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James Carter
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
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One Day Visit To a Primary School
To generate a real 'buzz' in a school - to get the children motivated and enthusiastic and to feel confident about their own writing.
Typically a day will involve:
Typically a day will involve:
- Separate performances for KS2/KS1/FS and up to four single class workshops from Year 2 to Year 6
- Performances for KS2 - a livley, quirky show with poems and guitar music aplenty, poems on all kinds of topics - from wolves to angels, woolly mammoths to brains, electric guitars to garden sheds! (1/2hr in hall)
- Performances for KS1 - a gentle, mellow show - but highly interactive - full of action rhymes about bugs, bubbles, pirates, dinosaurs and travelling around the world
- Performances for FS (as KS1) - 15 minutes in the classroom
- A range of poetry workshops (taken from James' creative writing teachers' books) - from free verse to kennings to calligrams to raps - all using playful, expressing language, alliteration and assonance and repetition. All workshops commence with James discussing his books/writing/the writing process then James will scribe as the children provide their ideas. The resulting poem on the board will serve as a model for children to do their own writing.
- In smaller schools, or during a two- day visit or residency, the day can finish with a finale (with parents invited!) in which children read out the poems written in the workshops
- Then, at the very end of the day, James will do a book signing in the hall
Larger Primary Schools will often book two or three days in order that James can visit all the classes to do workshops, and possibly include an INSET session or a family writing session.
"Thank you for sharing your brilliant poems - you really inspired me" Year 5 girl
"Your poems were fandabadozy! I enjoyed them as much as I enjoy watching Man U score a goal." Year 6 boy
"James gave us a lovely day - it was just what we wanted and to be thoroughly recommended! Miniature people ( grown ups!) are priveleged to spend time in his company... very inspirational wordplay and just right for our book week. Our school endeavours 'to make the curriculum irresistible to children' and 'to weave magic'. James did just that." Sarah Palmer, Headteacher Camelsdale First School, Surrey.
INSET: LET'S DO POETRY IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS

LET's Do Poetry... is a fun, accessible and very practical course to give teachers the tools, the mindset and the confidence to put poetry at the heart of the classroom and everyday learning.
LET's has an emphasis on writing - and provides teachers with games and warm-ups, ideas for cross-curricular activities and ultimately shows that all it takes is six or so poetic forms with which to create language-rich and expressive responses to all the topic and curricular work that Primary schools cover throughout the academic year.
Available as either a half- or one day course, Let's Do Poetry... is a wholly relevant, dynamic, creative and thoroughly enjoyable course designed for the modern Primary teacher, from Early Years to Upper Key Stage 2.
Praise from teachers for this course -
The best INSET I've ever been to!
KS2 Literacy Co-ordinator, Primary school, Oxfordshire
'Well done! Inspirational, humorous and very informative. IT WAS GREAT!'
'An excellent day, inspirational'.
'Good, practical ideas that could be easily adapted for a range of ages and topics'.
'Fantastic INSET - will be using a lot of what was demonstrated'.
Classroom teachers, Lower School, Bedfordshire
'As a school we are continually looking for ways to inspire children to write and believe pietry has an important part to play in this. What we needed as satff was as many practical ways to to do this and the confidence to share those ideas. James was inspirational for both our days training and the two days he had spent with the children. Staff left feeling excited about poetry and how it could be the trigger to better writing. Even some of our shyest staff were rapping by the end of the day!! The school would recommend James' work as an important stepping stone into creative writing.'
Headteacher, Primary School, Milton Keynes
KS2 Literacy Co-ordinator, Primary school, Oxfordshire
'Well done! Inspirational, humorous and very informative. IT WAS GREAT!'
'An excellent day, inspirational'.
'Good, practical ideas that could be easily adapted for a range of ages and topics'.
'Fantastic INSET - will be using a lot of what was demonstrated'.
Classroom teachers, Lower School, Bedfordshire
'As a school we are continually looking for ways to inspire children to write and believe pietry has an important part to play in this. What we needed as satff was as many practical ways to to do this and the confidence to share those ideas. James was inspirational for both our days training and the two days he had spent with the children. Staff left feeling excited about poetry and how it could be the trigger to better writing. Even some of our shyest staff were rapping by the end of the day!! The school would recommend James' work as an important stepping stone into creative writing.'
Headteacher, Primary School, Milton Keynes