Children's Laureate Joseph Coelho urges children to enter poetry competition

Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho is urging mums and dads to not only read poetry to their children but get them writing it too.

“Through reading poetry, children can discover the thoughts and feelings of others, helping to increase empathy,” he said.

“Through writing poetry children can have the experience of their words, their thoughts and feelings, having power, being valid and listened to.”

He’s teamed up with Govia Thameslink Railway to launch the Poetry in Motion competition.

The initiative is asking children aged between five and 13 years to write a short poem about somewhere they love to visit by train or think others should visit by train. Coelho is one of the competition judges.

The writer, who grew up in a single-parent family on a southwest London council estate, started creating poetry in sixth form after the Jamaican ‘dub poet’ Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze came to his school and “silenced my entire class” when she read one of her poems to them.

“I thought ‘I wanna do that’,” he said.

He has written more than 35 children’s books, including his first poetry collection Werewolf Club Rules and the Overheard in a Tower Block poems. He received the ultimate children’s writing accolade of being named Children’s Laureate.

“People often think kids won’t be into poetry, but in my experience, the key is to have the opportunity to find a poem and a poet they connect with.

“They get really excited about having a go,” he said. “If you allow children the opportunity to write, they can see themselves as writers.”

Winners of the children’s poetry competition will have their poems displayed on trains and at stations across the Govia Thameslink Railway network and receive complimentary return rail travel for themselves and four family members.

Details of the competition can be found at at https://www.thameslinkrailway.com/

The competition closes on May 10.