This year, we set out to revisit engagement with poetry in all its forms to explore the important role poetry can play in the lives of our children and young people.
4,372 8 to 16-year-olds from 28 schools in England took part in our online survey, which ran between May and June 2024. The main foci were affective and behavioural aspects of reading, watching, listening, writing and performing poetry, including print, performance and social media. The survey also explored how children and young people might use poetry to support their mental wellbeing or speak to issues and causes they care about.
Key Findings:
Engagement with poetry
- 1 in 2 (48.8%) children and young people aged 8 to 16 told us in 2024 that they engaged with poetry in some form, with 24.1% reading, listening to and/or watching it, 13.0% writing and/or performing it, and 11.7% doing both. This is a slight increase compared with 2018, when 46.1% of children and young people engaged with poetry in their free time.
- In line with our previous findings, more children and young people who received free school meals (FSMs) said in 2024 that they engaged in poetry in their free time compared with their peers who did not receive FSMs.
A focus on poetry readers, listeners and watchers
- Focusing on those children and young people who read, listened to or watched poetry in their free time, the most popular way for this group to engage with poetry was by reading it (71.3%). However, almost 2 in 5 (37.3%) listened to poetry and 1 in 5 (22.1%) watched poetry.
- Children and young people who engaged with poetry did so for reasons including self-growth, introspection and civic identity formation (e.g. to learn about issues or causes they care about).
A focus on poetry writers and performers
- Of the group of children and young people who told us they wrote or performed poetry, 3 in 4 (74.2%) wrote poetry and 2 in 5 (41.9%) performed it.
- Of children and young people who told us they wrote or performed poetry, more than half wrote to feel creative, with nearly 1 in 2 (49.6%) doing so to express their ideas and imagination and nearly 1 in 2 writing to express their thoughts and feelings (49.2%) and to feel happier (47.3%).
Children and young people who don’t engage with poetry
- More than 1 in 2 (51.2%) children and young people who responded to our survey told us that they didn’t engage with poetry.
- When asked why they didn’t engage with poetry, most thought it was boring (41.2%) or that it wasn’t about topics they were interested in (31.8%).
This report highlights the significant benefits poetry brings to children and young people’s lives. It offers a unique way to foster creativity, support mental wellbeing, and encourage self-expression. Notably, it can be a powerful tool in literacy education, particularly for disadvantaged students who consistently show higher engagement with poetry. The introspective nature of poetry helps children and young people process complex emotions, a critical need given the rising challenges of our technological and socioeconomically turbulent post-pandemic society. The National Literacy Trust advocates for increased intellectual and financial investment in poetry-based pedagogies to harness poetry’s potential at this time of profound change.