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Record Breaking Poetry

Making a record breaking attempt to write the world's longest poem, the words just keep flowing for four students from Southbank Hampstead.

Lola, Noah, Iria and Louise have already passed the required 3500 words and are still going, with the poem now longer than the length of the classroom! They are building the poem up gradually taking it in turns to write a line and contribute.

The poem is aptly titled "Everything Poem", and is a fully rhyming nonsense poem. To get things started the students wrote down all the rhyming words they could think of and it has gone on from there, now covering more than 21 pages.

Principal Helen O'Donoghue said: "The Primary Years Programme encourages students to take action from their learning and the students have illustrated this extremely well. It is great to see students taking responsibility for their learning and enjoying it as they go." 

The inspiration behind this attempt came from the students themselves; after being introduced to a 13-page poem by Alan Ahlberg, Iria asked what the longest poem in the world was. The class then did some research to find the answer but after looking at the Guinness World Records website they found that there is no such a record. It was then that the group decided to go ahead and write their own record breaking poem.

The only guidance given to the students from their teacher was information about how to go about making an official record breaking attempt. The students then contacted Guinness World Records who gave them all the information they needed. The poem has already beaten the target of 3500 words set by Guinness World Records but the students are carrying on to ensure that it is not going to be easily beaten. They will aim to complete the poem before April in order to submit their effort for the official 2010 World Records.

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