Winning school poems 2025: celebrating young poets by the sea
‘Life by the sea’
Judged by Alan Hollinghurst
Six schools took part in our 2025 poetry-writing competition for upper primary-school aged children and lower secondary pupils. Their work was judged by Alan Hollinghurst, who spoke at our Literature & Landscape festival in October.
North Norfolk is defined by the sea. Local school children were invited to write about it from a full range of perspectives – animal, human or that of an object, including the sea itself – and to bring their writing to life with sensory details. Some schools set aside time to take the children out into the landscape where they were encouraged to see, hear, feel and imagine.
Our judge
“One of the greatest writers of our time” (The Guardian)
Alan Hollinghurst is the author of seven celebrated novels, including the 2004 Man Booker Prize winner The Line of Beauty which was adapted into a television series in 2006. A fortnight after Alan appeared at our festival to discuss his latest book Our Evenings with John Mullan, a new theatrical production of The Line of Beauty started its sell-out run at The Almeida in London.
Perhaps less well known is the fact that Alan began his writing career as a poet, and won the Newdigate Prize for graduate poetry in his 20s.
Alan was knighted in 2025 for services to literature.
Please read on for the winning poems and Alan’s comments.
Our winners and their poems
Our winners each received a beautiful hardback collection of 366 poems and a national book token. £25 and £15 tokens went to runners up and those whose poems were highly commended.
The seniors
Poppy J, from Alderman Peel High School, was awarded a certificate, a copy of Allie Esiri’s collection A Poem for Every Night of the Year and a £25 book token for her winning poem in the senior category: ‘Secrets in the sea’.
Poppy J from Alderman Peel High School wins the senior poetry competitionPoppy’s winning poem
‘The winner’s poem is the one with the greatest focus and control, and with a number of striking images and ideas. But I enjoyed the range of tones throughout the submitted poems, from humorous (exemplified by Noah) to most serious (Jessica and Lexie), as well as the often inventive similes conjured up by writers such as Rosanna. It was a pleasure to read them all” – Alan Hollinghurst
Noah, Lexie, Rosanna and Jessica who were all highly commended, hold up their certificates alongside Poppy. Please read their poems below…
“The poems by Esmae, Will, and Theodore of Langham Village School stood out for their fresh perceptions and more interesting vocabulary: it was hard to decide between them, but I went in the end for Theodore’s “The Sea And More!”, for its rolling rhythms and inventive sound-effects, and its surprising last line.” – Alan Hollinghurst
Our two runners-up received £25 book tokens:
Esmae’s poem
Will’s poem
Five poems were highly commended in the junior category – Lillia’s from Blakeney CE VA Primary School and Laurel, Taia, Edie and Sophia from Wells-next-the-sea Primary School. All received certificates and £15 book tokens.
Lillia’s poem
Edie’s poem
Laurel’s poem
Sophia’s poem
Taia’s poem
It was very heartening to see so many children tackling this challenge, and exciting when they managed to see and describe something they all know well in fresh ways, and with imaginative imagery. I hope they will go on to combine these perceptions with other poetry-writing skills, such as rhyme and metre, to give the poems more shape. But every moment where they find a new way of seeing and saying something is to be celebrated! –Alan Hollinghurst
If you are a North Norfolk teacher or home educator and you are interested in entering the competition, please email us at info@literatureandlandscape.org and we will send you details in summer 2026
The two beautiful poetry collections were chosen and supplied by Keith at The Holt Bookshop
Literature & Landscape 