Young Peterborough poets pick up top prizes

Youngsters at a Peerborough school are celebrating after winning a top poetry prize.
Oscar and ReaganOscar and Reagan
Oscar and Reagan

STwo Year 8 students at Queen Katharine Academy won the Mother Tongue Other Tongue competition this year, which is a multilingual poetry competition started by Manchester Metropolitan University and Routes into Languages North West.

The Mother Tongue part of the competition requires children who do not have English as a first language, or who speak a different language at home, to share a lullaby, poem or song from their Mother Tongue. They then write a short piece in English to explain the poem’s significance to them.

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The Other Tongue part of the competition encourages children learning another language in school to use that language creatively to write a poem.

The academy, which is part of The Thomas Deacon Education Trust (TDET), entered three students from each year group into the Mother Tongue and Other Tongue parts of the competition.

Oscar and Reagan emerged victorious and won in the Other Tongue part of the competition.

Oscar chose to write about cherry trees and Reagan chose to write about his life and future plans. Both poems were celebrated for their creativity, language, and imagination.

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Lynn Mayes, Principal of Queen Katharine Academy, said: “I am so proud of Oscar and Reagan. They did exceptionally well and despite it being their second language, their knowledge of English is outstanding.

“Their hard work, determination, and commitment has highlighted exactly why we are known as an inclusive centre of educational excellence.”

A virtual ceremony took place as part of the Cambridge Festival organised by Routes into Languages.

Oscar and Reagan will each receive a trophy, as well as a certificate and a copy of the anthology.

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