Useful contacts

Apples & Snakes - http://www.applesandsnakes.org/

Apples & Snakes promote performance poetry, support artists and provide poets to work in schools around London and offer training to teachers to develop their confidence and creativity in teaching poetry. Sessions can be tailored to suit the schools’ needs. Teachers’ resources can also be found on their website. Please contact Will on for more details.

Authors Abroad - http://www.authorsabroad.com

Authors Abroad provides school visits throughout the UK, using a hand-picked selection of leading UK Authors, Poets & Illustrators. From storytellers to rapping poets, literature walks, wacky illustrators, and high-flying author presentations, their mission is to provide the highest quality inspirational school visits to enhance and support the quality of education provided in school.

BBC Poetry - http://www.bbc.co.uk/poetryseason/

The BBC’s Poetry Season website, featuring voting for the nation’s favourite poet, poems searchable by topic, video and links to BBC Schools: Off By Heart, Poetry Please, as well as celebrities talking about their favourite poets.

BFI Education - http://www.bfi.org.uk/education

BFI Education promotes Press & Media literacy and often runs inset that links writing, media and literacy. It produces a range of resources and training packs for teachers and hosts conferences, seminars and workshops for learners of all ages.

Booktrust - http://www.booktrust.org.uk

Booktrust runs national gifting programmes, giving millions of free books to babies, children and teenagers every year. It also runs campaigns such as Children’s Book Week and the Children’s Laureate and administers a number of book prizes and awards that celebrate the best books for readers of all ages. The website is also a great resource for finding out about new books, reviews and competitions.

Bowes Museum - http://www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk

An internationally significant collection housed in a purpose-built 19th century building. The Bowes Museum has a CPD programme for teachers and an education programme for Key Stages 1 and 2.

Centre for Literacy in Primary Education - http://www.clpe.co.uk

The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education is an educational centre that provides training courses and consultancy for schools and teachers, teaching assistants, other educators, parents and families in London and nationally as well as classroom-based research and development and publications.

Children’s Discovery Centre - http://www.childrensdiscovery.org.uk

The ‘Children Discovering Books’ programme organises Childrens Writers, Storytellers, Poets and Illustrators to work in primary and secondary schools across all of England. For North, Midlands and SW England email ; for London and the South East email

Cumberland Pencil Museum - http://www.pencilmuseum.co.uk

The Cumberland Pencil Museum is a replica of the mine where graphite was first discovered 350 years ago. An ideal place to visit for a history and writing project as well as thinking about writing materials and implements. The museum welcomes educational visits.

Devon Arts in Schools Initiative (DAISI) - http://www.daisi.org.uk/

Exeter-based arts organisation that encourages creativity through the arts within the whole school community. DAISI arranges arts education projects for schools in Devon and Torbay. It also provides inset training and support, information and arts opportunities for both teachers and artists. DAISI also produces a termly newsletter with information about arts education opportunities in Devon and further afield. For more details please contact Emmy Astbury on

Discover - The Story Making Centre - http://www.discover.org.uk

Discover is the UK’s first hands-on centre focusing exclusively on creativity through projects, exhibits and activities exploring words, language and imagination. Children can dress up, explore a secret cave, put on a puppet show, visit a pirate ship, take part in an art activity and delve into Discover’s exhibitions. The centre features a story garden and story trail that children can follow and create and submit their own stories.

Electronic Poetry Center - http://epc.buffalo.edu/

This website houses a huge free resource for E-poetry - language and poetics that exploit and work with digital media such as Flash and hypertext as well as artists working with text, poets working with installation, projects responding to landscape, book arts and much more. Although based in the US, this website is just as relevant to UK teachers, artists and practitioners.

Falmouth Art Gallery - http://www.falmouthartgallery.com

Falmouth Art Gallery’s website features downloadable worksheets for teachers and resources accompanying the gallery’s exhibition. The gallery is family friendly for visits.

Fashion Museum - http://www.museumofcostume.co.uk

The Fashion Museum is a world-class collection of historical and contemporary dress which could be used as inspiration for children writing and creating a fashion magazine or blog or researching costumes for a class-devised play.

Ferens Art Gallery

Ferens Art Gallery contains paintings and sculptures and provides family resource packs to engage children wit the artworks. There is a regular programme of events, guided tours and changing exhibitions as well as a special dedicated children’s gallery for schools’ visits – a ‘gallery within a gallery’ aimed at children aged 6 to 10.

