A poem written by a fourth-year student from Skye has been selected from entries across the UK, Channel Islands and Gibraltar to be animated as part of competition run by the TV channel Sky Arts.
The Sky Arts ‘School Britannia’ scheme asked children from around the UK, Channel Islands and Gibraltar what life is like where they live and Portree High School student Sara Oussaiden’s poem, ‘An t-Aodann Ban’ (Fair Hill Face), was chosen as the winning entry.
The poem by Sara, who lives in Edinbane, will be broadcast in the form of an animation by Katherine Hearst on Sky Arts tonight (Thursday) at 9pm and will be shown again on Sunday night at 10pm.
Portree High School English teacher Lisa Lamont said: “The opportunity came about for the school to enter the competition – which we pitched for and we were then chosen. We secured funding to run a workshop with the poet Rody Gorman, who helped inspire the pupils and got them thinking about their sense of place which formed the basis for the entry. “Sara is really interested in creative writing and is a very talented pupil.”
Earlier this month, Sarah was one of six writers from across Scotland selected for the ‘What’s Your Story?’ programme run by the Scottish Book Trust, which helps young people across Scotland to develop writing, illustration and performance projects.