A DREADLOCKED poet encouraged Millom School pupils to get their creative juices flowing by reworking well-known poems and performing them in front of their friends.

Birmingham's former poet laureate Richard Grant, who is more commonly known as Dreadlock Alien, visited the school on Monday January 16 to hold a workshop with Year 10 English pupils.

Since September, more than 80 youngsters have been studying for their English GCSE by reading an anthology of poems set by the WJCE exam board.

The texts cover a range of topics including war, love, relationships and many more and Dreadlock Alien galvanised the pupils into rewriting the poems based on their own life experiences.

Nicola Ashton, an English teacher at Millom School, said: "We wanted to breathe new life into these poems and that is what was he was able to bring to the table.

"He inspired kids to get up and deliver poetry and managed to get everyone to write their own individual poems.

"We wanted to develop the kids' cultural capital and give them things they don't normally get chance to do and I think we achieved that through the workshop."

Dreadlock Alien, who is of Caribbean origin, was booked by the school last year and after a successful workshop staff were keen to rehire him to influence this year's crop of pupils.

Miss Ashton noted that many Year 11 youngsters who are sitting their GCSE English exam this summer were keen to see the famed poet back at the school and she hopes that his involvement can have a lasting impact on the children.

She said: "Some Year 11s who were taught by him for a similar workshop last year wanted to say hello which shows the impact he has had on pupils at this school.

"He managed to get them to stand in front of their peers and perform which is not something they would usually do but it showed that them that it wasn't as scary as they thought it would be."

"Kids do try and learn everything categorically whereas this reminded them that they can be creative when they write poetry.

"He was really good at getting the best out of them and we had some really positive feedback from the children.

"I think it showed them that there is more to the poems than just sitting there and revising them for an exam."