Creative Confidence

This term, Miss Short has once again been working with students to create poems that explore feelings and promote confidence in students. These sets of poems in particular have been focusing on Valentine’s Day, Personification, Alliteration, Limericks and Rhyme. The students have all worked exceptionally hard to produce their poems collaboratively, and we cannot wait to see what next term brings.

Here’s a blog piece that was written about the workshops; Performance poetry is poetry that is specifically composed for or during a performance before an audience. During the 1980s, the term came into popular usage to describe poetry written or composed for performance rather than print distribution, mostly open to improvisation. Our Lady’s RC secondary school put their technical imagination to amazing use. They went on a lockdown journey in house and via Zoom. Kitty Short our resident facilitator led the Creative Confidence Workshops that enabled the students to have a frank and open discussion about their feelings during lockdown. The feelings of boredom, anxiety but also excitement and hope for the future when they will finally be free culminated into a poem putting their creativity imagination to tremendous use. Each week different thoughts and feelings will be explored via the power of poetry. Performance Poetry Workshops can be aimed at students who lack self-confidence and have low self-esteem. The workshops will focus on mental health issues, peer pressure, bullying etc. Throughout the workshops the students will develop the skills to express their emotions through poetry, focusing on turning any anxieties they may have whether at school or at home into something positive and productive. The series of workshops will allow the students to develop their poetry skills academically looking at alliteration, similes, free verse, imagery, limericks whilst giving the children confidence to devise their own poetry building on their creative writing and extending their vocabulary. Our students have also given some fantastic feedback about the opportunities they’ve received this term. Hannah Fashina said “I learned a lot from the poetry sessions and it really helped boost my confidence. It also helped me expand my vocabulary and I learnt to be more patient and not be quick to judge on what people say. Kitty also taught me that if you have an idea you should say it even if you think it’s wrong because it might just be a really good idea. I have learnt how to converse in a group where listening skills are important when learning, helping and sharing knowledge within a team!” Muhammed also added “I really enjoyed my poetry sessions … Before I never really enjoyed poetry. Now my view has changed, It has boosted my confidence and enabled me enjoy these learning processes. The facilitator made it very enjoyable and made everyone feel welcome and part of a team!