Access Team delivers new Poetry and Drama clubs at local primary schools

St John’s has been twinned with Bayards Hill Primary School since 2023, when funds from the College helped to open a new library at the school. Since then, a team of Student Ambassadors have visited every Friday to run ‘Library Lunchtimes’ and offer guided-reading with individual pupils. Now, with the launch of the first ever after-school club to take place in the library, St John's weekly engagement with Bayards has doubled.

Pupils took a jam-packed journey through different definitions and interpretations of poetry; they were especially excited to learn that poetry does not have to rhyme! With other highlights including composing their own Haikus, rapping a verse from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and working as a class to write a ‘nonsense’ poem, the success of the club was felt by pupils and staff alike, with one teacher commenting that it had “been amazing, and the children enjoy themselves thoroughly”. We hope to run the sessions again in the new year, with a new group of young poets.

A committed team of Student Ambassadors assisted the Access Team throughout the delivery of Poetry Club. Sofia, Patrick, Katie, Nimrod, and Gabi provided excellent and inspirational one-to-one support with pupils every week, and we’d like to thank them for giving so much time to outreach in the local community, this term. Thanks are also in order to the larger Primary Ambassador team, Anna, Sagel, Benjamin, Hannah, and Yinghan, for continuing to run Friday ‘Library Lunchtimes’ this term. Benjamin noticed, “how excited the students are when we take them to read, jumping on the way to the library”, and Anna told us, “Bayards is genuinely a highlight of my week when I go!”.

Alongside our partnership with Bayards, the Access Team is pleased to be working with New Marston Primary School for the first time, offering series of three Drama enrichment sessions to be repeated through the school year. With the first round of sessions coming to an end before Christmas, we are looking forward to the culmination of a term’s fun and hard-work, looking at improvisation, character creation, and script work.

Partnering with local primary schools as part of our Access and Outreach work is a joy, and plans are already in place for both inbound and outbound visits in the new year.

From all in the Access Team, we wish you a fun and restful winter break!