Is poetry an important feature of life in your school?
Does it support and enrich the creative curriculum?
Do pupils write it eagerly and read it with enjoyment?
Do teachers approach it with confidence and enthusiasm?

Poetryclass is the solution for teachers wanting to bring poetry alive in the classroom. Our online poetry classroom and unique inset training provides teachers with a 'nuts and bolts' insight into how poetry works. A training team of poets, all of whom are highly experienced with work in schools and have between them hundreds of tried and tested ideas, is available to work with teachers to overcome their problems and concerns with teaching poetry. 

The Poetry Society has a long and successful history of education work. We find that working with poetry is not only a creative end in itself but also a powerful tool for raising standards in literacy and developing language skills.  It frequently releases untapped potential amongst students who are not confident in traditional narrative or essay writing.  It also offers exciting challenges to targeed groups of students and through subject areas across the curriculum.

NEWS

In Ofsted's 'Poetry in Schools' report, they note that "poetry has not been a national priority for training in recent years".

Two teacher training providers, Roehampton University and Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln, have confirmed their commitment to working with the Poetry Society from 2010-2012 in order to develop specialised poetry sessions in partnership with poet-educators.

The pilot scheme aims to develop tailored poetry sessions and materials to be introduced into primary teacher training courses in order to encourage working directly with poet-educators to develop course content, and to promote cross-curricular poetry study. The hope is that, by having long term contact with professional poets, primary teachers will have the opportunity to widen their knowledge, confidence and enjoyment of poetry in their initial stage training to energise their subsequent teaching of poetry in schools.

It is hoped that the pilot scheme will produce a model that can be replicated in all teacher training providers across the country.

The Poetry Society are hugely grateful for the support of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

THE ECOPOETRY STUDY PACKS by MARIO PETRUCCI

Resources for Poetry Lessons & Creative Writing, KS4/5+

DOWNLOAD Poetry : The Environment (PDF 185KB)

DOWNLOAD Biomimicry : Poetry (PDF 118KB)

DOWNLOAD The Green Poetry Pack (PDF 272KB)

Developed by award-winning poet, ecologist and educator Mario Petrucci, these Environment-centred resource packs are designed for schools, young adults and poets. The resource comes at a time when issues of Ecology and the Environment are coming to the fore throughout education, recreation and business. Increasingly, writers and educators will need to grapple with core Environmental issues, both on and off the curriculum, through personal creativity as well as in the classroom.

Poetryclass is a wonderful initiative, designed to give insight to students, encouragement to teachers, and illumination to all those who want to make poetry part of their lives."  Andrew Motion