By Community Correspondent, Andrea David-Akanbi.

The prospect of exams would typically seem daunting and stressful for a student about to complete their English GCSE in 2 months; yet when a group of Ursuline GCSE students went on an excursion to Poetry Live earlier this month, a sense of appreciation arose for the girls with pending exams.

There was certainly no better way than to spend Friday the 5th February at London’s prestigious Dominion theatre, famous for the various shows that it has hosted; the four hour educational event, which aimed to prepare students for their English GCSE, saw a collection of renowned poets who were willing to share their work with young English students. The privilege of listening to a poet read the poem in their own voice was the foremost objective of the occasion, with the likes of Gillian Clarke, Carol Ann Duffy and Simon Armitage performing their stanzas featured in the AQA syllabus.

Students and Teachers alike were inspired by each poem, with the majority of poets having spoken of their native cultures. Meanwhile, what was indeed striking was the great display of commitment from the organisers of Poetry Live; prior to each rendition, the poets gave students a brief account of how their poem came to be written. Needless to say, this was greatly appreciated by the students, who are now able to understand many of the intricately written poems in their GCSE syllabus.

The event came to its finale with a performance from the talented John Agard. Performing his piece, Half- Caste, he managed to make his presence the climax of the event, with his charismatic, comical and passionate performances. He was, arguably, the most interesting poet of the event, with Ursuline students having dubbed him as 'the best’ poet.

Poetry Live was a great day for the students of Ursuline to have experienced, and brought inspiration to any of the young potential poets in the audience. For any future students attending; be warned. The poems will have a tendency to linger repeatedly in your mind!