In spring of 2022 the University’s Creative Manchester, the Centre for New Writing (CNW) and the Great Science Share for Schools launched this year’s Schools Poetry Competition, a civic engagement exercise that aims to nurture budding young poets in our local community.

Burnage Academy for Boys, Levenshulme High School and Whalley Range High School participated, encouraging their pupils to use poetry to express their thoughts and feelings on the subject of climate change, with Centre for New Writing PhD students creating video prompts and the Great Science Share for Schools generating digital content to embolden young minds to harness their inner poet.

Coordinated by Dr Rebecca Hurst, a CNW alumna, PhD and Masters students went into the three schools to run face-to-face poetry clinics with the young writers, to help them get the very most out of their poetry and nurture their talents. Joe Hunter was one of the students tasked with running these clinics.

“I was allocated two schools to visit in mid-May: Burnage Academy for Boys and Whalley Range High School,” said Joe. “At both places I had half a dozen keen-eyed junior poets to mentor, and from their busy notetaking as I spoke, and the moment-by-moment shift of affect in their eyes as they listened to their feedback, I saw that these were writers sure enough just like any others I had ever sat in a workshop with.”

The final submissions were judged by Dr Rebecca Hurst, Prof John McAuliffe and PhD student Chad Campbell, with the winners receiving a certificate and book token, while their poems were displayed at the Community Festival at University Place in June.

Staff, student and visitors to the University can read the winning entries of the Schools Poetry Competition 2022 in the Glass Corridor of the Samuel Alexander Building this September.

• Winning poems of the 2022 Schools Poetry Competition.