Eye of a Poet

Education   Secondary School  

University of Birmingham School
Academic Years 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22

When introduced to Big City Writing, the poetry newspaper made by students at Brookfields Primary School, teachers at University of Birmingham School thought a similar project would fit well into their character education programme.

University of Birmingham School draws students from four ‘nodes’ across the city and so students aren’t necessarily aware of the contexts in which they all live. Photographic trips to these areas followed up by poetry writing would address this issue and contribute a new element to the range of enrichment activities the students undertake on Friday afternoons.

Across the year each tutor group spent five sessions preparing their contributions to Eye Of A Poet. The poems were written using a range of approaches including: strict Japanese Haiku, ‘fridge magnet’ writing, writing from a title, writing from a structure and free writing. All poems were inspired in some way by photographs they took on their walks through Birmingham looking at the world with the ‘Eye of a Poet’. You can explore the publication in detail via this link.

Credits

Poems and photographs by: Year 7
With help from: Brenda Read-Brown, Rebecca Rochelle, Robin Surgeoner, Lexia Tomlinson, Craig Stephens and James Yarker
Design: Gareth Courage
Producers: Lucy Nicholls
Thanks to: All the Year 7 tutors, Mrs.Barrington, Ms.Hanson, Ms.Wrigglesworth.