Monday 24th March and it's Stogumber and Crowcombe Schools turn to explore the Coleridge Way in Monksilver. The day started with a rather circuitous bus journey which avoided a single S bend, and took 30 mins rather than 10! Undaunted we quickly got the children on task with great support from Stogumber school.
We walked up an ancient Hollow Way which rises out of Monksilver and sits pretty much in the middle of the current Coleridge Way trail. (The extension to Lynmouth is well underway, and being sign posted as I write.) We collected words from the trail, what we saw, heard, smelt, felt etc, and these were scribed down by teachers and helpers alike. In fact we were so overwhelmed that our writing became frantic scribbles, keen to capture the pupils words.
"The wind was whistling silently in the trees whilst brushing past my face was the light fluffy breeze."
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| Descending down the Holloway track of the Coleridge Way |
"Waterfall flowing in me,
Waterfall flowing in you,
I can see it and you can too.
Cold, icy water upon your skin
It pricks you like a pointy pin,
I can feel it and you can too,
thats the waterfall flowing in you."
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| Treasure! |
We passed Monksilver 13th C Church which purports to have the oldest depiction of dentists in their Gargoyles, (which I neglected to photograph sorry! You'll just have to take a look yourself when walking the trail.)
"The wiggly roots knotted in a web of wonder."
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| At the foot of the trail in Monksilver |
Back in the classroom we worked on the art of writing our poetry, Mrs Mash along with teachers Mr Wedderkopp and Mrs Phillips drew on their educators acumen to draw some stunning work from the budding authors, many had no idea they could write poetry!
"Slimy, slow and sluggish slugs
Wow! this place is infested with bugs
But there's not just bugs, there's also decay
What hideous things I've seen today."
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| Back in the class with Mrs Mash leading the poetry workshop |
The next job is for me to transcribe the poetry, then render into QR codes for laser etching and installing along the trail (with full permissions of course). I would like to thank Stogumber for being so welcoming, and especially their pupils who rose to the task, it was a great day.
Laser etched QR code poetry should be in place early June, so keep your eyes peeled along the trail.
