Twins Alfie and Dylan, currently in Year 9, are the joint recipients of the title Poet Laureate this year. We caught up with them and Head of English Dave Ilott to discuss their award.
Dave explained, “We wanted this award to be a celebration of poetry. We have the Gouldstone Prize for writing every year, and we noticed an increasing number of poems were being submitted. Students can be quite shy about writing poetry in their spare time, but actually we had a lot of entries.
“We awarded a joint prize because we couldn’t choose between Alfie and Dylan: their work is at such a high level. They both write about aspects of life that are common to many people, and somehow make it accessible.”
Alfie agreed, adding “For a poem, you just need an idea, patience and a way to communicate it. In my old school I wouldn’t have wanted to have a board of my work on the wall, but no-one judges you at St Chris.”
Dylan talked more about how the pair work: “I mainly write about global issues; the environment is my main area of interest. Alfie writes about more personal things. I actually prefer writing stories but don’t always have time so if I have a concept, I’ll write a poem instead.”
