Poetry and passion as Windhill21 Primary School pupils tackle global goals

Pupils used oration, poetry and presentations to voice their concerns about the planet at an event at South Mill Arts in Bishop’s Stortford.

The Windhill21 Global Goals Speech Evening was the culmination of a writing project in which every Key Stage 1 and 2 child at the Stortford primary school wrote a speech linked to one of the United Nations Global Goals.

The subjects they tackled included food poverty, the right to education and plastic pollution. Once written, pupils used their oracy skills to deliver their speeches with clarity and conviction. One winner was chosen from each class to perform at the South Road venue.

The children were joined by the mayor of Bishop’s Stortford, Cllr Richard Townsend, and Tomos Roberts, the spoken word poet, performer and filmmaker better known as Tomfoolery.

Rebecca Hall, the school’s oracy lead teacher, said: “At Windhill21 we are passionate about empowering every child to use their voice to speak up about issues they care about and make a difference in the world. Explicitly teaching oracy skills, such as voice projection and use of gesture, enables even the youngest children to deliver powerful speeches.”

The winning speeches were judged by Cllr Townsend, himself an accomplished poet, Tomfoolery and Eleanor Painter and Richard Crompton, from the Ivy Learning Trust.

They decided Ezgi, from Year 1, and Soham, from Year 6, were the overall winners and the youngsters were presented with trophies.

Windhill21 head Sarah Wood said: “We are incredibly proud of our young changemakers. The quality of their writing and the passion and confidence with which they delivered their speeches is a testament to the hard work of both the children and our dedicated teaching team.”

Pictures courtesy of Windhill21 Primary School.