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emagazine Poems of the Decade Conference

Date
05 Dec 2024 (UK)
Availability
Fully booked
Price
£25 per student
Location
Friends House, London

Update 14th November

  • We will not be re-opening the booking for the emagazine Poems of the Decade Conference on 5th December.

See deposits, cancellation and waiting list for details of the new booking process.

The conference will begin at 10.30am and finish by 3.15pm. 

Booking enquiries

General booking enquires:

Email us

Programme enquiries:

Email Emma

Programme & Speakers

10.30

Emma Barker

Emma Barker welcomes you to the Poems of the Decade Conference. 

10.35

Patience Agbabi

Patience Agbabi reads and discusses her poem ‘Eat Me’, followed by Q+A.

11.05

Barbara Bleiman – Creative Ways of Comparing Poems - From the Anthology and Unseen

 

This will not be a lecture but a session where you will be thinking and writing along the way to explore poems on the theme of childhood. It would be a good idea to have read Helen Dunmore's 'To My Nine-Year-Old Self' in advance.

11.45-12.10


Break 

12.30

Sinéad Morrissey – A Closer Look at Poetic Form

In this talk, Sinéad Morrissey will be taking a closer look at poetic form, and the ways in which the shape a poem takes on the pages can substantiate or complicate its meaning.

12.55-.1.55

 

Lunch

1.55

Ian Duhig

Ian Duhig reads and discusses his poem ‘The Lammas Hireling, followed by Q+A.

2.25

Simon Armitage

Simon Armitage reads and discusses his poem ‘Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass’, followed by Q+A.

3.10

Emma Barker

Emma brings the conference to an end.

 

Getting to the Conference

Train

  • The closest train stations are Euston, London St Pancras and Kings Cross.

Tube (underground)

  • Tube stations within a 5 to 15-minute walk include: Euston, Euston Square, Kings Cross, Goodge Street, Russell Square, Tottenham Court Road and Warren Street. The closest tubes are Euston and Euston Square.

Bus

  • Numbers 10, 18, 30, 73, 205 and 390 pass the door whilst 59, 68, 91, 168, and 253 stop nearby.

Travelling by Minibus or Car?

  • Friends House is within a meter parking zone. Charges must be paid Monday to Friday 08:30 -18:30. Please note that Friends House is within the congestion charge zone. For details of how to pay here.

Coaches

  • Coaches may stop outside Friends House to drop students off.

Parking

Getting to the Conference

Train

The closest train stations are Euston and Kings Cross.

Tube (underground)

Tube stations within a 5 to 15-minute walk include: Euston, Euston Square, Kings Cross, Goodge Street, Russell Square, Tottenham Court Road and Warren Street. The closest tubes are Euston and Euston Square.

Bus

Numbers 10, 18, 30, 73, 205 and 390 pass the door whilst 59, 68, 91, 168, and 253 stop nearby.

Travelling by Minibus or Car?

Friends House is within a meter parking zone. Charges must be paid Monday to Friday 08:30 -18:30. Please note that Friends House is within the congestion charge zone. For details of how to pay here.

Coaches

Coaches may stop outside Friends House to drop students off.

Parking

There is no on-site parking available at Friends House. The local roads have metered parking bays and fall within TfL charging zones. TFL driving information is available on the TFL website: tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/. There are three disabled blue badge parking bays located in Endsleigh Gardens. Information about Camden Council parking is available on the Council's website: www.camden.gov.uk/where-to-park.

Arrangements on the Day

Registration

Registration will open at 9.30am. Please be in your seats by 10.15am, ready for a 10.30am start. 

Entrance is via the Euston Road entrance to Friends House.

Teachers Accompanying Students

We expect all students to be accompanied by a teacher. There should be a minimum of 1 teacher per 20 students.

We request that teachers meet their students in advance, register as a group and sit with their groups of students. Teachers are responsible for ensuring that their own students maintain acceptable standards of behaviour in the auditorium and in the Friends House building.

Lunch and Refreshments

The cafe at Friends House is open from 8am.

You and your students will be responsible for providing your own lunches. There are sandwich shops in the area immediately behind Friends House and plenty of food outlets across the road at Euston Station.

There are spaces outside for students to eat their packed lunch but no indoor spaces.
Photo of Emma Barker

Emma Barker

Emma Barker worked as an English teacher for many years in London schools, leading each of the key stages before becoming Head of English. At the EMC since 2016, she ran the English with media/drama PGCE course until 2023 and continues to teach the English side of EMC's Media with English PGCE with Goldsmiths, as well as working on student conferences and A Level courses at the Centre

Photo of Patience Agbabi

Patience Agbabi

Patience Agbabi FRSL is a dynamic poet, novelist and Fellow in Creative Writing. Her work is internationally acclaimed, and she has delivered writing workshops for 30 years, from primary to PhD. She has published four poetry collections and four middle-grade novels. Her latest work is The Past Master (Canongate, 2024).

Photo of Simon Armitage

Simon Armitage

Poet Laureate Simon Armitage was born and grew up in West Yorkshire. He is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry and the PEN Prize for Translation. He has published over a dozen poetry collections, including Magnetic Field: the Marsden Poems, and acclaimed medieval translations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Owl and the Nightingale. His new book Blossomise was an instant Sunday Times bestseller. 

