"If you want to sit by me try your hand a Poetree"

In order to create an environment where students and teachers enjoy reading, we created a space near where students congregate at lunch to engage students and teachers in their journey with reading. We wanted to show how they weren't alone in reading or struggling to enjoy reading and that they were not alone in worrying about being able to contribute to conversations about reading.

The Poetree was one way to promote a type of reading, though we are trying to promote all types.

Each year of students and the staff were given a leaf, the colour of their year/group, and asked to write a line from a poem that they liked or that inspired them.

Some student's struggled with this and asked could it be based on a song rather than a poem as they felt songs were a medium that they connected to more. This simple question lead to the students forming an argument as to why song lyrics could be placed as quotes on the Poetree and generated a discussion that the students were passionate about.

The project has continued to grow each year. It is becoming more a more decorative and building a culture of inspiring each other within the school. The hope is that it will become an annual whole-school activity and that sixth year students will leave a permanent carving of an inspirational quote on the tree, for students to come, as they prepare to leave the nest and take to their wings for their next big adventure.