National Poetry Recitation Competition

Poetry forms part of the national curriculum for English at all key stages, and is an integral part of specifications for English Literature GCSEs. The Department for Education (Department) wants to encourage schools to improve pupils' knowledge and enjoyment of poetry and engagement in poetry recitation and recall, in particular learning and memorising poetry by heart.

The Department is looking to commission an organisation to support the undertaking of a national poetry recitation competition and develop associated resources.

This will be an initial 9-month contract for the delivery of the 2019/20 competition, with provision to extend for a future two delivery years at the Department's discretion.

The primary aims of a 2019 competition are:

- to encourage and boost student engagement and participation in poetry, which is an important part of the national curriculum. We are extending participation in the competition so that it covers pupils in key stage 2 as well as key stages 3 and 4, to widen pupil participation further.

- to support students' preparation for taking the English literature GCSE and potentially the A level. The Department has not funded a poetry recitation competition since the reformed GCSEs were implemented;

- to provide an opportunity to draw together existing high quality poetry resources from different sources to support schools; and possibly develop appropriate new resources if gaps in the market are identified to support the teaching of poetry, especially at key stage 3. For teachers already focusing on the teaching of poetry, these resources could also potentially have the added benefit of supporting their teaching by reducing their need to acquire and/or produce their own resources; and

- to help build character, resilience and cultural capital, and improve pupils' mental health and wellbeing.