Children's Poetry Competition 2023

We are delighted to announce the winners and poems chosen for the anthology: 


Reception to Year Three 

Winner: 

‘Only Foxes Should Fear Dragons’ by Erin Wyatt 

Highly Commended: 

‘Memory Meadow’ by Ruby Armitage
'The song of the birch' by Maya Pal

‘A Swan Poem’ by Elliot Houghton

 

Years Four to Six 

Winner: 

‘Cinnabar’ by Tabitha Hodsoll-Kutereba  

Highly Commended: 
'Fox' by Oscar Otomo Humphreys

‘So You Gave Me A ‘D’’ by Athena Papoutes

‘Wokering Walley-go-Way’ by George Jeronimidis


Years Seven to Nine 

Winner: 

‘A Planetarium’s Myth’ by Laura Houlder 

Highly Commended: 

‘Red Sails (Helen of Troy)’ by Mabel Bailey

 'White Crow' by Pihu Munjal

 

Years Ten to Thirteen 

Winner: 

‘Us Park Street Kids ‘ by Hattie Norman-Bird 

Highly Commended: 

‘for the children made of glass’ by Lily Brady
'Where the Teeth Used to Be' by Helena Ramsden

 

Winning School

Meridian Primary School (Rocking Horse Room)


Poems selected for the anthology

Finding Myself (In Regards to You)

Lottie Atkinson

Memory Meadow

Ruby Armitage

Red Sails

Mabel Bailey

A Whisper

 

Florence Barnett

Plains

Toby Barnett-Jones

The Hollyhock Field

Hope Barrett

See the Easter Bunny Blow

Carlotta Belton

Is light the Enemy

Eera Bhalla

Stegosaurus Poem

Maisie Bowler

For the Children Made of Glass

Lily Brady

The Wind is a Bully

Oscar Buckley

Under the Microscope

Charis Chan

Morse Code

Oliver Chen

Help the Earth

Isaac Chia

Teachers

Josie Cleminson

Written in January

Ozzie Coleman

My Big Sister

Arthur Colville

The Four Seasons

Pascale Connors

Separation

Romilly Connors

A Monochrome world

Henry Coulter

Seas

Zoe Davies

Bonfire Night

Charlie Forbes

Night Hawks

Arabella Frewin

Tree

Clement Garrard

Shackaty Shack

Leonora Faith Goldsmith

Like a Rose

Naomi Gordon

Minecraft

Chris Graham

So Dizzy

Rose Greiff

The Bully

Edward Hartlebury

The Hammerhead Shark

Richard He

Family

Amaya Hickman

Cinnabar

Tabitha Hodsoll-Kutereba

Little Devil

Benjamin Holden

A Swan Poem

Elliot Houghton

A Planetarium's Myth

Laura Houlder

Deep Sea

Emily Hunt

I can See

Serena Isted

The Wockering Walley-go-Way

George Jeronimidis

Ice Cream

Bob Jeronimidis

In the Middle of the Ocean

Lena Johnston

A Sustainable Path

Benedict Kazi-Fornari

Thomas Tasta

Clara Kelly

Animals in my Room

Nuri Kenes

Glass

Ilay Kenes

My Security Bubble

Rosie Kersley Williamson

Spring

Andrew Kong

Speaking Up

Daniel Koskinen

The Rampage of Spelling in my Mind

Ingrid Lang

Shivani

Tayyibah Latif

I Never Meant to Fall in Love

Atlas Leader

My Music

Sophia Lozano

Only You Understand

Faith Lydall

The Wilderness

Tatiana Macaulay

The Lime

Mondrita Mahdiat

Your good Friend Hope

Elisa McKenzie

Journey of a Plastic Bag

Ayla McKenzie

 Law of the Jungle

Martha McWilliam

Death's Curse

Chloe Menton

Young at Night

Natasha Misra

White Crow

Pihu Munjal

Cats

Edward Murphy

morals of fighting

Imogen Nathan

Us Park Street Kids

Hattie Norman-Bird

Two Different Things

Gaia O'Donnell

Falling Into Spring

Connie Osborne

What Happens in Spring

Heidi Osborne

Fox

Oscar Otomo Humphreys

So You Gave Me A 'D'

Athena Papoutes

If your soul was a lily-pad

Beth Parker

The Song of the Birch

Maya Pal

My Reality

Skyla Paslo

The Blood of a Woman

Marla Payne

Oooh! The Delights of Lemon Curd

Jessica Poupart

Change

Matilda Quash

Tomorrow's Philosophy

Sara Qureshi

Where the Teeth Used to Be

Helena Ramsden

Oren

Oren Reichattar

Panda

Ena Richardson

Eleven

Keziah Rigby

The Wallabies

Alex Rolfe

An Elephant's Freedom

Bella Russell

Naïvety

Rhea Sadasya

A Spider

Leo Scott-Bartram

My First Tennis Camp

Max Sharp

Inside my Head

Connie Shean

Not Alone

Théo Spencer

Spring

Arabella Stell

Mythical Rainforest

Rafe Sudlow

My Brother

Aaryan Thevan

Excuses

Oliver Thorpe

Lilium Convallis: An Elegy for her Majesty

Conrad Van Wyk

So I run and I run and I run

Eve Ward

Fa(r)ther

Isabelle Wei

Skylark

Beatrice Wiseman

A Shopping List

Aisling Wood

The Scope of Death

Isabella Woodall

Defeated

Tehilla Woolfson

Notions

Mexi Wright

Only Foxes Should Fear Dragons

Erin Wyatt

Summer

Alex Xu

Tree of Life and Love

Eileen Yaryar

Raksha the Mother Wolf

Sofia, Jake, Liepa, Hafza, Zach, Daisy, Zaisha, Sumaia (Meridian Primary)

 

 

 

 



Order the 2023 anthology

The shortlisted poems from 2023  will be published in this brand new anthology, packed with wonderful poems. Pre-order your copy here: 

https://www.livecanon.co.uk/store/product/2023-childrens-anthology-1

We fundraise hard to raise money for the competition to go ahead. This is an opportunity for the poets of the future to develop their craft and build their confidence, as well as simply an opportunity for young people to get serious about creative work in an educational landscape where those are increasingly few and far between. One parent wrote: 'My child has gained so much confidence in their writing as a result of entering this competition over the last few years. They really look forward to writing poems throughout the year and then selecting which one they'll submit and they absolutely love receiving the anthology and dipping into it. This is the most brilliant endeavour.'

You can made a donation to our fundraising here:
https://fnd.us/926Lkc?ref=sh_7BsqY7


Watch here the 12 winning poems from the 2020 competition, performed by poet Kirsten Irving and actor Neil Urquhart.