Year 6 - Focusing on William Blake

This week, Year 6 students have been learning about William Blake, the 18th Century poet and artist. One of the characters in Skellig is a great fan of Blake and shares many of his opinions. We wanted to find out more about this man and his work. Blake was born in 1757 and was a believer in God, angels and ghosts. He described himself, not as a poet, but as a craftsman. He feared that the scientific discoveries that were happening at this time would stop people believing in things that could not be proven. He was a great believer in letting the imagination run free, enjoying nature and being able to pursue interests freely. In the spirit of this, and as the weather has taken a turn for the better, we decided to have the lessons outside. Blake’s opinion of school was that it stifled children’s creativity and took all joy in learning from them. We read one of the poems, ‘The School Boy’ from Blake’s ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’ and wrote our own poems as a response to this. The Year 6 poems focused on all joys and advantages of school. We aim to decorate these poems in the style of William Blake in future lessons.