Pupils in Year 6 were introduced to the poem The Highwayman written by the English poet, Alfred Noyes in 1904. The narrative tells the story about a nameless highwayman in love with an innkeeper’s daughter.

Combining figurative language, such as metaphors and onomatopoeia, the ballad embraces Noyes love of Romanticism, ballad-like simplicity and skilful use of language.

The illustrations in The Highwayman book are drawn by the artist Charles Keeping, who creatively makes the written words come to life. Inspired by Keeping’s emotive, expressive pen and ink drawings, the children used black pen to create their Highwayman mood boards.

Their arty English mood boards visualise The Highwayman poem with drawings of characters, story outline and examples of figurative language, along with stretching their knowledge to include facts about Alfred Noyes and Charles Keeping, the creative poet and artist.