Peaceful Poetry

Young people from William Patten School came together to write powerful poems demanding change

Everyone has the right to be heard.

Year 3 and 4 students at William Patten Primary School wrote powerful poems in letter form addressed to current UK Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza.

Under the guidance of Ministry of Stories Writing Facilitator Laila Sumpton,  students learned about and analysed some of the laws or ‘Articles’ in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child and in small groups wrote their own poems demanding that these be made a reality for children in the UK and around the world.

‘We want to feel as safe as a tiger in its cave, as held and relaxed as a sofa and as healthy as a juicy fruit!’

— Extract from Jago, Betty, Tino, Harleen and Harrison

The project coincided with National Refugee Week and also reflected perfectly the school’s recent celebration of a school protest to prevent deportation of members of the school community in 1983.

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Photos courtesy of William Patten school