The Weald of Kent Poet Laureates, Maxine, Isla and Lara (year 10) from Tonbridge and Leia and Lexie (Year 9) and Pranshi (Year 10) from Sevenoaks led a wonderful Poetry and Art Celebration evening at the Sevenoaks campus on Wednesday evening. The event highlighted the incredible poetry written and performed by Weald students this year. In addition, poems and artwork produced by students for our competition on the theme of ‘Light’ was showcased during the evening. Selected poems and art will appear in an Anthology, a copy of which will be given to each of the featured poets and artists.

The evening began with some beautiful music performed by Sevenoaks students on the grand piano while parents, students and teachers mingled and enjoyed the art exhibition. The Poet Laureates then introduced the evening and invited poets to perform their work, whilst related art pieces were displayed.

In addition to poems from the competition, students performed poems that they had written for a national competition led by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage to locate regional poets in KS2 and KS3 from across the country. Caitlin’s poem was Commended in that competition and Eloise’s poem ‘Nerd’ was a finalist. Two Year 10 students also performed published poems, ‘When We Two Parted’ and ‘Remains’ which they had entered for the National Poetry By Heart Competition.

Finally, there was an awards ceremony for poems judged by published author and poet Nathalie Abi-Ezzi and artwork judged by the Weald Art Department. The standard of art and poetry was stunning and demonstrates the talents of Weald students.