Useful contacts
These organisations offer a variety of ways to support teachers, including inset and training for teachers in the areas of creative writing, literacy and poetry; finding a local writer to work in your school and running education projects in schools and in the community.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
The Arvon Foundation - http://www.arvonfoundation.org/p24.html
The Arvon Foundation runs residential writing courses at a variety of locations across the UK and offers teachers in state funded secondary schools a special grant of £120 towards the full cost of a place on any public course of their choice. Arvon recognises the vital role teachers have in bringing literature and creative writing into young people`s lives, and in igniting their imaginations to write themselves. Teachers’ enthusiasm and commitment is crucial in securing the readers, writers and creative people of the future, so Arvon is committed to supporting teachers’ own creativity.
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 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.
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
Writing Together - http://www.writingtogether.org.uk/
Writing Together was a six-year project that aimed to ensure that, during their life at school, every child encounters opportunities to work with professional writers who inspire them creatively. The project ended in March 2007 but the website includes a step-by-step guide to planning a writer visit, complete with downloadable materials, and links to organizations that help teachers to find writers who are experienced at working in schools. There are also case studies of varying writer in school projects, from a one day visit to a long term cross-curricular programme.
