Interesting Times!: PEACE POETRY CELEBRATION

Friday 26 November 2010

PEACE POETRY CELEBRATION

I was really sorry that I missed the 8th Peace Poetry Celebration at the Civic Hall last night but my colleague Rehana Minhas, Director for Equality and Entitlement, sent me this e-mail after last night's event...

"Dear Chris, Our 8th annual peace poetry celebration was a great success. Families turned up to support their children as well as Head teachers and teaching staff. Our chief judge was Rommi Smith. The Deputy Lord Mayor Cllr. Patrick Davey opened the event and stayed to make presentations to the winners and runners up and certificates to all who had been short listed. The New World Steel Symphony Orchestra provided wonderful musical entertainment. The partnership between Education Leeds, Leeds City Council, Yorkshire Evening Post, Together for Peace , Trinity and all Saints and Arts at Trinity has grown and been sustained bringing creativity and innovation to the fore.

The primary school winner was Jameel from Hunslet Moor Primary School, and the runners up were Bethany Pinder and Carla House also from Hunslet Moor. The secondary school winner was Charlie Sykes from Woodkirk High. The runners up were Joshua Brown from Abbey Grange and Whitney Downing from Woodkirk Hiigh The Yorkshire Evening Post will be providing coverage of the event.

We had a surprise guest at the event, Ed Balls M.P. who spoke to the audience and as ever was very enthusiastic about the Stephen Lawrence Education Standard. He asked about the progress we have made in rolling out the standard nationally. Getting Ed Balls to our event form his meeting at the Civic was the genius of the Deputy Lord Mayor. Kind regards, Rehana."

It is great to see that the Peace Poetry Competition continues to excite schools and produce some wonderful poetry. I hope that it will continue to grow and develop and encourage more of our children and young people to see themselves as young poets.
Chris

No comments:

Brilliant Quotes!

“I must accept life unconditionally. Most people ask for happiness on condition. Happiness can only be felt if you don't set any condition.”
Margaret Lee Runbeck

“Happiness is not in our circumstances but in ourselves. It is not something we see, like a rainbow, or feel, like the heat of a fire. Happiness is something we are.”
John B. Sheerin

“Most true happiness comes from one's inner life, from the disposition of the mind and soul. Admittedly, a good inner life is difficult to achieve, especially in these trying times. It takes reflection and contemplation and self-discipline.”
William L Shirer

“The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase: If you pursue happiness you'll never find it.”
C.P. Snow

“Doubly rich is the man still boyish enough to play, laugh and sing as he carries and emanates sunshine along a friendly road.”
Charles R. Wiers

"Faith is not a shelter against difficulties, but belief in the face of all contradictions."
Paul Tournier

"Convictions are the mainsprings of action, the driving powers of life. What a man lives are his convictions."
Francis C. Kelley

"To do anything in this world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger; but jump in, and scramble through as well as we can."
Sydney Smith

"It is often just as sacred to laugh as it is to pray"
Charles R. Swindoll

"Things never go so well that one should have no fear; and never so ill that one should have no hope"
Turkish proverb

"Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself"
Chinese proverb

"Don't bother to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself."
William Faulkner

"In times of change, learners will inherit the earth,while the learned will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists"
Eric Hoffer

"Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans."
John Lennon

"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation."
Robert F. Kennedy

"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems."
Mahatma Gandhi

"Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way."
Abraham Lincoln

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
Martin Luther King Jr.

"There is nothing in life so difficult that it cannot be overcome. This faith can move mountains. It can change people. It can change the world."
Norman Vincent Peale

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
Albert Einstein

"Life isn't measured by the number of breaths we take but the moments that take our breath away."
Anonymous

"Patience and perseverence have a magical affect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish."
John Quincy Adams

"Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and woman to win them."
Ralph Waldo Emerson