The GDST Laurie Magnus Poetry Prize is one of the GDST’s longest-running and most prestigious inter-school prizes.
For the competition, each school selects only one entry for each of the six categories, so selection is highly competitive. At OHS, the School Magazine runs a competition to select our entries with the editorial team as judges, with the final say from the English department. As we have some brilliant poets for students, a lot of the work makes its way into the magazine.
This year saw notable successes from across the school. A huge congratulations to the following:
Years 12 & 13 – Elsa Y13 ‘Bodies’ – Commended
The judge, poet Claudia Daventry, said it was “a very strong poem which questions our attitude to nudity versus violence”.
Years 10 & 11 – Isobelle Y11 ‘After’ – Commended
Daventry singled out Isobelle’s touching poem about her grandmother for its “quiet sorrow”.
Years 5 & 6 – Violet Y5 ‘Embrace: A Maple of My Own’ – Winner
Picking this poem as the winner in its group, Daventry noted how it uses “spoken word rhythms and observes the coronavirus from a distance, beautifully, against the blood-red of the maple tree holding the light of the sun”.
The judge also singled out Tilly Y9 for her “mysterious poem ‘On the Cold Days’ with its beautiful, evocative scene-setting” in the Years 7-9 section.
Anjali (Y4) was also acknowledged for her “clever SOCIAL DISTANCE acrostic” poem ‘Defiant Hope’ in the Years 3-4 section.
We would also like to share the beautiful illustrations from Sophia (Yr 10).
