This term on February 9th, Simon Armitage, a world-renowned poet, visited St George’s Weybridge to give a talk and a review of his poems to 25 sixth form English students from three local schools; St George’s Weybridge, Salesian’s School and Heathside School. A handful of GCSE and A-Level students from each school were selected to attend
The lecture consisted of Simon Armitage reading a selection of his poems mostly from his book: ‘Paper Aeroplane: Selected Poems (1989-2014)’. The students were treated to the rare event of an author reading aloud his own poems and then the author giving further background information to each poem such as why he wrote the poem and who they were based upon. Some of the key poems which Armitage went through in the session were ‘Snow Joke’, ‘Meanwhile, somewhere in the state of Colorado’, ‘The Shout’, and ‘Kid’. This information allowed the students to understand the poems deeper and go beyond a superficial read through. Due to the variety of topics he comments on in his poetry, the event consisted of both reflection and humour, much to the students’ satisfaction.
For the 25 sixth form students who had this opportunity to engage with the poet the session seemed invaluable with one student commenting: “the chance to engage with a poet and hear him read his own poetry first hand with his own intonation and meaning was fantastic. It added another layer of meaning to the poems”. Students were able to interact with the poems and ask Simon Armitage a multitude of questions after he had read the poems out with most student agreeing they had gained a deeper understanding of the poetry and the writer’s purpose. At the end of the session, Simon Armitage also gave useful tips on how to analyse poetry in exams by looking at form and structure.
In all, the day was a success both in terms of increasing students’ knowledge and also give students from different schools in the area the opportunity to come together which hopefully may be repeated in the future.
