'School Britannia' - Poetry Anthology

The School Britannia scheme was set up to encourage young people around the UK, Channel Islands and Gibraltar to write a poem about a “day in the life of their town, city or village”; creating a snapshot of people who come under the ‘British’ banner. Professional poets conducted workshops with schools from across the country to help the students translate their thoughts into poetry. From this we created an anthology of 50 poems.

POETRY AMBASSADORS: The National Poet for Wales- Ifor ap Glyn, Fellow for Royal Society of Literature- Sabrina Mahfouz Clare Potter, Emily Hinshelwood, Jane Mosse, Jackie Anderson, Steve Larkin, Dorothy Lehane, Rob Gee, Joe Kriss, Antosh Wojcik, Shelley Tracey, Colin McGuire, Pamela Beasant and Rody Gorman.

POETRY JUDGES: Sabrina Mahfouz, Aly Barr, Fay Lant and Casia Wiliam.

''The School Britannia project is part of Art 50, a scheme commissioned by Sky Arts to look at what it means to be British in the wake of Brexit.

The aim of School Britannia was to capture the voices of the youngest in our society. Their poems describing their experience of the places they live in – islands, villages, towns, cities, boarding schools, British territories – together give us a snapshot of Britain from these most candid and unguarded of our budding citizens. Amongst these 50 poems we find isolation and the warmth of a community; happiness and dejection; nostalgia and hope for the future.

We are immensely proud of the talent these children have demonstrated in conveying both the intimacy and sheer breadth of their worlds. We are very grateful to them for the way they have opened our eyes and a windows into their homes.''

Phil Edgar-Jones, Director of Sky Arts