Five members of a school poetry club stood up and performed their poems on Thursday night at the launch of a pamphlet of their work at Alnwick’s Bailiffgate museum in Northumberland.

Dorit Greene, Cedric Greene, Jack Rowley, pictured below, Matthew Swan and Holly Ellis are all members of the Duchess’s Community High School poetry club in Alnwick, led by teacher and poet Catherine Ayres – known as Mrs Newton to her pupils.

The pamphlet, Finding The Lost and The Left Behind, was produced in response to an exhibition of the same name in March by artist Gillian Lee Smith. The poems, framed on the gallery walls, were part of an exhibition at the museum that also embraced fine art, textiles, drama, and photography by youngsters at the Duchess’s school, which includes England footballer Lucy Bronze among its former pupils. She also had a good night on Thursday, in the match against Sweden!  

Philip Hood last year reported for Write Out Loud about the excellent work of the school’s poetry club, which was set up in 2017. Youngsters aged from 11 to 18 meet every Tuesday evening to read and write poems, often of high quality. Dorit Greene and Holly Ellis were among 85 commended youngsters in the Foyle Young Poets awards, selected from over 7,000 entries.  

The poetry pamphlet was produced through People Make Alnwick, a five-year programme of events and activities funded by the National Lottery Community Fund. The museum’s community project manager, Jacqui Wicks, reminded me on Thursday of another People Make Alnwick project during last year’s National Poetry Day, when poets Kirsten Luckins and Ralph Dartford toured the town, talking to people and groups, before coming up with a poem that celebrated the stories of this historic place, home of the Duke of Northumberland in his towering Alnwick castle.