The pupils in Year 8 were set the challenge of interpreting a prose extract from Madhur Jaffrey's 'A Taste of India' and then representing their analysis in poetic form. In addition, they were expected to include a semantic field that reflected the extracts’s key theme.

Instead of writing on paper, the pupils were freed from constraint and asked to compose their work across the tabletops!

The results far exceeded expectations and some of the lovely work can be enjoyed below:

The Hidden Garden

Bunches of orange, sunny vines,
Tenacious-glowing mango trees,
Nutmeg fruits with miniscule seeds,
Huddle together ‘round sweet, aromatic trees,
Tangled garden, the cool, dark earth,  Meander vines hug the mother bush protecting embryo grapes, growing silently.
Houses hide under towering trees, Untouched. The kitchen garden sleeps.

By Samara Chandok and James Koch

Indian Bloom

Cinamon, clove and Tamarind trees,
Arching, swaying coconut palm
Sweet aromatic kitchen
Mango trees in bright green clusters
Asian herb garden
Sweetly aromatic curry leaf tree
Hugging its mother bush,
Nutmeg fruits
Like tennis balls
Angling towards the cool, dark earth.

By Marius Fontanet Escera

Imprisoned in Nature

Houses often disappear,
Entirely within their verdant,
Sending fingers of their tuberous rhizomes.
Black pepper vines clamber tenaciously up flowering trees.
Nutmeg fruit hangs like footballs
Like bunches of embryo grapes,
Forest-like foliage,
Together in bright, green clusters. Cinamon, clove and Tamarind trees infuse the cool dark earth.

By Pau Guitart Amoros