Writing

A Running Away Poem
13th February 2025
This is part of a poem or narrative that I’ve written for some Year 11 dance students at a…

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‘Thoughts’ Rather Than ‘Poems’…
12th September 2024
I’ve done a book called Pebbles (Smokestack Books). It’s made up of what we can call ‘thoughts’ rather than ‘poems’.

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Long Thin Poem
26th February 2024
If you change the shape of how you write, it can change the way you think and it can...
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Don’t Drown
24th October 2023
You could say that this is a poem about being in water. That’s what it looks like. But what...
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Poem by my Cat
21st February 2022
The idea behind this poem is that a pet has thoughts about the person looking after it. Our cat loves...
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A ‘Listening-Thinking’ Poem
1st November 2021
This is what I could call a ‘listening-thinking poem’. The first part is about what I can hear (or...
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Stand Together
30th January 2020
Each year Holocaust Memorial Day has a theme. This year it’s ‘Stand together’. I work closely with schools in...
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What Do You Need For a Story?
8th December 2019
For most stories, you need a place, you need a time, you need a main character. Your main character needs...
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Workshop Ideas
28th June 2019
First up, one of my students was looking into what kinds of ‘games’ could teachers play with pupils when...
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Collected Ideas for Poetry With Year 1
3rd June 2019
For the writing blog this month, I’ve collected together a set of tweets that I put up on twitter...
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Over My Toes
30th April 2019
Before you read this poem to the children, talk with them about how wherever we are there are sounds....
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What I Saw
20th March 2019
This is a poem about going out and looking. Some of it is really, really what I saw and one...
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Poetry to Commemorate the Holocaust
14th January 2019
On Sunday January 27 it’s Holocaust Memorial Day. I will be in Cambridge at a ceremony to commemorate those...
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Volcano Bag
31st August 2018
I was listening to the radio and I heard about a woman who lived on the island of Monserrat...
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How to Shake Things Up in the Writing, Reading, Talking, Listening Field
30th July 2018
For teachers wondering about how to shake things up in the writing, reading, talking, listening field...
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Writing – Starting Points
11th June 2018
The simplest, easiest and most painless way to write is to be stimulated or inspired by another piece of...
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Reveal-Conceal and Other Ideas For the Classroom
15th May 2018
Teachers sometimes ask me for ways they can use to get away from the rigid questioning of children about...
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How to Look at a Poem
6th March 2018
If you’re sitting looking at a poem and you’re wondering what to say about it, think about or write...
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Scribbles, Notes, and Blogs
8th January 2018
I used to scribble all my ideas down in a notebook but now that we've got phones and tablets...
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