19 June 2025
Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks. — Plutarch
Poetry paints pictures with words. It can tell a story. Put forth a new perspective. Or leave one with a particular feeling or emotion. It also provides a deep font for learning. Descriptive language, story telling, vocabulary, inference and comprehension. Add to that the recitation of poetry, with the skills of clarity, projection, emphasis, tone and memorisation.
Throughout this first semester our students from Years 2 to 6 have been engaging deeply with poetry. All students in Years 3 to 6 have been learning poems and reciting these in class. Some Years 4 to 6 students have put themselves forward to represent the School at the IPSHA Poetry Competition. Year level finals were held to determine our representatives. Students were required to present a set poem (written by Dorothea Mackellar) and a poem of their own choice. Students displayed bravery, creativity and flair as they shared their poems. Ethan Wang (Year 4), Rory Nugent (Year 5) and William Fon (Year 6) came away as year level representatives.
On Thursday of Week 7 they performed at Walford Anglican School for Girls among 17 other schools. We are incredibly proud of the way they performed with confidence, clarity and meaning. This opportunity allowed so many of our students to develop a significant number of skills.
Year 4 Visual Arts students, inspired by their set poem Summer in the Country by Dorothea Mackellar, created landscapes depicting the different scenes described throughout the poem. Ms Houston linked their learning of colours, tones and painting techniques with this literary piece.
Finally, our students have not only been reading poetry but our Years 3 and 5 students have been writing poems of their own. In Year 3 students have been writing poems inspired by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, their focus text for the term. They used the five senses to build descriptive phrases and drew upon the figurative language elements learnt throughout the term. Our Year 5 students have created their own anthologies of the poems they have written this term. These have highlighted the variety of poetry types they have learnt about.
Mr Christopher Sanders
Deputy Head of Junior School – Teaching and Learning
