth Form College before watching them perform their work before the entire school.
Kate, of Thirsk, who performs regularly on BBC Radio 4, spent the morning with 12 Year 7 pupils looking at themes including chicken super noodles and showing students how to have fun with words to produce their own individual poetry.
Northallerton School and Sixth Form College English teacher Stephen Jennings, who arranged the workshop, said: “All of our new Year 7 students are currently looking at poetry within their English lessons and we thought that this would be a good way to introduce a bit of fun into the subject.
“We believe that creativity is central to progress and engagement. Although levels are important, love of the subject is vital and this is a great opportunity to foster that.
“For our Year 9 students we will be inviting a group of actors into school to help them look at the novel Woman in Black and we will also be staging a CSI-style crime scene day, complete with a body outline in the car park, where students will have to use their English skills to investigate.”
After completing their verses, the poetry students took to the stage in the school’s main hall to perform their work in front of students, teaching staff and Ms Fox. “It’s a big thing to stand up in front of a room full of your peers and perform,” said Ms Fox. “But all of the students did extremely well.”
Student Matthew Yates, 12, of Northallerton, added: “I’ve really enjoyed the day as the poetry master class has been really interactive and we have been able to talk a lot about our ideas.
“I did feel a bit nervous about performing in front of the whole school but in the end it was a lot of fun.”
