Leeds East Victorious at Poetry Slam

Congratulations to our winning team who won the Poetry Slam competition.

East Street Arts were awarded funding from the Ann Maguire Educational Fund to run a Poetry Factor project, based on the theme of conflict, in three East Leeds schools.

Andy Craven-Griffiths - who fronted the project throughout - worked with students from years 7, 8 and 9 delivering a Poetry-Slam workshop ending in 12 pupils being selected to represent the Academy.

The selected pupils attended a Bootcamp Day at John Smeaton Academy in July along with the two other winning teams where they worked in mixed teams in the morning and with their school team in the afternoon to practise and perfect their performance.

There were many great performances on the day, The project reached an exciting finale as students performed at a celebratory showcase event broadcast at Chapel FM in front of family and friends. A panel of expert judges scored the performances privately to decide on the winners.

There were several winning categories including ‘Best Line’ and ‘Best Performance’ with prizes and certificates for all taking part. There was also a grand prize trophy for the winning school, which we are proud to announce was Leeds East Academy!

Leeds East Academy staff have been supporting students throughout the project and students and staff are excited at the prospect of working with Andy again following the success of his workshop.