​WORD - The Front Line is an inter-high school spoken word poetry competition, bringing together teams of young people from across Auckland to share their stories in an explosion of youth expression. It is a poetry slam with the purpose of engaging and growing the potential of our future leaders. It is the only creative battlefield of its kind, equipping young people with poetry prowess and leadership principles for an opportunity to battle for themselves and the challenges that their generation face. 

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About WORD - The Front Line

The programme was launched in 2014 and has continued to grow and go from strength to strength. Every year hundreds of young people from across Auckland participate in our regional heats.  

The programme focuses on writing, performance, team work, personal development, youth voice, identity, leadership, and community.

​WORD - The Front Line is a platform for young people to express themselves, connect with others, and discover how they can change the world.

You can find all the information about WORD - The Front Line including the programme overview, rules, dates, and venues in our information pack.

Please read through the information pack and rule book prior to registering your team. We are pleased to offer free presentations and workshops to all schools preparing for WORD - The Front Line regional heats. If you would like to book a presentation or workshop, or to find out more about Action Education and WORD - The Front Line, please get in touch! ​

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Information Pack 2024

Rule Book 2024

The WORD - The Front Line poetry competition has provided a competitive platform students to develop their poetry and grow as people. We have 'sent' students to participate each year since 2014, and the support, development and attention these students have received from the team [at Action Education] has been invaluable. Not only do they provide worthwhile experiences to help generate poetry from their like matter, but they also, vitally, provide mentoring to support teams through the difficulties of the challenge and to encourage them to embrace their vulnerability. Our Aorere teams have had superbly empathetic and driven mentors, and it is thanks to them that our students have been nurtured in terms of confidence, skill, and awareness. I am also thankful to the competition for exposing students to different varieties of poetry, for connecting students from different schools/deciles/worlds, and for providing a form for leaders to emerge. 
- Cris Cucerzan, English Teacher, Aorere College

Register your team

March 5 - Teacher's Information Night
May 14 - Regional #1 Central/NW
May 15 - Regional #2 South/East
May 21 - Regional #3 South/East
May 22 - Regional #4 Central/NW
June 15 - Rā Toikupu Day Camp 
August 3 & 4 - Slam Camp (Overnight)
August 17 - Semi-Final #1
August 24 - Semi-Final #2
September 21 - Grand Slam

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WORD - The Front Line engages participants in a way that is fun, educational, informative and inspiring. The goal of this programme is to simultaneously engage young people and the wider community. 

​We provide a series of workshops for qualifying schools leading up to the main event. The workshops facilitate young people to explore their creative ability and to develop their literary skills. The leadership principles built into the programme ensure participants take away personal life tools to support them in the future whatever their chosen path. From the young writers taking part, to their peers in the audience, we hope to encourage a love of language, communication, and engagement with literature.

The programme engages our community with spoken word poetry through the voices of our young people. To build stronger communities, we need to bridge the divide between generations, and communication is a key factor in this. WORD - The Front Line attracts the young and old to a stage where this powerful dialogue of connection begins. A stage where young people courageously confront their truth and share their journey in the creative expression of spoken word poetry.

This competition, the auditions and workshops are extremely well organised and run. They have inspired our students to continue developing their writing and presenting skills. 
- Mary-Anna Malpas, Teacher, Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate Senior School 

WORD - The Front line 2023 Grand Slam Champions

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