Girls’ School Poetry Competition
Girls’ School Poetry Competition
November 10, 2017 at 1:13 PM
The quality and standard of presentation at the Girls’ School Poetry Competition were outstanding, making it very difficult for the adjudicator to select winners. Halloween and food were the most popular topics, but the girls had the freedom to write about any subject of their own choosing.
All students wrote original poems and over the last two weeks, held in-class competitions to select this morning’s finalists. This year, we were fortunate to welcome Elena De Roo to adjudicate the competition. Ms De Roo has been writing for children since 2004, and has had a number of stories, poems, plays and readers published by educational publishers in New Zealand, Australia and the United States.
First to put their poetic skills to the tests were the Year 4 girls. From a Haunted House and Grandparents to Candyfloss, it was Millicent Macleod’s poem about ‘The Werewolf’ that earnt her a first-place win. Ms De Roo mentioned the Year 4 students’ poems were the closest, in terms of quality, making it exceptionally hard to decide on a winner for that year group. Next the Year 5 girls spoke about how certain things made them feel. Caroline Healy’s dramatic and humorous poem about what was in her pantry won her first place. In between the competitive speakers, the audience were treated to selected Year 1-3 students retelling their poems.
Winner of the Year 6 title, Xarya Knox delivered an emotional, heartfelt poem about circus lions - ‘longing for freedom.’ Year 7 winner, Amelia Paris’ poem ‘Little Fairy’ had perfect structure and a lot of emotion. Ms De Roo was very impressed with the Year 8 winner’s poem, ‘We’re Killing Them.’ She said she loved the message and motive, as well as the performance Eva Colyer gave when presenting her poem about Orangutans. With the standard of writing, selecting the winners was no easy feat but Ms De Roo said every girl who was on stage this morning should be very proud of themselves.
Congratulations to all of the students who performed and especially to our winners. Thank you to Elena De Roo and also Speech and Drama teacher, Mrs Judy Norton for organising the event.
