Miss Nicola Simm – Teacher of English

On Wednesday 17th June, 14 Lower Fifth students had the opportunity to visit the Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University. The students met with poets and explored the interactive collections in the Library, whilst engaging in a series of creative tasks. Students developed creative writing skills based on their explorations of Jean Sprackland’s new exhibition ‘Elemental’. The exhibition takes her forthcoming poetry collection ‘Goyle, Chert, Mire’ as inspiration, exploring the relationship between landscape and language. 

Later, students attended a poetry workshop where they were able to piece together sections of their creative writing to create some group poetry of their own. 

Their amazing work will be showcased in the English Department. Here are some lines taken from their group work:

The stream flowing like an arm of a clock, brushing against the firm rocks with force and aggression

The sun seemed to fade away as night fell across the sky 

Face to face, down and under, slower and denser

A stream of flowing water; the crunch of small insects and sticks colliding

Birds sang as if in a choir

Dreams of childhood inspiration comes to life within a blink

The look of the place makes me wonder and dream; deceiving my thoughts about everything I’ve seen