Thursday 2nd October is National Poetry Day 2025, with the very appropriate theme of ‘Play’. As usual EMC has chosen some poems for secondary age students and created classroom-ready resources for engaging, fun, inspiring lessons, encouraging reading, performance, talk and writing. This year, we were asked by the Forward Arts Foundation, who run the day, to do the official activities for the National Poetry Day website, so you’ll find them on its website at this link. You can use the drop down function to sort poems by age group.
We’ve chosen poems appropriate for different ages and key stages, including for A Level students. We’re sure you’ll find something that grabs you and will give your students a great experience of poetry that takes them beyond the focus on exams.
One great aspect of National Poetry Day is the buzz that comes from knowing that you’re joining in on something shared across the whole country! So if you and your students read, write and talk about poems and are particularly inspired by a poem or activity, do share views, experiences and student writing with us, by emailing [email protected] (with the subject line ‘National Poetry Day 2025’), or share on social media.
Have a wonderfully playful poetry day on Thursday!
