Washington Academy, part of Consilium Academies, has  celebrated World Poetry Day this week (21st March.)

World Poetry Day is held every year on March 21st, UNESCO first adopted 21 March as World Poetry Day during its 30th General Conference in Paris in 1999, with the aim of supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression and increasing the opportunity for endangered languages to be heard. 

The day is now used as an occasion to honour poets, revive oral traditions of poetry recitals, promote the reading, writing and teaching of poetry, foster the convergence between poetry and other arts such as theatre, dance, music and painting, and raise the visibility of poetry in the media.

Washington Academy has a community Poet in Residence; professional poet Catilin Kendall.  Caitlin has a Masters in Creative Writing and her work has appeared online and in print in numerous publications. Her debut chapbook ‘Nothing is Yours’ was released by Bent Key Publishing in March 2023.

To celebrate their partnership with Caitlin and World Poetry Day, the school has held a poetry competition and Caitlin is currently in the process of judging the entries, of which there were over 150.  She also came into the school to complete poetry writing workshops with a selection of students from Year 11 and Key Stage 3 and it was from the students’ enthusiasm for this that the idea of the competition was born. 

The aim is for the school to have a student poet in residence, as well as a community one.  They are also working on a poetry book which is to be published alongside Sunderland Literacy Aid, they will be visiting areas of the community such as care homes and primary schools and creating both solo and group poetry for inclusion.  

As part of their Annual Literacy Survey in early 2023, the National Literacy Trust asked more than 60,000 children and young people aged 8 to 18 across the UK whether they read or write poetry.  In 2023, 1 in 4 (26.7%) children and young people said that they read poetry in their free time at least once a month, with 16.3% reading poems on paper, 7.5% reading poems on screen and 2.9% reading poems across both media.

 Victoria Carter, Headteacher at Washington Academy said:

“I am absolutely delighted that Caitlin has come on board as our Poet in Residence and hope that her partnership with us will encourage students to delve into the magical world of creative writing.”

Caitlin Kendall said:

 " It's a pleasure to work with such promising young poets and to be part of a school culture where poetry is held in such high regard by the learners. I've no doubt that the standard of work entered into the competition will be exceptionally high and that I will have my work cut out for me in judging them."