Visit the website

If:book - http://www.bookfutures.blogspot.com/

If:book is dedicated to exploring the future of the book as our culture moves from printed page to networked screen, and the potential of new media for creative readers and writers. There are lots of interesting links to digital writing projects.

Kernow Education Arts Partnership - http://www.keap.org.uk

Cornwall-based arts education partnership working with schools and the wider community. It aims to provide support to teachers and creative practitioners and advises schools on working with artists of all disciplines; and supports artists and arts organisations in developing their education work. The website contains regularly updates opportunity listings and case studies of local arts projects. They also provide training for teachers. Contact Jemima Taylor at for more details.

Kielder Water and Forest Park, Northumberland

The Kielder reservoir and forest park in Northumberland is a great place to inspire writing, particularly because of its new art trail, featuring interactive sculptures that were created in response to the park’s landscape and weather conditions. More details

Learning through Landscapes

Learning through Landscapes is an organisation dedicated to making the most of your outside space and has a wealth of ideas that could help you to create an outside writing space as well as increasing learning and play opportunities and improving your environment. Please see http://www.ltl.org.uk/schools_and_settings/ for more details.

Manchester Art Gallery - http://www.manchestergalleries.org

Manchester Art Gallery contains works from over six centuries to the present day. Its education department organises workshops, tours, masterclasses and artists’ visits to schools.

National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE) - http://www.nate.org.uk

NATE provides publications and training to support the teaching of English in schools as well as literature reviews, an online forum for English teachers and classroom resources.

National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE) - http://nawe.co.uk

NAWE supports creative writing in all genres and in all community and education settings and produces online resources, publications and training events. It also features the Artscape directory - http://www.artscape.org.uk - a national directory of writers who work in schools.

National Centre for Language and Literacy - http://www.ncll.org.uk

The Centre supports teachers, parents and governors in a wide range of ways - through a unique collection of resources; publications; an extensive programme of courses and conferences; ongoing research; and a membership scheme designed to meet the needs of individual schools. Schools can find authors, illustrators and storytellers for school visits and projects via the NCLL UK-wide database. Contact Pam Brown on for more details.

National Literacy Association - http://www.nla.org.uk

The National Literacy Association campaigns for children’s literacy, operates project work in schools and produces useful publications to support teachers from foundation to Key Stage 4.

National Literacy Trust - http://www.literacytrust.org.uk

The National Literacy Trust links home, school and the wider community to inspire learners and create opportunities for everyone. They support those who work with learners through their innovative programmes, information and research, and bring together key organisations to lead literacy promotion in the UK.

New Writing North - http://www.newwritingnorth.com

New Writing North runs education projects and provides support for writers and teachers. It has developed a creative writing course module for teachers that is delivered by The School of English at Newcastle University. The module can be built into school projects so that teachers receive in-depth training whilst projects are running in schools. They also programme and deliver Creative Days for teachers which focus on how best to use creative writing workshop methods in the classroom. Contact Anna on for more details.

New Writing South - http://www.newwritingsouth.com

New Writing South is a new writing organisation based in the South East and open to all creative writers. They provide professional writers to work in schools with students on all aspects of writing, and also offer inset training on a variety of areas, from allowing teachers the space to explore their own creativity to firing up ideas for teaching creative writing, poetry or journalism. The website also has information on opportunities for writers. Contact Beth on for more details.

Once Upon A Story - http://www.onceuponastory.co.uk

There is nothing more valuable than nurturing a love of stories in children to encourage reading, writing and self expression. Once Upon A Story works with primary schools and provides a range of stories as expansive and as culturally diverse as the schools they visit. They provide one-off storytelling performances, all day visits or residencies. They support projects with a focus on literacy, religion, history, myth and culture.

Pallant House Gallery - http://www.pallant.org.uk

Pallant House is a collection of 20th century British art which has a schools’ programme comprising an extensive programme of courses, workshops, tours and events.

Penn Sound - http://www.writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/

US-based PennSound is the University of Pennsylvania’s archive of the largest collection of poetry sound files on the Internet. It offers a huge variety of digital recordings of poems, free to download and use. Free recordings of poets reading their own work and interviews with poets are ideal to use in the classroom.

Perform a poem - http://performapoem.lgfl.org.uk/

Website for primary schools hosted by London Grid for Learning that safely hosts video footage of children performing their own poetry. There are lots of fun and useful resources for teachers around writing and performing poems, examples of existing poems to perform and video tips from Michael Rosen on performing poetry. The site allows schools to upload their own videos of children reading poetry in an e-safe environment.

