National Poetry Day
Resource type: Event
Price band: Free
Key stage: KS1, KS2, KS3, KS4, KS5, Adult
Region(s): All of UK
This nationwide annual celebration of poetry takes place on the first Thursday of October, which in 2024 falls on October 3rd. Each year, National Poetry Day has a different theme and the theme for 2024 is Counting.
The National Poetry Day website provides a range of free resources to support schools. Resources for National Poetry Day 2024 include:
- A chance to join poet Laura Mucha in a world-record breaking poetry project. Find out more in our blog.
- Themed teaching resources designed to get all pupils in KS1 – KS5 reading, discussing, performing, and writing poetry.
- Curated selections of new and exciting poetry for Children (0-8), Young Readers (8-14) and Book Groups (adult).
Cost: Resources are free with registration.
About the Forward Arts Foundation: National Poetry Day is organised by the Forward Arts Foundation, a charity committed to promoting public knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of poetry in the UK and Ireland. Other programmes include the Forward Prizes for Poetry and the annual anthology of the year’s best poems, the Forward Book of Poetry.
Further resources:
- Explore the range of National Poetry Day teaching sequences from the National Literacy Trust for pupils aged 5-7, 7-11 and 11-14. The resources are based on the poems written by the first-ever West Yorkshire Young Poet Laureate winners and are free to download with the NLT’s free membership.
- Explore the library of Poetry Prompts created by former Waterstones Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho. The bitesize videos are designed to celebrate and demystify the reading and writing of poetry.
- Sign up for this year’s Poetry By Heart Competition, an annual poetry speaking competition for pupils in KS2 – KS5 in England that launches on National Poetry Day.
- Submit entries to one of the poetry competitions from Young Writers. There are competitions for pupils aged 5-18 and they all come with free teaching resources. The deadline for entries is 25th October.
- Explore Michael Rosen’s YouTube channel to find performance videos of your favourite Michael Rosen poems. You can also find Michael’s tips on how to create a Poetry Friendly Classroom here.
- Invite a poet into school to inspire and work with your pupils with the Poetry Society’s Poets in Schools service.
- Young poets can submit their own poems to be published on the Poetry Zone website.
- Find top poetry book recommendations for primary schools in this blog from Just Imagine.
- Find inspiration and evidence-based approaches to help embed poetry in the classroom in the free Poetry in Primary Schools: What We Know Works publication from CLPE and explore the comprehensive bank of supporting resources available as part of the National Poetry Centre for Primary Schools.
- Explore the range of Poetry Resources for primary and secondary teachers on the BBC Teach website.
- Get free access to the special poetry editions of Teaching English and Primary Matters on the National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE) poetry portal.
- Find more resources to support the teaching of poetry here.
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