The theme for this year’s National Poetry Day was ‘Change’ so it seemed fitting to celebrate by thinking about the changes ahead on The Old Library project. We partnered up with Pauline Rowe from North End Writers to run workshops for the Year 4 and 5 classes at one of our local schools, St Anne Stanley. Alongside working on well-being projects with North End Writers, Pauline is Writer-in-Residence at The Open Eye Gallery and Poet-in-Residence at Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust so we were thrilled to have her help on this project.

Each session was different which gave us the chance to explore lots of ideas with the children. Our first year 4 class closed their eyes to read a poem about The Old Library which Pauline had written especially for them. The children wrote down the pictures that had come to mind in their imagination whilst listening to the poem and Pauline joined these ideas together to make a wonderful class poem about the spirit of The Old Library.

Our second year 4 class thought about the theme of change and how things change all around them in their everyday lives, using their ideas to create acrostic poems. When it came to the group poem, there was a 50/50 vote for whether we should write a rhyming poem or a free-verse poem…so we came up with both! The class looked to the future with rhymes about what they’ll do in The Old Library and similes to describe how the new building will make them feel. 

Gaynor and Olivia had visited the year 5 classes to talk about The Old Library project last year so they knew all about our plans. With one class, we looked back in time and used a photograph of Lister School students in 1934 to imagine life when the library was open. Their poems explored how the new building will have changed and what those children might think if they could visit The Old Library in 2020. Our final year 5 class came up with the idea of using personification to think about the library and came up with ideas about how the building might feel since it was closed down. We combined all their ideas together to create an atmospheric group poem that reflects on The Old Library in its current state.

It was jam-packed day and each session was different, with lots of interesting and thoughtful ideas from the children. A big thank you to Pauline who did an excellent job of proving that everyone can be a poet just by using their imagination and words to express themselves. It was a great way to celebrate National Poetry Day and we’ve come away with so many wonderful creations from the children which we hope to use in imaginative ways throughout the project.

Thanks to Miss Prior in Year 4 for helping us organise the day and we’re looking forward to doing more with St Anne Stanley in the future. If you know another local school that would be interested in The Old Library project activities, please email olivia.johnson@listersteps.co.uk – we’d love to get you involved.