Jez Walsh will be visiting Turnshaws School in Kirkburton over the next few weeks to encourage pupils there, and from nearby Shelley High School, to produce poetry. He starts by asking them to write a little bit about themselves in a rap, if they feel they can.

He is hopeful that by the end of May the children will have written enough to fill a book: "I think they are working absolutely brilliantly, far better than I was expecting. The pupils are actually getting in there and mixing and writing together which is brilliant."

Click below to hear more about the poetry book being written by students at Turnshaws and Shelley High schools. Poetry Book (28k)

The students at Turnshaws have profound learning difficulties so the range of the abilities of the budding poets is wide.

Turnshaws teacher Jane Sobanski says the whole of her class can join in: "It's nice to mix with the Shelley students because a lot of the (Turnshaws) students don't speak but they can experience poetry and really enjoy it, and we have done quite a lot of poetry in the past. You know, we go outside and find words and listen to things so it's great to have the mixture."

Nick, 15, from Shelley High, says he has enjoyed working with Jez and the Turnshaws students: "I thought it might be quite serious but it is great fun."

Shelley teacher Ailsa Campbell talks about the first day's work: "I thought the students mixed very well. They were very comfortable and they also got some work done as well. I think they also learned poetry-writing skills so, really, what they learned from today was two-fold - social skills and poetry writing skills."

We hope to bring you more about the poetry book very shortly.