When is National Poetry Day 2025?
This year, National Poetry Day takes place on Thursday 2 October 2025, and the theme is 'play'.
What is National Poetry Day?
Aiming to inspire a love of poetry, this annual event provides a fantastic opportunity to explore and celebrate poetry. From engaging with familiar poems we love, to the creative fulfilment of crafting new works, we're providing inspiration and accessible activities for all ages to use in your school or setting.
Poetry for Remembrance workshops 30 September
During the week of National Poetry Day, author and poet Tomos Roberts (aka @probablytomfoolery) will deliver two online poetry workshops and will lead pupils through an exploration of poetry writing techniques, and the process of creating their own poems.
Children and young people's engagement with poetry research
Our recent research in to Children, young people and poetry in 2024 found that:
- Almost 1 in 2 (48.8%) 8 to 16-year-olds are currently engaging with poetry in some form – whether reading, writing, listening to or performing it – meaning that over half are missing out on the benefits.
- Children and young people who read, watch or listen to poetry identified significant benefits for their wellbeing, confidence, aptitude for learning and empathy.
- Interestingly, more children and young people who receive free school meals say they engage with poetry in their free time than their peers who do not receive free school meals, both in terms of consuming (32.6% vs 20.9%) and creating (18.3% vs 11.3%) poetry.
- There is a significant decline in interest among older children, with only 1 in 6 (17.3%) young people aged 14 to 16 engaging in their free time compared with 1 in 2 (48.7%) of those aged 8 to 11.
Explore all of our research into poetry.
National Poetry Day Resources
National Poetry Day 2025 is centred on the theme of Play. The National Literacy Trust, alongside our brilliant West Yorkshire Young Poet Laureates, invite your pupils to play with poetry, think about what play means to them, and how both structure and content can be inspired by the world of play.
This year, to celebrate National Poetry day we have developed classroom resources for:
- 3 to 5 year-olds: a selection of playful poetry activities inspired by Sean Taylor’s poem My Magic Telescope.
- For older children: five-minute poetry challenge resource. A selection of five-minute poetry tasks to play with across the day and get the creative juices swirling. While this resource is designed with ages 7 to 14 in mind, many of the activities and the core approach are flexible and can be enjoyed by learners of all ages
This year's West Yorkshire Young Poet Laureate winners, Ayeshah and Max, are here to share their exclusive insights and their response to this year’s theme of play.
Download resources at the bottom of the page. You may need to log in to your account, or sign up for a free membership to download.
More classroom poetry resources
Build on the inspiration of National Poetry Day to continue your class journey exploring students' responses to poems and to help them create and perform their own work.
Explore these additional resources and activities which are curriculum-linked and support the the development of skills and confidence in writing, storytelling, working together and performance.
- Digital Poet in residence (ages 7 to 11)
- Writing from Nature: a poetry resource (ages 7 to 13)
- Monologue Jam (age 14+)
- A poetry lover's classroom (primary)
- Writing poems with Paul Cookson: (primary)
- Poetry in the early years foundation stage (early years)
Get involved with National Poetry Day
You can find more National Poetry Day resources, learn about events and celebrations taking place, and get involved by visiting the National Poetry Day website.