Mayor visits for West Yorkshire Poetry week.

Staff and pupils were delighted to welcome the Lord Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, into Lower Fields today, to celebrate World Poetry Day and the National Literacy Trust’s West Yorkshire Poetry Week 2023.

Arriving at school to the excitement of the bright yellow Bradford Stories Bus parked outside, pupils across school spent the morning enjoying stories, listening to poetry and discussing what they love about books. In a special assembly broadcast live to schools across the region, Tracy Brabin was questioned by pupils from Lower Fields about her role as Lord Mayor, her love for writing and what makes her proud, before informing children about how they can apply to be West Yorkshire’s first ever Young Poet Laureate.

Following the broadcast, Tracy Brabin was incredibly impressed with Aqsa and Aniyah from year 5, who astounded her with an excellent reading of poems they had recently written, proving themselves to be definite contenders for the new Young Poet Laureate!

At Lower Fields, we recognise the value of poetry and expose children to a breadth of classical and contemporary poets. How we explore poems changes throughout the year – sometimes children will be analysing and writing their own poems, in the style of the poet, using similar vocabulary and style, whilst at other times the focus will be on poetry performance, which helps with speech development skills such as expression and articulation, and also provides the confidence to use similar language and structure in their own writing.

We are so proud to have hosted this event at Lower Fields today and look forward to reading the amazing poems our children are going to write!