Age range: - Ages 5-7 (KS1) Primary, Ages 7-11 (KS2) Primary,

Website Link: www.ianbland.com

Writing and performing high quality poetry is a real and valuable skill well within reach of all children in our primary schools. Inviting a professional children˙s poet to work in school can be a fantastic opportunity for children and teachers alike to experience new ideas and techniques empowering them with the confidence and knowledge to produce their own worthwhile work.

As a professional children˙s writer I have a comprehensive track record of published work with well known publishing houses such as Oxford University Press, Oxford Reading Tree, Macmillan Children˙s Books amongst many others.

Over the last seven years I have visited as many as 600 primary schools and libraries here in the UK and across Europe to perform my work and lead exciting writing workshops.

My poetry performances and workshops have twice been scrutinized by OFSTED. On both occasions my work and input was described as “excellent” and deemed to be “challenging and inspiring for children!”. As well as producing two volumes of children˙s poetry for the Excellence in Cities initiative in the North of England my work is also fully endorsed by the Poetry Society based in London.

As a visiting poet in a primary school I often begin the day with a performance of my own work usually in an assembly. I then go on to offer workshops to children throughout the age range from Reception up to Year 6.

Each workshop is carefully matched to the particular year group and is designed to be fast moving and fun. After writing their own poems inspired by my ideas the children are also encouraged to edit their work and further develop their performance techniques.

At the end of the day I encourage schools to have a final assembly in which a selection of children is given an opportunity to perform their work to the rest of the school.