Toiletries in Hollesley

Coming off the back of my first session at Hollesley Primary School I was ushered into the next classroom at 9.50am to where a group of five and six year olds were sat on the floor gathered around a comfy empty chair. My chair. I don’t often work with Year 1 (probably twice before?) but I had no time for trepidation. They were ready for me.

The aim is to find out about the lives of Suffolk people across the ages and the places they live and what it all comprises of. A sort of list of essential ingredients. But to have fun too. ‘Is Hollesley made of chocolate and string?’ And soon they had their hands in the air with their own suggestions.

Like writing any poem, I love the way the words react with each other and suddenly start to come alive when you put them on the page, often accidentally. So as I was gently pressing and pushing for more words, the teacher was cajoling them along and writing the words on the whiteboard. As this was a young group, she wrote the words quite big, so that’s why we got them in groups of two by two, to fit them on the page. And I really like how that shaped the poem. We all made it together.

Are there snakes and lizards in Hollesley? Year 1 certainly seemed to know their reptiles, so although you probably can’t find any on the south-east corner of Suffolk, they are in their imagination and part of their lives and interests so I think they deserve a place in the poem.

Best and most surprising of all was ‘toiletries’. ‘Toiletries?’ the teacher and I both asked. The children laughed. The little girl tried again. ‘No, toiletries!’ We asked her to say it slowly. She did, but it still sounded the same. I wondered if she meant ‘toilet-trees, as in 'toilets for trees’. The children laughed again. Then the little boy next to her spoke up. ‘She’s saying concrete’ he said. Concrete? The little girl nodded, smiled and said it again. We laughed again. It still sounded like toiletries to the rest of us. So we put both words in...

OCTOBER POEM

Horned snakes and little apple trees

shop full of sweeties and one happy school

bus stops and foxes, conkers and concrete

houses and birds nests

bushes and long trees and squirrels

cats and growly dogs and toiletries

biting tortoises and squeaky mice

lizards that live in bushes

fast cars on the junction

Year 1, Hollesley Primary School

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