Poetryclass - http://www.poetryclass.net/

Poetryclass, run by the Poetry Society, is the solution for teachers wanting to bring poetry alive in the classroom. A training team of poets, all of whom are highly experienced with work in schools, is available to work with teachers to overcome their problems and concerns with teaching poetry. There is also a very useful online poetry classroom on the website with lots of resources and lesson plans for Key Stages 1 to 4. Inset can be provided throughout England. Contact for more information.

Saatchi Gallery - http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/schools/info.htm

The Saatchi Gallery presents contemporary art from lesser known and displayed international artists.  The gallery website has a dedicated schools’ section and provides guidance for school visits and downloadable teachers’ packs to accompany their current exhibitions.

Seven Stories - The Centre for Children’s Books - http://www.sevenstories.org.uk

Seven Stories in Newcastle is the only exhibition space in the UK dedicated to the celebration of British children’s literature. Its changing programme of exhibitions is designed to spark the imaginations of children and adults, and inspire exciting new work. The centre features storytelling sessions, events with authors and illustrators and school and family activities.

Shakespeare’s Globe - http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/

Shakespeare’s Globe on London’s South Bank is a unique international resource dedicated to the exploration of Shakespeare’s work and the playhouse for which he wrote, through the connected means of performance and education. Globe Education has a schools programme that runs alongside performances and also offers online resources.

Spread the Word - http://www.spreadtheword.org.uk/

Spread the Word provides bespoke workshops and training in schools for children and teachers in London. With a focus on the writer, their workshops, one-to-one advice surgeries, mentoring schemes and other activities use established professional writers to develop writers’ skills. Contact Jenneba for more details:

Tate Liverpool - http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/eventseducation/schools/

Tate Liverpool displays work from the Tate collection and contemporary art from all over the world. It has online downloadable education packs and information on the Tate Teachers CPD programme.

Tate Modern - http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/

Created in 2000 and housed in a disused power station in central London, the Tate Modern houses the national collection of international modern art from 1900. It has an active education department that runs a variety of programmes for primary and secondary schools, aimed at engaging children with the artworks. 

Tate St Ives - http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/

Tate St Ives has a Young Tate group in development to accompany the resources on the Young Tate website: http://www.tate.org.uk/youngtate/ which features help for art exams, advice for going to art school and local events for young people. The gallery offers a range of services for schools and colleges including the provision of free resources for a self directed visit, tailor-made tours and artist-led practical sessions. Tate also offers opportunities for professional development of teaching staff.

Teachit - http://www.teachit.co.uk/

Teachit is a site created for teachers by teachers with over 11,000 pages of downloadable worksheets, lesson plans, audio materials and ICT tools. The site also encompasses http://www.teachitworld.com for ELT resources, http://www.teachitprimary.co.uk with resources for the Foundation year to Year 6 and http://www.citizenshipteacher.co.uk for Citizenship teachers.

The Arvon Foundation - http://www.arvonfoundation.org/p11.html

Arvon works with schools, colleges and youth groups to provide courses that ignite a lifelong love of imaginative writing and help to develop the creative voice of each participant in a uniquely collective environment. They work closely with teachers to tailor courses for each specific group, but all courses follow the same basic format as for all adult courses. They match experienced, professional writers to the requirements of your group, in any writing genre and across all forms. Courses are residential. Arvon also offer a Writing Room to showcase the work of the under-18 writers who visit their houses to write. Arvon also offer subsidised writing courses for teachers.

The British Library - http://www.bl.uk/

The British Library in London offers resources including books, journals, newspapers, video, sound recordings including audio interviews with famous writers and a huge online resource. There are also regular, free workshops offered to primary and secondary schools to accompany the Library’s programme of events.

The English and Media Centre - http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/

The English and Media Centre provides publications and resources (including books for study, CD Rom, e-newsletters and more) and professional development opportunities on all aspects of English teaching for teachers and students of literature, language and media.

The English Association - http://www.le.ac.uk/engassoc/

The aim of the English Association is to further knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of the English language and its literatures and to foster good practice in its teaching and learning at all levels. It does this by encouraging the study of English language and literature; by means of conferences, lectures and publications; by fostering the discussion of methods of teaching English of all kinds and by responding to national issues. It offers publications and conferences for teachers and prizes and awards for young people’s writing.

