The Poetry Plate 2010
The Poetry Plate competition is where pupils in Year 6 have the opportunity to perform poems in front of an audience. Pupils were asked to perform two poems, one of their choice and one compulsory poem. Six pupils were chosen from each class to perform in front of the whole school in the Final on Friday 5th November. Mrs Renshaw and Mrs Slater were the judges for the Final.
I could be certain that everybody was a little nervous and very determined to win. We all practised in the Junior Hall at break to get the feel of how it would be in the real thing.
The event started and the standard was extremely high. The first poem was either ‘Silver’ or ‘The Listeners’ by Walter De La Mare and only one person chose to perform ‘The Listeners” since it is so much longer than “Silver”. The choices amongst the second poems were interesting because there was a mixture of humorous and serious poems.
After all the poems had been performed, Mrs Renshaw and Mrs Slater found it extremely difficult to choose a winner. Instead, there was a joint winner!
Eddie Meakin and myself were chosen as the winners of the Poetry Plate 2010, whilst Harry Warrior performed his moving poem, “To the R.A.F.” in our Remembrance Day service.
Michael Fletcher, 6G
2009 - The annual Poetry Plate final took place on Friday 6th November in the Founder Hall. Our adjudicator for this occasion was Mrs. Haddock, former organiser and presenter of the Nottingham Speech and Drama festivals. 42 pupils from Year 6 had auditioned, reciting either “The Listeners” or “Silver”, both written by Walter de la Mare, and an additional poem of their own choice. All poems were learnt ‘off by heart’ over the half- term break. Numerous parents were heard to comment that they probably knew the lines from the poems equally as well as their sons!
The following boys were finalists on the day and they were all commended by the adjudicator for their excellent memory skills and performances.
Will Banks Silver (Walter de la Mare) & One Fine Day (anon)
Matt Buchan Silver (Walter de la Mare) & The Crocodile (Roald Dahl)
Alistair Hart The Listeners (Walter de la Mare) & Ozymandias (Shelley)
Will Lowden Silver (Walter de la Mare) & In Flanders Fields (McCrae)
Saaras Mehan The Listeners (Walter de la Mare) & Alexander (Walter de la Mare)
Conan O'Regan Silver (Walter de la Mare) & Billy McBone (Allan Ahlberg)
Tobias Schroder The Listeners (Walter de la Mare) & Miss T (Walter de la Mare)
Achintya Singh Silver (Walter de la Mare) & The Tyger (Blake)
Tayyib Ali The Listeners (Walter de la Mare) & Macavity the Mystery Cat (Eliot)
Bhaskar Biswas Silver (Walter de la Mare) &The Land of the Bumbly Boo (Milligan)
Nyle Cockell Silver (Walter de la Mare) & The Aliens Have Landed (Nesbitt)
Kedem Morgan The Listeners (Walter de la Mare) & An Attempt at Free Verse (Cope)
Ashok Shankar Silver (Walter de la Mare) & From a Railway Carriage (Stevenson)
Daniel Thurgood The Listeners (Walter de la Mare) & Hope is the Thing (Dickinson)
Will Underwood Silver (Walter de la Mare) & The Owl and the Pussycat (Lear)
There were many noteworthy performances, none more so than that by Tayyib Ali, who, having chosen not one but two lengthy poems, delivered them faultlessly. Matt Buchan enlivened his performance with some humorous actions, whilst, at the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of choice, Will Lowden showed great maturity in his moving interpretation of “In Flanders Field” and he reproduced this performance in our Remembrance Day service.
After careful deliberation, Mrs Haddock offered feedback to all the finalists and proceeded to award third place to Alistair Hart for his fine performance of Shelley’s “Ozymandias”. The runner-up was Bhaskar Biswas with his humorous delivery of a Spike Milligan poem. The overall winner of the Poetry Plate, 2009 was Kedem Morgan, whose comedic interpretation of his chosen poem caused every member of the audience to laugh and smile.
The proceedings concluded with Kedem’s vote of thanks to Mrs. Haddock and the presentation of a bouquet of flowers. Congratulations to all the Year 6 boys who entered so willingly into the spirit of the competition.
