Last term, (Fall 2011) the Saltus community came together to create a variety of poems that were recorded on card templates of their own hands.All 955 students contributed a poem, with the hands forming a huge chain that drilled home Saltus Grammar School’s theme of the year which is to have a “Connected Community”.Each student wrote a poem suitable to their level of ability. Even the foundation students were able to come up with some words that they were able to record with a helping hand!In this way the smallest students’ hands were connected to the largest ones in the school, including the large ones of the entire basketball team!A connected community essentially means that everyone who is involved in the Saltus community is connected in one way or another.Traditionally Saltus has been divided into three separate communities.There was the Cavendish infant school, the junior school, which is the middle, and senior School combined.However, a lot of projects like the hand poetry chain have brought these communities together this year, as well as bringing the school closer to the outside community.All 955 students in the school participated in the project.This pays real homage to the hard work from the students and the staff, to be able to create all of those hands and connect them together.They hope this project will really reflect the type of community to be found at Saltus, which is, of course, a very close-knit, connected one.“I think that this project really showed us how many students are in Saltus and that we are all alike in some way”, said Kyle McGhee, a SGY student.“I really like the older students poems, they were very good”, observed P3 student Katelyn Thompson.The children really enjoyed themselves. The teachers also enjoyed the experience.“The children thoroughly enjoyed seeing their handiwork become part of something quite memorable and possibly record-breaking,” noted George Morton, the senior school English teacher who organised the project.The students learned a lot about the others in the school by reading their poems and took a lot of pride from having their own poem in such a huge work of art.