We're proud sponsors of the TES SEND Show Poetry Competition

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We're proud sponsors of the TES SEND Show Poetry Competition

By Admin · August 09, 2023

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Circular image of James Green of Scanning Pens and a young winner being presented with a C-Pen Reader 2 reading pen

Empowering Tech's literacy experts are moving into literature expertise! Scanning Pens are proud to have sponsored the second annual TES SEND Show Poetry Competition, and seen such a huge amount of incredible talent. The event is a national poetry competition for pupils in primary and secondary education to spark creativity and conversation around special educational needs and disability (SEND) education. Through the given theme of ‘One World for Everyone – building an inclusive future for SEND learners’, the poetry competition was an exercise that invited educators and pupils to meditate on the themes of inclusion and accessibility, and transform those dreams and aspirations into a piece of poetry.

The aim of this competition was not only to foster a flowering of poetry and creativity in young people, but also to encourage open talk about inclusivity, accessibility, dreams and aspirations amongst all learners— and especially those with SEND.

This year, we’ve been delighted to welcome one of Britain’s best-loved writers and performance poets as chair of the Poetry Competition judging panel. Michael Rosen served as Children’s Laureate from 2007 to 2009 and has published well in excess of 200 books for both adults and children, being a part of the reading journey for hundreds of thousands of readers since the publication of his first collection Mind Your Own Business in 1974.

Three people dressed in casual clothes- James Green, Michael Rosen and Darren Clark- stood in front of a pink branded Scanning Pens and TES background. Michael is holding a Go Red for Dyslexia T-Shirt.

Scanning Pens CEO James Green, Poet Michael Rosen and Succeed With Dyslexia CEO Darren Clark representing Go Red for Dyslexia at TES SEND.

We’d like to say not only a huge well done to our winners, but also to each and every one of our participants. We were delighted to meet some of you at the TES SEND Show last week and share in some of your amazing work, as well as present our lucky winners with one our brand new reading aids for 2022, the C-Pen Reader 2.

'One world for everyone – building an inclusive future for SEND learners.'

Winners and Commended Entrants 2022

— Primary Individual —
1st Place
'A World With No Doors' - Benjamin Graham (11 - Home School)
2nd Place
'Fidget' - Albert (7 - Barn Croft Primary School)
3rd Place
'Anxiety' - Poppy Zarifeh (10 - Ark Oakbridge School)

— Highly Commended —
'SATs Stress' - Hope (10 - EOTAS)
'Lego World' - Aiden Graham (10 - Two Moors Primary School)

— Primary Group —
1st Place
'LEVEL' - Grace Howson, Mathilda Uttley, Alexander Petecki, Rocco Baldini, Annabelle Bimson, Florence Ashton (11 - Finton House School)

— Secondary Individual —
1st Place
'The Trees Are Too Loud' - Ellen Dixon (16 - Ladybridge High School)
2nd Place
'Jigsaw' - Vivian Lai (15 - Badminton School)
3rd Place
'Underestimated' - Kacie (15 - Pierview Academy)

— Secondary Group —
1st Place
'I Belong In This World' - Blackman Class (15 - Manor Green School)
2nd Place
'Make a School for Us' - Totland Class (12 - St Catherine's School)
3rd Place
'One World at Trinity Fields' - Dwayne, Carlos, Shay, Kaden, Riley, Jac, Jakob, Kian, Taran (11 - Trinity Fields)

— Further Education Individual —
1st Place
‘The Paper Man Burns’ – Luc Moore (20 – Manchester College)
2nd Place
‘Hidden Beauty’ – Jessica Peck (22 – ArtWorks South Yorkshire)
3rd Place
‘You Support Me’ – Terry (21 – Pierview Academy)

You can find out more about the TES SEND Show Poetry Competition here.