Laxey and Dhoon primary school pupils have been inspired to rewrite a famous poem to fit the Manx perspective of the pandemic.

The children, whose parents are key workers and so are being looked after, have been using their time in Onchan School to get creative while learning together.

Taking English poet Roger McGough’s poem The Sound Collector, they adapted the piece which tells the story of a stranger who puts sounds in a bag and carries them away.

Along with teachers Nicola Kerr and Bronwyn Ward, pupils Max and Chloe Meadows, Amalia Voss, Sam Smith and Ethan wrote about sounds that have been taken away due to lockdown measures.

Mrs Ward said the children had been speaking about how The Sound Collector was a metaphor for the current coronavirus situation: ’We were out in the playground and one of the boys mentioned how the sounds you could hear now differ from those before.

’For instance with no traffic you could hear the birdsong more clearly.

’They spent time gathering different sounds and spoke about it with their parents when they were at home before writing their new version of the poem. They really wanted to highlight the positive aspects of the Manx community.’