Photo credit: Paul Stuart Photography

Photo of Barbara Bleiman (EMC)

Barbara Bleiman (EMC)

Barbara Bleiman is an Education Consultant at EMC and co-editor of emagazine. She has written numerous articles, blogs and chapters in books about English teaching, including a book, What Matters in English Teaching, published by EMC in April 2020. She was the recipient of the NATE Award for Outstanding Contribution to Teaching of English (2019) She is also a fiction writer, with two published novels. Her collection of short stories, Kremlinology of Kisses, appeared in October 2020.

Photo of Ian Duhig

Ian Duhig

Ian Duhig FRSL has published seven books of poetry, won the Forward Best Poem Prize once, the National Poetry Competition twice and his New and Selected Poems from Picador was awarded the 2022 Hawthornden Prize for Literature. His next book of poems, An Arbitrary Lightbulb, will be published this November.

Photo of Sinéad Morrissey

Sinéad Morrissey

Sinéad Morrissey is the author of six poetry collections. She was the winner of the TS Eliot Prize in 2013 and of the Forward Prize in 2017. In 2019 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and in 2020 she was awarded the European Poet of Freedom Award for her most recent collection, On Balance. She has served as Belfast Poet Laureate and is currently Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University.

Prices

The fee is £25 per student, with one free teacher place as follows: 1-9 students = 1 free teacher place; 10-19 students = 2 free teacher places and so on.

  • You will be automatically allocated the correct number of teacher places and will need to provide details for each teacher attending. (You can change the teachers attending, if necessary, when you tell us final numbers on 14th November.)
  • For additional teachers, or teachers attending without students, for their own interest or CPD, the charge is £50 each.

How to book

Book online and choose to pay by invoice.

  • We are unable to take provisional bookings or reserve places.
  • Conference places will be allocated on a first come first served basis.
  • There is a limit of 60 places per organisation.
  • Trust/MAT head offices ordering for more than one school, will need to place separate orders for each school.
  • Please see our updated cancellation policy.
  • To book this conference you must be signed into one of the following accounts (registering an account first if you need to):
    • UK Trust/Academy – Head Office (purchasing)
    • UK Educator Admin (purchasing)
    • UK Teacher – Home Address Only
    • UK Private Individual
    • Overseas
  • If you have a UK Educator Standard (non-purchasing) account you will not be able to book the conference. Sign in to your account and add it to your Wishlist. See the list of people able to book conferences at your organisation by clicking ‘My Account’, then ‘Our Admin Users’.
  1. Click 'Book now’ (right-hand column).
  2. Add the number of student places you need. Free teacher places will be allocated automatically.
  3. 'Places exceeded' message. Reasons for this message are:
    1. You are trying to order more than 60 places (including free teacher places)
    2. Due to the number of places in other customers’ baskets, there are currently insufficient places available to fulfil this order.
  4. You will be asked to add the names and contact details of the teachers attending – if you don't know these details yet, just copy/paste the details of the lead teacher.
  5. Please make sure you add the attendee details immediately and checkout within 24 minutes. Otherwise the booking will expire and you will have to begin the process again.
  6. Click submit and then Go to basket.
  7. Checkout. 
  8. Once you have booked your place, you will see a screen indicating your order has been successful. You may want to make a note of your order number. The person making the booking and all the teachers attending will also receive an automatic acknowledgement of your booking.
  9. Please do not make final travel arrangements until your final booking has been confirmed and we have contacted you to let you know that you have definitely been allocated places.

 

Deposit

  • A 20% non-refundable deposit will be applied to all places booked. If you cancel a place you will lose the 20% deposit paid. You will not be able to use the deposit paid on cancelled places towards the final invoice.
  • if paying by invoice you will receive a non-refundable deposit invoice of 20% of the booking value, to be paid by credit card within 7 days of receipt. Failure to pay this invoice will result in the cancellation of the booking.
  • If paying by credit card, 20% of the total value of the booking is non-refundable.

Cancellations and Amendments

  • The 20% deposit on places booked is non-refundable.
  • You can make amendments to your booking until the final numbers deadline – 5pm on Thursday 14th November.
  • You will lose the 20% deposit paid on places cancelled up to the final numbers deadline. If you paid the full fee by card, you will receive an 80% refund on places cancelled by the final numbers deadline.
  • Schools who choose invoice payment will be invoiced for the balance of the total fee (80%) on confirmed places. Please note: you will not be able to use the 20% deposit paid on cancelled places towards this final invoice.
  • After this date you will be charged 100% of the ticket price, regardless of the numbers of students you bring to the conference.
  • We will email on Tuesday 12th November to remind you to confirm your final numbers.
  • If paying by invoice, the invoice for the balance of your conference booking will be sent the day after the conference takes place and will come from [email protected]

Please note: We will be unable to make refunds in the case of weather, transport difficulties or circumstances beyond our control. Should EMC need to cancel the conference, a full refund will be on offer. (However, personal arrangements including travel, accommodation or hospitality relating to the conference which have been arranged by you or your institution are at your own risk and not refundable by us). 

Waiting list

  • We are no longer operating a waiting list for student conferences.
  • If places become available, we will re-open the bookings on the website. We will publicise this via social media and our general mailing list.

Fully booked