Congratulations to Fatema Zahra Mithwani

What a fantastic term for our incredibly talented Fatema Zahra Mithwani in Year 5. Fatema Zahra attended an art and creative writing workshop where the students created artwork and poetry inspired by their reflections on how God’s signs are represented in the natural world.

As a result, Fatema Zahra wrote a beautiful poem entitled ‘Awakening: The Wondrous Journey from Seed to Flower’, which reflects upon the journey of human beings, from birth and onwards towards achieving one’s full potential.

On 1 December, Fatema Zahra’s poem was awarded the winner of the Key Stage 2 Poetry category at the Young Muslim Writers Awards 2018! The awards ceremony was held at the iconic Senate House in London and was conducted in association with the Institute for Advanced English Studies at the University of London. Highlights of the ceremony included a special recognition award presented to the child survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire, who shared some powerful words on stage about what they have endured.

Fatema Zahra was presented with her award by Molly Rosenberg, Director of the Royal Society of Literature, who was also one of the judges along with Clare Currie, poet laureate for Peterborough, and acclaimed author Sumayya Lee. She proudly recited extracts from Awakening (follows) at the prestigious event along with a host of wonderful and inspiring speeches, readings and performances by Molly Rosenberg, Allie Essiri, Tim Robertson (former RSL Director and now Head of the Anne Frank Trust), Irfan Master and many other acclaimed writers, playwrights, poets and publishers.

The message of the event to all aspiring young writers is to keep writing and sharing their voices with the world – as words matter and representation is important, particularly in the polarised world we live in today.

Congratulations to Fatema Zahra Mithwani

In November, another one of Fatema Zahra’s poems, ‘The Artist’, was selected for publication in the ‘20 Years of the Poetry Zone Anthology’, by acclaimed and awardwinning children’s author and poet, Roger Stevens. Fatema Zahra was also invited to present ‘The Artist’ at the prestigious book launch in the beautifully appointed and newly opened CLPE – Centre for Literacy in Primary
Education – in London’s South Bank At this event, Fatema Zahra joined award-winning poets Roger Stevens, Sue Hardy- Dawson, Liz Brownlee, James Carter, Michaela Morgan, Laura Mucha, Joshua Siegel, Coral Rumble and John Agard. Her poem was so well received by the poets and guests that she was asked to autograph copies of the book!

Huge congratulations go to Fatema Zahra for these incredible literacy achievements, we are so very proud of you, keep up the amazing work!