School celebrating success of literary student

Colton Hills Community School in Wolverhampton announced that one of its Year 9 pupil, Olga Suta, had been appointed Young Poet Laureate 2023 by Wolverhampton Council after winning a competition.

The theme for the competition, which was part of the 2023 Wolverhampton Literature Festival, was to create a poem of any style about the environment entitled “If the animals of the world could talk…”.

All the children who took part had to vote for their favourite entry by their peers and those with the most votes had to perform their poem for a panel of judges, with an overall winner named for each category of Young Poet Laureate and Primary Poet Champion.

Olga was eventually named Young Poet Laureate for 2023 and her poem will be published in an anthology.

Olga is an active member of numerous clubs and student bodies at Colton Hills, including Combined Cadets Force, Reading Ambassador and STEM club.

Councillor Jasbir Jaspal, Wolverhampton Council's Cabinet Member for Public Health and Wellbeing, said: "The Young Poet Laureate and Primary Poet Champion competitions give young people the chance to have their voices heard by thousands of people across the city.

"It was wonderful to see such creative young minds at work and I thoroughly enjoyed reading and hearing their poems.

"Well done everyone."

Acting Headteacher at Colton Hills Stephen Blower said: “We are delighted and extremely proud of Olga receiving this prestigious award from Wolverhampton Council.

"Olga’s involvement and dedication to school activities is very admirable and she is an excellent role model to her peers.

"No doubt, she will go on to achieving greater success and we look forward to supporting her in every way.”

Olga said: “I am very happy to have been chosen as this year’s Young Poet Laureate as I had to face fierce competition from other students.

"I am looking forward to seeing my work published and sharing it with my family and friends.”