A TV film crew was in Burnham-On-Sea on Thursday (February 13th) to record a special BBC Breakfast feature about a local English school teacher’s initiative to use poetry to help local people gain confidence and boost creativity.
Burnham-On-Sea.com recently featured here how Becky Dalziel from King Alfred School Academy has taken part in the Poetry By Heart 2019-20 competition, which is underway in schools and communities involved across England.
The BBC’s filming of locals reciting poetry took place at King Alfred School, Burnham’s Princess Theatre, St Andrew’s Church, the RNLI lifeboat station, and the seafront during the day and included the Mayor Cllr Andy Brewer.
Becky explains: “Poetry by Heart is a national competition from the poetry society to encourage children to learn and love poetry. To inspire our pupils, we set up a Facebook group and asked residents to post videos of themselves reciting poetry and parents, teachers and local people have really risen to the challenge.”
“BBC Breakfast were so excited by how our towns are supporting the school that they came to film our brilliant pupil entries and the local people our children look up to.”
Mayor Cllr Andy Brewer told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “It’s been great to see such a variety of people from Burnham and Highbridge getting involved with Poetry by Heart through the encouragement of Becky at King Alfred’s School.”
“Having the interest from BBC Breakfast should be a real encouragement to us and help to raise the profile of Burnham-On-Sea.”
“Whilst I’m more of a technical person, I’ve been really pleased to support this initiative within the community as there are benefits for all of us, ranging from helping school pupils to develop an appreciation of literature and the arts to helping older members of the community who have memory difficulties. I’ve also learned that poetry can be fun!”
“I would like to express my sincere thanks to all our residents who got involved with Poetry by Heart and especially to the pupils and staff at King Alfred’s School who put so much into making this a notable event for our community.”
The feature is expected to air on BBC1’s BBC Breakfast show this Saturday or Sunday.
