Thursday 17 March 2016 The road to Rio 2016 provided inspiration for budding poets from local schools during ‘Speak Up’, a day dedicated to creative writing and performance poetry. Now in its fifth year, Speak Up is an annual event for year 5 pupils, hosted by The Grammar School at Leeds (GSAL) in partnership with Leeds Young Authors. Teams of four pupils from schools in Otley, Horsforth and Leeds spent a school day at GSAL devising poetry under the guidance of poets Khadijah Ibrahim and Rheima Robinson. In the evening the pupils showcased their work in a poetry slam style performance for family, friends and the judges – Trish Gallagher, English teacher at Cardinal Heenan High School, and Alan Clayton, retired surveyor (formerly of Leeds City Council’s education department). The pupils from Little London Community Primary School took #livingthedream as their theme, stunning the audience with a word-perfect and dramatic performance that brought to life the atmosphere of a global sporting event, its cultural diversity and the personal goals at stake. Announcing Little London as the overall winners, Trish Gallagher said: “This group blew us away with their conviction, maturity and use of words. It was absolutely outstanding what they had achieved in one day.” This is the second time that Little London Primary has won Speak Up. The school’s headteacher Jill Wood said: “Thanks to GSAL for providing this annual opportunity for our pupils, which is a day to remember whether we had won or not. It’s not about the winning, it’s about the process and the experience – the pupils have loved it and interacted well with everyone.” Chapel Allerton Primary School and Westgate Primary School, Otley were joint winners of the Most Striking Line category, while Froebelian School, Horsforth, won the award for Best Performance. The judges faced a difficult task trying to choose the award winners, with impressive performances given by all the schools, which included St Chad’s Church of England Primary School, Carr Manor Primary School and Beeston Hill St Luke’s C of E Primary School. General
