Beyond the School Gate

"Kate Young's compassionate, finely crafted poems do for the primary school what Hannah Lowe's award-winning 'The Kids' did for the secondary school. Like Lowe she opens the classroom door to introduce us to fictional, yet authentic, depictions of pupils in a class. Meet the young carer, the neglected, the boy in care, the child with learning difficulties. Each offers a challenge to a teacher operating in an educational system that sees children as 'data' and delivers the imperative to 'close the gap'. Yet Young's poems treat each individual with great empathy, understanding and respect, never failing to find 'the lustre in the centre of each one' and to remind us of the duty we all owe to our children to help them to make the most of their life chances. If only all teachers had such poetry in their soul!"

"As a former primary teacher who has only recently retired, Kate Young does not look at education through rose-tinted lenses; neither is she cynical. Far less concerned about curriculum's formalities than with expressions of compassion so crucial to children's development, Kate unflinchingly explores the anguish of some of the young lives she has quietly influenced over past decades. Her poetic voice emerges clear, unblinkered, warm; she employs her skills as a poet in language unfreighted with propaganda or political point-scoring: rather, her work is sensitive, nudging readers to think more deeply about those times supposedly "the best days of our lives"-but too often nothing of the sort."