A guide to exploring the meaning behind words and finding connections to inspire writing. For Key Stages 3-4 and featuring ‘Semantics’ by Keisha Thompson.

This guide offers practical steps to utilise Poetry By Heart’s vast online collections to enjoy this National Poetry Day challenge on your own or with friends. For Key Stages 3-5 and featuring ‘We Wear the Mask’ by Paul Dunbar.

There are lots of ways to celebrate poetry on National Poetry Day, or any day of the year. Take a look at our bank of resources to get your class started on their poetry day and to celebrate with us!

A classroom activity for KS2 students based on Richard O’Brien’s poem ‘Iguanadon’t’. Designed to teach students to experiment with wordplay and repetition, to find different ways to tell a story through poetry. The Emma Press encourage you to send the students work through to them to take a look. Resource include Richard O’Brien’s poem.

This exercise encourages KS3 students to be open and draw on personal experiences which can help to produce powerful pieces of writing. Featuring First Story Young Writer, Shakur Grant’s poem ‘Injustice’.

Activities for KS4 students based on Foyle Young Poet of the Year 2015 Award winner Andrew Telford’s poem ‘6 Ways to Look at The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. Encouraging inventive ways of thinking through poetry analysis and group work. Includes Telford’s poem and extension activity for keen and curious learners.

A guide to encouraging reading poetry aloud as a means to inspire Vision, using photography and tips from poet Glyn Maxwell’s handbook On Poetry (Oberon Books). This resource also features a poem by Charles E. Carryl and is adaptable for all key stages.

A guide to using your dreams to write a poem, created by poet Rachel Long for Apples and Snakes. This detailed guide is designed for KS3/4/5 and includes a poem from My Darling from the Lions (Picador), which is shortlisted for the 2020 Forward Prize for Best First Collection.

A guide to using poetry – based on your name – to create a deeper, more poetic expression of who you truly are. Designed for KS3/4, this guide explores how to use etymology to inspire your student’s writing. Featuring Lucy Webb’s poem ‘Etymology’ from 20:20 Vision: An Anthology by the First Story Group at Saint Gabriel’s College, London.

What does it mean to be a visionary poet? This guide, featuring a poem from American poet Terrance Hayes (with video link), encourages students to try for themselves. Designed for KS4/5, this guide explores a variety of language techniques and includes nods to Greek mythology and Black American literary history.

Use this surreal guessing-game to tease your students into poetry. Designed for KS3/4, this resource invites you to be playful with stories created from everyday things. Featuring the poem ‘Diamonds’ by Evelyn Byrne, commended in the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2019.