The National Gallery - http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk

The National Gallery houses the national collection of Western European painting from the 13th to the 19th centuries. It has an active education department that runs a variety of programmes for primary and secondary schools, aimed at engaging children with the artworks.

The National Trust - Learning Outside the Classroom

When working within the confines of the classroom, and taking into account the increasing impact of virtual learning environments, it seems as vital as ever to take your pupils outdoors as part of their overall education and development. More that just fulfilling a curriculum learning outcome, a visit provides exercise, fresh air and a shared sense of place and wonder that will impact upon young people’s values and interests. Visiting a National Trust location can be a fantastic focus and inspiration for a writing project - see here for more details. 

The Poetry Archive - http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/home.do

Online resource for poetry including a teacher’s section featuring lesson plans and activities for all key stages and for the inclusive classroom. Ideas are included for using poetry across the curriculum, not just in English. This is a developing resource and plans include a forum for teachers to discuss their experiences, as well as a space where you will be able to create your own teaching materials and share them with colleagues.

The Poetry Book Society - http://www.poetrybooks.co.uk/

The PBS is an online poetry bookshop with a good selection of poetry for children and some related competitions. 

The Poetry Friendly Classroom

Find out how to make your classroom poetry-friendly with thirteen video tips by Michael Rosen, Free downloadable poetry activity sheets, a forum for you to share your own ideas and experiences on what works in the classroom and Links, articles and other resources. For more details visit the site: http://www.childrenslaureate.org.uk/Poetry-Friendly-Classroom 

The Poetry Jukebox - http://www.57productions.com/jukebox.php

A site that features free audio and video recordings of poetry, poets in performance and “poem-films” – works that recognize the filmic elements of poetry and the imagery it uses.

The Poetry Library - http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/education/

The Poetry Library is the most comprehensive and accessible collection of poetry from 1912 in Britain. Its education department houses a teaching poetry collection (textbooks, classroom anthologies and workbooks), loans books for classroom use, gives advice to young poets and provides information on useful organisations which can help schools with poetry and creative writing, among other services.

The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery - http://www.stokemuseums.org.uk

The Potteries Museum and Gallery houses a secret garden as well as a unique collection of artwork. The gallery education department offers activities for early years through to secondary age children as well as providing loan boxes and information and resources for teachers.

The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre - http://www.roalddahlmuseum.org/

The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Buckinghamshire aims to inspire pupils from Year 3 to Year 7 to find pleasure in reading and writing creatively. Pupils are encouraged to play with language, create colourful characters and think up perfect plots. There are biographical galleries that reveal the stories behind the stories and a Story Centre that lets pupils’ imaginations take centre stage.

The Royal Shakespeare Company - http://www.rsc.org.uk/learning/Learning.aspx

The RSC’s Education department provides CPD for teachers as well as workshops and courses for young people to accompany the current RSC programme. There are also comprehensive internet resources including video clips of RSC productions, actor interviews, clips of directors giving feedback to actors and a very useful guide to other Shakespeare resources to be found online.

The Windows Project - http://www.windowsproject.demon.co.uk

Liverpool-based project aimed at making poetry fun and improving language and literacy skills. The Windows Project provides writers to work in schools and information, advice and training for writers and teachers. There is a very comprehensive free downloadable handbook for working with poetry in schools also. Contact for more details.

UBUWeb - http://www.ubu.com/

UBUWeb is acknowledged as the definitive online source for avant-garde, visual, concrete and sound poetry and features many artists who work across art forms. It encompasses hundreds of artists, hundreds of gigabytes of free sound files, books, texts and videos.

UKLA - http://www.ukla.org

The United Kingdom Literacy Association is a registered charity which has as its sole object the advancement of education in literacy. It runs regional, national and international conferences and produces a newsletter, two journals, a range of books and research reports focusing on literacy. It also has an online bookshop.

Write On! Adventures in Writing

Write On! Is a Birmingham Book Festival Project that provides continuing professional development training for teachers, currently through their ‘Teachers as Writers’ workshops which are run alongside the Write On programme of writers in schools work. This is also available separately to schools and is focused on alerting teachers to the joys and disciplines of creative writing. For more details please contact Jonathan Davidson on

Yorkshire Sculpture Park - http://www.ysp.co.uk

Yorkshire Sculpture Park is an international centre for modern and contemporary art, with four indoor galleries set over 500 acres of 18th century parkland. It has a dedicated learning department which runs workshops, tours, talks, outreach projects and school visits.