DAVID LINDSAY

Up to 135,000 schoolchildren at more than 960 participating schools took part in the inaugural Young Poets Week from 24 to 28 November.

60 poets led an England-wide network of workshops created by the National Poetry Centre and National Literacy Trust to inspire the poets of the future.

Twenty in-person events for primary and secondary school students per six regions took place across the week – 120 events nationwide across England – with poets and project ambassadors including Laura Mucha (Guinness World Record holder for Largest Poetry Lesson) and Instagram poetry sensation Nikita Gill. Each poet led assemblies and shared their tips on how to explore, read, write and perform poetry whether rhyming couplets or rap, sonnets or spoken word, to ignite young people’s creativity.

All 960 schools also had the opportunity to take part in free live online masterclasses and use a specialist resource pack based on the theme ‘everyone is a poet’, developed by experts at the National Literacy Trust and National Poetry Centre.

Young Poets Week also marks the beginning of the applications process for 12 young people to be selected as regional Young Poet Laureates, a programme launched in June. 120 young people from participating schools will be shortlisted from those who apply between 24 November and 19 January 2026, with the final dozen selected to be announced in June 2026.

The Young Poet Laureate programme follows a successful pilot West Yorkshire Young Poet Laureate programme, which included West Yorkshire Poetry Week and the Young Poet Laureate competition, launched in 2023 by Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin with Simon Armitage and the National Literacy Trust. The programme is supported by Arts Council England, West Yorkshire Combined Authority and the Charlotte Aitken Trust.