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Don’t Drown
24th October 2023Don’t Drown Here’s a poem: Don’t drown. Practise swimming for a long, long time. Don’t drown. Practise shouting, ‘Help!’...
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Poem by my Cat
21st February 2022Poem by my Cat Michael is OK but the trouble with Michael is that when he stands up he...
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A ‘Listening-Thinking’ Poem
1st November 2021A ‘Listening-Thinking’ Poem Here’s a new poem I wrote: The house is silent. It’s early. I hear myself breathe....
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Stand Together
30th January 2020Stand Together Each year Holocaust Memorial Day has a theme. This year it’s ‘Stand together’. I work closely with...
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What Do You Need For a Story?
8th December 2019What Do You Need For a Story? For most stories, you need a place, you need a time, you...
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Workshop Ideas
28th June 2019Workshop Ideas First up, one of my students was looking into what kinds of ‘games’ could teachers play with...
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Collected Ideas for Poetry With Year 1
3rd June 2019Collected Ideas for Poetry With Year 1 For the writing blog this month, I’ve collected together a set of...
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Over My Toes
30th April 2019Over My Toes Over my toes goes the soft sea wash see the sea wash the soft sand slip...
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What I Saw
20th March 2019What I Saw I’ll tell you what I did in town I saw a greengrocer in the underground with...
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Poetry to Commemorate the Holocaust
14th January 2019Poetry to Commemorate the Holocaust On Sunday January 27 it’s Holocaust Memorial Day. I will be in Cambridge at...
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Volcano Bag
31st August 2018I 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 2018For teachers wondering about how to shake things up in the writing, reading, talking, listening field: How about a...
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Writing – Starting Points
11th June 2018The 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 2018Teachers 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 2018If 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 2018I used to scribble all my ideas down in a notebook but now that we’ve got phones and tablets...