KEIGHLEY primary school children took a trip to University Academy Keighley (UAK) for a special event designed to improve spoken language skills.

The pupils from year six of Eastwood Community Primary School were at UAK on November 7 for workshops led by performance poet Imran Hafeez.

Mr Hafeez has been working with the academy via the Literacy Trust’s Bradford Literacy Hub.

He first led the Eastwood children in an energising vocal exercise to get their brains active, before the youngsters went on to learn a quick tongue twister poem.

The pupils composed a group poem through a process of thinking about keywords such as friendship, identity and aspiration.

These sessions ultimately led to the youngsters performing their own poems in front of each other.

UAK spokesman Shirley Cooke, said: “The students clearly had fun learning the tongue twister and some of the thoughts they brought to the group poem about identity and aspiration were really quite profound.

"You could see their confidence growing throughout the session, so by the end they were happily reciting poems to each other and the group."