Shell Music and Poetry evening 2025

Just before the half term break, our Shells showcased their Poetry and Musical talents at the annual judged event, held in the Music School. It is always a memorable evening in the Easter term calendar.

English Teacher, Kathryn Watts provided this account of the evening:

As ever, it was a highly enjoyable evening, celebrating the best of the artistic talent in the Shell year group.

The evening began with some music from Shell musicians, before our first competition: the Classic Poetry Recital, where representatives from each class performed a poem they had learned by heart. The winner was Seth P from Shell E, with a compelling recital of ‘The Language of Cat’ by Rachel Rooney. Livvy H from R and Caspar C from C were runners-up.

The next category was the Freestyle Poetry Recital, where pairs from R, X and O performed other poems from the Poetry by Heart selection. Austin R and Jasper T from Shell X won this category, giving an excellent rendition of ‘The Witch’ by Mary Coleridge, while Amy L and Ella I were runners-up with ‘Looking at Your Hands’ by Martin Carter.

The performers who did particularly well in the first two competitions will have the chance to go forward to the National Poetry By Heart competition, whose final will take place this summer at The Globe Theatre in London.

The poetry performances came to a close with some excellent poems written and read by Shells from all six sets. The standard was very high, but Coco B was picked out in particular for her careful crafting of ‘Gothic’, and Cecilia S and Jemima T for their heartfelt work ‘Climate Change.

A number of parents attended in person and there was a lovely atmosphere of celebration. Miss Caroline Barrett, former Head of English at Canford, was the guest judge and was highly impressed with the standard of both writing and recitation on display. 

Final placings:

Classic Poetry Recital (solo recital of a published poem) – Seth P 1^st, Livvy V and Caspar C 2^nd

Freestyle Poetry Recital (read in pairs)  – Austin R and Jasper T 1^st and Amy L and Ella I 2^nd

Showcase (reading or recital of their own poetry) – Coco B 1^st, Cecilia S and Jemima T 2nd

Thank you to everyone involved for their participation and support of this event.

More photographs may be found at this link (parent password required):  Canford School - Powered by Planet eStream