National Poetry Day is one of our favourite days of the year – and the 2017 theme of “Freedom” chimes perfectly with our approach of introducing children and young people to poetic structures that actually give them more freedom, more stimuli and more motivation to write.
Our popular workshops include Performance Poetry, SoundScape Poetry, Personification Poetry and The Poetry of Shakespeare – and we’re able to tie our workshops into any theme of your choice. Since we launched our National Poetry Day workshops in 2015, they have been enjoyed by thousands of participants in both primary and secondary schools – producing and sharing reams of amazing verse.
Pupils at Immanuel and St Andrews Primary used poetry to explore World War I in 2015 – and last year to celebrate Black History Month. At Windsor Primary, Forestdale, Bruche, Blessed Dominic and Roose, children and teachers both experienced at first hand the power of SoundScape Poetry. While pupils created their own Personification Poems at St Agnes, Blacklow Brow and St Theresa’s. Cherry Dale Primary celebrated their whole-school theme of “Autumn” through poetry – whilst Highgate School and Rickleton Primary took “Nature” And “Space” as their respective themes. Our Lady of the Visitation thoroughly enjoyed their experience of Performance Poetry – as did pupils at The Albion School. Year 6 at Thomas’s Day School spent the whole day exploring the poetry behind “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, whilst Year 11 at The Howard School came to grips with the rather more graphic verse of “Macbeth”. And, over two days, the whole of KS3 at Ernest Bevin College investigated a whole panoply of poetic forms – including the comically curious clerihew.