The theme for House Poetry 2026 was Dreams and house points were awarded for shortlisted poems, runners up and winners.
It was fantastic to see such a variety of poems on the shortlist, representing a range of creative interpretations on the theme from insomnia, nightmares to weird, funny and fantastical narratives. The final winners were selected by local poet Juliette Hart, who commented on the exceptional standard, particularly where poems had been refined and redrafted to achieve excellence. The standout poems were noteworthy for their use of striking and original imagery and the strong sense of personal voice that they created.
Austen Bartlett won the overall competition, followed by Inglis and Garrett Anderson.
Read the poems below from the Junior and Senior winners.
Junior Winner: Ariyana (Year 7)
Dreams
Do dreams send you to a mystical land?
Or maybe a house of horrors…
Everything is laid out for you,
There’s only one ingredient left.
Is it a spoon full of love? Potentially!
Could it be a drop of darkness? Who knows?
Maybe it is a sense of humour? Maybe.
Only one knows…
The mystical being in your dreams comes alive,
With wings and elf ears; tall and skinny,
With ultimate ability, soaring from princess problem to a
happily ever after.
Is she the girl of your dreams?
She’s mid leap when it all vanishes,
And her wings poof away,
Her elf ears shrink and curve into the groove.
Morning daylight spears through the curtains,
And you realise,
Magical fairies don’t just appear, they are there for a
reason,
So as you step down into your royal slippers,
It’s just you and your imagination.
Senior Winner: Viktoria (Year 11)
Museum of Myself
I step into the museum of myself
Where childhood dreams hang from the ceiling –
Stripped of their colour,
Yet still humming with joy.
Their shadows shift as I move,
Hesitating.
The corridor narrows,
Expectations press closer,
Ambition tightening the air.
A mannequin wears a future I never chose –
Its shoulders too broad for mine.
I linger, noting the blank plaque beside it.
At the end, a room opens,
Alive with whispers of nostalgia:
The floor sticky with glitter,
Muddy wellies lying scattered by the door,
Crayon scribbles across old drawings,
Rosy cheeks smiling up from every photograph.
I step carefully through the echoes of laughter,
Tracing the ghosts of joy I had almost forgotten,
Reclaiming the dreams that will stitch together the life I
always dreamed of.
I leave the museum relieved.
The doors click behind me,
And outside the world stretches wide.