The Children’s Poem Project

The Children’s Poem Project has been curated by The Land Gardeners with poet Laura Mucha and Georgina Webber with schools from The Elliot Foundation
Multi-Academy Trust:

Greenside Primary School - Shepherds Bush
Netherbrook Primary School - Dudley
Chandos Primary School - Birmingham
Kings Rise Academy - Birmingham
Billesley Primary School - Birmingham
Highlees Primary School - Peterborough

Laura Mucha wrote this poem for the exhibition, drawing on poems written and illustrated by children aged 5 and 11 from these schools.

Laura is an award winning poet and author (most recently winning Children’s Book of the Year: Non-Fiction (The Week Junior)). Laura loves working collaboratively with young people, and recently attempted the Guinness World Records title for Largest Poetry Lesson (multi venue) with tens of thousands of young people across the country.

"I loved studying these poems and illustrations – not only because of the love, care and creative skill that went into each of them, but also the knowledge and insight they shared. Thank you thank you thank you to all the poets and artists that made them!"

You Treat Me Like Dirt

but I’m the living, breathing

skin of the Earth.

I’m bursting with buried treasure –

bacteria, amoeba, mites and seeds,

fungi, worms and millepedes –

silent magicians

that excavate, aerate and create.

But they won’t work for free.

They need food

and love and care,

just like you and me.

So, take off your shoes.

Feel the crumbly chocolate cake

between your toes,

the life-giving,

carbon-collecting,

water-storing world

below your feet.

Don’t treat me like dirt.

Protect what lies beneath.

The work was gathered by Georgina Webber, who works with schoolchildren to deepen their knowledge and understanding of sustainability, food and nature, with the ultimate aim of building these into the national curriculum. One such project is based around soil, with 34 urban schools growing ‘Wildfarmed’ winter wheat in 'fields' linked to their science learning.

For further information visit https://elliotfoundation.co.uk/ and www.lauramucha.com