Description of activities
Participating schools in France:
Over a dozen schools of the French ASPnet participated in the 2025 “Gift a Poem” campaign, which has been gaining traction every year and become a landmark project the schools look forward to as a way to celebrate World Poetry Day on March 21st each Spring.
For this third year participating in the Gift a Poem campaign, French ASPnet schools participating in the project further strived to include their entire schools and foster connection between students as well as with school personnel and members of their larger community. Considering the renewed success of the campaign, most schools are looking forward to the fourth edition in 2026.
French ASPnet is delighted to present some examples of from schools who sent in the details of their campaigns to share with the international community:
**Clinique MEdicale et PEdagogique “Les Cadrans Solaires”, Vence (06)** “Les Cadrans Solaires” is a Medical and Educational Center for Children and Adolescents. Under the supervision of the elementary school teacher Mrs. Guigonnet, Primary, 6th and 5th graders wrote and illustrated Acrostiches on the theme of “Oceans” in line with the school’s year-long cross-curricular multidisciplinary project (the upcoming 2025 UN Ocean Conference is taking place in nearby Nice). Following the creative work on poetry, the teacher, students and the clinic’s choir (made up of the art therapists and students) visited the residents of a close by retirement home, “La Vençoise”, on the afternoon of March 21st. The students read their poems to the residents, and the choir performed several songs, before all sharing a snack together. This intergenerational encounter was such a success for both the students and the residents, who all appreciated the initiative, that the clinic and the retirement home have already planned a similar event for the end of this school year.
**COLLEGE APPEL DU 18 JUIN, LE LAMENTIN, GUADELOUPE (971)** For this campaign, the members of the UNESCO students club, led by ASPnet focal point Jacqueline Duflo, decided to widen the scope of their campaign. The school planned, with the city of Lamentin, to have students from the school visit various administrative departments of the city as well as elementary schools to perform slam poetry they had written on the theme of the sea and pollution to bring together both the celebration of the International Day of Poetry as well as the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development in prevision of France hosting the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference. They performed for the opening of artist Laurence Roussas’ “Hello birdy” show ahead of March 21st, when they then visited 8 public services (the movie theater, the school administration, city hall, an annex of city hall, a public services department, the local music school, the administrative department of the city, and finally the local library) where they met and discussed with city employees before sharing their poetic message in favor of protecting the Ocean.
**COLLEGE LEONARD DE VINCI AEP95, Herblay (95)** Léonard de Vinci AEP95 took part in the campaign with its 1st year middle-school classes and the first three years of their elementary-school students. As they had done the previous year, the teachers first incorporated poetry-related activities into the curriculum to prepare their students for the campaign. They worked on poetry in class, discussed rhymes and how to play with sounds, as well as read some famous poems. Students were then able to give free rein to their imaginations, and produced from a few verses for some to several stanzas for others, all decorated with beautiful illustrations. While the aim was for students to give the poem to any person of their choice, all students unanimously chose the town’s retirement home to share a special moment with the residents. This year, the 6eme class and primary classes also shared the Gift a Poem campaign in May, at “Les Jardins Sémiramis” retirement home in Herblay.
*Collège Saint-Exupéry, Saint-Jean-de-Braye, Orléans-Tours (45) ** Throughout its middle-school classes, the students celebrated a full poetry week organized by ASPnet focal point Sandrine Aussour. Students read poems during each break between classes, and formed “poetic brigades” in each class. They then further reinvested the poetry work during a regional ESD student representatives meetings.
**ECOLE DES ROCHES, Verneuil-sur-Avre (27)** For the third year in a row, the students took part in the “Gift a poem” campaign in several classes. A class of high school students customized poems to share with their loved-ones, while another group made poems for the retirement home near the school, that they visit regularly and where they had already gifted poems last year, as well as to a city-center for disabled adults in their city.
*Ensemble scolaire François Gondin, Chabeuil (26) ** Under the supervision of ASPnet focal point Emilie Moyroud, 3 groups of 5e middle-school students decorated A5 sheets of paper with poems and quotations, creating one sheet of poetry for each of the 85 participating students. Some titles were invented by students, such as “light in darkness”, and others quoted from famous authors such as Emile Zola. Each student was then invited to express their creativity through illustrating their poetry sheet in according to their preferences.
**Lycée Jeanne d’Arc, Nancy (54)** The high-school participated with three classes in 2nde. The school librarian-teacher coordinated the project and the students picked poems themselves in poetry books from the school library, on the theme of the following year’s literature school curriculum : “creative emancipation”. Most of the poems were offered to classmates within the group, but sometimes teachers were tasked as messengers to pass on poems to students in other divisions. All teachers and students expressed a high level of satisfaction at participating the project and are looking forward to repeating the campaign next year, and integrating it into the official curriculum.
**Lycée Louis Massignon, Abu Dhabi (AEFE, Emirats Arabes Unis)** The entire educational community of the Lycée Louis Massignon middle-school and high-school, rallied on March 21st. During French classes, students explored the great classics of poetry, but also wrote their own texts, playing with words, sounds and images. They also put poetry all over the school grounds, such as on the stairway steps. 6th Grade students visited Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City (SSMC) to share poems, smiles, and flowers, to bring comfort and joy to the patients through heartfelt words and simple gestures. Finally, in music classes, some poems were set to song, revealing the intrinsic musicality of the verses. In visual arts, students created calligrams and poetic illustrations, giving a visual dimension to their literary creations. In English and Arabic, the teachers read the poems and laid them out on the page. Teachers and students appreciated the cross-fertilization between disciplines encouraged by the “Gift a Poem” camapaign and plan on making it a yearly event.
**Lycée d’enseignement agricole Sainte-Marie, aire sur la lys, (62)** Students in their second year of vocational training in Human Services took part in the “Gift a poem” initiative with the aim of sharing a special moment with loved ones or people in need. In that perspective, the students shared the Campaign with the residents of the Aire-sur-la-Lys retirement home, a partner in their training. The home’s entretainment department enthusiastically welcomed the proposal to read poems, chosen and written by the students, before a friendly intergenerational exchange. The smiles and shared bursts of laughter perfectly illustrated for all how poetry can bring people of all ages closer together.
Schools involved
- Clinique Médicale et Pédagogique “Les Cadrans Solaires”, Vence (06 France),
- Collège Appel du 18 juin, Le Lamentin (971 Guadeloupe, France),
- Collège Léonard de Vinci AEP95, Herblay (95, France),
- Collège Saint-Exupéry, Saint-Jean-de-Braye (45, France),
- École des Roches, Verneuil-sur-Avre (27, France),
- Ensemble scolaire François Gondin, Chabeuil (26, France),
- Lycée Jeanne d’Arc, Nancy (54, France),
- Lycée Louis Massignon, Abu Dhabi (AEFE, Emirats Arabes Unis),
- Lycée d’enseignement agricole Sainte Marie, Aire-sur-la-Lys (62, France).
