Featuring great poems around this year’s theme, Refuge, our free resources are full of ways to get students reading, discussing, performing, and writing – no matter their confidence level. They’re ready to go as worksheets, or you can use them as prompts and thought starters for your class activities. They’re designed by cross-curriculum experts to be used in all sorts of subject lessons, with materials available all the way from KS1 to KS5. By engaging your classes with poetry, you’ll give them their own refuge to express themselves and think about the world around them differently.

Use this magnificent new lesson plan to spark off classroom discussion and inspire students to write their own poetry. It is written by poet Cheryl Moskowitz and features a huge variety of poems, all loosely related to the theme of stars. This lesson plan features a poem by Christina Rossetti.

Cut out the jellyfish and fill it with words or a poem. Hang them up with string to make a display. For National Poetry Day 2013 by Mandy Coe. Goes with the Handfish and Jellyfish lesson plan for KS1.

Discover the fantastic work done by Kate Clanchy and Oxford Spires using contemporary poems featured in The Forward Book of Poetry 2015, and bring the lessons to your own classroom.

National Poetry Day (October 3rd, 2019) is an annual celebration of poetry and all things poetical. It is about everybody sharing poetry, reading poetry, writing poetry and enjoying poetry. Use this pack of tips and activity ideas and join in the celebrations – not only on National Poetry Day itself but all year round. It’s full of activities schools can do (primary and secondary) and also contains book recommendations.

Everything Touches: a reading and performance activity KS2 For National Poetry Day 2013 by Mandy Coe Based on poems by Roger McGough and Wes Magee

A comprehensive poetry analysis lesson plan for KS2 English students that uses Joseph Coelho’s poem ‘Gingerbread Man’. The poem deals with issues around being teased or picked on at school, and includes useful links and resources on how to broach this subject sensitively in the classroom. Includes a copy of Joseph’s poem as well as links to more of his work and free teaching resources from CLPE.

A poetry writing resource using a brand new poem from Bardd Plant Cymru, Gruffudd Owen. Designed for KS3, this resource is also available in Welsh.

Take refuge in nature. Looking at what can be found outdoors to inspire ideas.

Take refuge in mental wellbeing. A poem focused on breathing and your own imagination.

Taking refuge in memories and building inner strength can help, during troubling times.

Explore the refugee experience with this resource about how it feels to find a new home.

Exploring the idea that hope is possible and positive in even the bleakest of situations.

Exploring injustice and contrasts of experience in times of war.

A resource focused on finding refuge in a place that is special to you.

A resource exploring how we can find refuge in the things we collect.

Take refuge with a resource about how picking up a pen can help us all let go.

A resource exploring the ways preconceptions can shape how we see the world.

A resource about building a place of refuge using kindness.

Flotsam, Jetsam and the Deeps: reading and writing activity for KS4. For National Poetry Day 2013 by Mandy Coe. Based on a poem by Michael Symmons Roberts