Our Y10 student Jonathan Pennington has been announced as the KS3 winner of the national Poetry By Heart competition and was awarded a trophy by Tim Shortis, Co-director of Poetry by Heart in a special assembly. Jonathan was in Y9 when he, together with his classmates, took part in the competition, most of which was held online. A recording of his performance of Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll won the Silverdale competition in March and from there he progressed to the national competition for which he also performed the poem ‘Counter-Attack’ by Siegfried Sassoon.

Although selected as a finalist and invited to the national event at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London in July, Jonathan was unable to attend due to having to self-isolate. In a further blow, he also missed a reception at 10 Downing Street due to contracting Covid-19! In spite of these setbacks he was still named the KS3 winner and will be invited to join the 2022 finalists at the Globe next summer.

The assembly (which took place on a non-uniform day in aid of Children in Need) was a wonderful celebration of Jonathan’s achievement, attended by our head teacher Mrs Sims, Mr Benn, Head of English, Mr Newton, Jonathan’s English teacher and our own local poet, Mr Bushell.

Photo: (l-r) Tim Shortis, Jonathan Pennington, Mr Newton, Mrs Sims