Embracing The Poetry Basket across East Sussex

“Practitioners have gone away feeling very enthusiastic, because they realise the importance of poetry and the impact it could have on their children.”

As a team, our primary focus is promoting oracy, as well as supporting listening and speaking skills. The Poetry Basket felt like a great way to improve confidence in the spoken language, as well as introduce vocabulary to our children in a fun way. We were spurred on by the mention of poetry in the EYFS Educational Programme for Communication and Language, Ofsted reports, as well as Birth to Five Matters.

Making Poetry Accessible

We wanted to make sure the programme was approachable for practitioners in East Sussex, particularly given the staffing issues we’ve faced. We chose The Poetry Basket as something that made an impact in a short space of time and could be easily integrated into the school/setting’s day.

In East Sussex, we’ve made The Poetry Basket a three-year project with staggered starts for each local group. We introduce the programme with a launch event, which includes a video on poetry’s benefits (provided by Helicopter Stories). Groups meet online three times a year to support each other, provide feedback and discuss The Poetry Basket (as well as general language development) in their settings.
To ease pandemic-related pressures, we’ve also selected twelve core poems linked to an existing project – 50 Things to Do Before You’re Five in East Sussex. This project supports children’s communication, offering their parents low or no-cost activities that connect school and home learning. For instance, the poem ‘Pitter Patter’ is linked to the activity ‘Splash in Puddles’. Parents can access the activities on our website or app.

Learning through Connections

So far, we’ve had a fantastic response. Practitioners, children and parents alike are really enthusiastic about embracing the poems and activities. For one preschool, it’s been a way to link different learning activities together and build confidence:

“The children, parents and staff have had so much fun learning the poems, playing with language and extending the children’s learning through ‘50 things’ and linked activities. Our most popular poem to date has been ‘Five Little Peas’. We used props (green foam balls) to bring the poem to life, which had the children jumping with excitement! We then linked it to ‘The Runaway Pea’, a well-loved story book in our setting. The children were able to retell the story, discuss why vegetables are good for you and even planted broad beans of their own (which they then took home). Some families send updates on the broad beans’ progress as well as little videos of their children reciting the poem to friends and family. Even the shyest of children join in when the poems come out.”

Honeybees Preschool in Plumpton Green

Poetry has encouraged exciting learning opportunities in other settings, too; one practitioner described learning ‘Stepping Stones’ outside, then noticing children spontaneously using the poem’s language during play. Others have made displays, integrated props and initiated roleplay based on poems in The Poetry Basket.

The impact on the children has been inspiring; one practitioner said the children’s faces ‘light up’ when learning a new poem, while a child with selective mutism uttered her first word in the setting during a poem. Another practitioner reported that the poems have a calming influence on their children.

Practitioners’ confidence has grown significantly, too – especially when they realised how quick and simple it is to learn the poems. The Poetry Basket is a great opportunity for CPD, and we’re not expecting them to jump through hoops to get there.