POET Laureate Andrew Motion spent a day with Wirral schoolchildren as part of a creative writing event.

Oldershaw School headteacher Steven Peach welcomed Mr Motion to the Wallasey comprehensive as an exciting section of the National Association of Writers in Education Creative Poetry Project.

Oxford-educated Mr Motion, who wants to support “poetry for the people”, said: “It is a privilege to be invited to a school like Oldershaw which places such importance on creativity and poetry.” The pupils, along with gifted and talented Year 6 children from Liscard, Park and New Brighton Primary Schools, were thrilled to be able to take part in a Poetry Master Class with Mr Motion. They were asked to complete a poem beginning: “I dream of being...”

Ideas ranged from a set of curtains, a banana - Mr Motion’s idea - and more down to earth subjects such as a doctor, painter and footballer. Mr Peach said: “The quality of the work produced in less than an hour by the children was stunning.

“We shall be using it to create an anthology to commemorate the visit of the Poet Laureate.”

He said pupils were then “thrilled” when Mr Motion agreed to write an introduction to the anthology and the first line of the group poem.

He spoke before the children began work about his creativity, writing and influences and encouraged them to write from real life experiences, not to explain everything, and to leave the reader to come to their own conclusions.

He advised the aspiring poets to “be mysterious, simple and unpretentious”.

And the final piece of advice from the Queen’s appointed poet was almost poetry in itself: “The best poems are those which speak to us of the important things in life, in a way that we will never forget.”