67 pupils from Clifton Primary School worked with Cumbrian poet, Katie Hale, to achieve Arts Award certificates at Discover level.

Arts Award is a unique series of qualifications that support young people to develop as artists and arts leaders. The programme develops their creativity, leadership and communication skills, from Discover level to Gold level, up to the age of 25. The Discover Award requires young people to learn about different types of art and how artists work, then to produce and share creative pieces of their own.

Pupils from Clifton Primary School worked with Cumbrian poet Katie Hale to achieve their Arts Awards.

The children focussed on their surroundings, with the different classes writing poems inspired by the school garden, Lowther Castle, and the fraught history behind Clifton Pele Tower.

They also learned about Basho’s image poetry and observations of nature, with a little help from some snails!

Working with the children at Shap and Clifton Primary Schools was such a rewarding experience. Poetry is too often seen as something ‘difficult’ or ‘elitist’, so it’s incredibly important that we have workshops like this, which allow the children to overcome mental barriers and write freely. It was such a treat to watch them becoming more and more confident in the poems they created.

‘Since the project, one of our pupils has started writing poems at home. She’s started taking poetry books out of the school library and coming in desperate to share a new poem she’s read. It’s great!’ – Miss Simpson, Clifton School.

A huge thank you to the Sam Thorpe Trust Fund for supporting this project, without which it wouldn’t have been possible.