our workNational Poetry Day / recruiting 150,000 children to become record-breakers
Following the incredible success of our schools engagement campaign for National Poetry Day in 2023, the Forward Arts Foundation asked us for help again in 2024 – but this time with a record-breaking twist… As well as providing and promoting ‘plug and play’ classroom materials to encourage more teachers to get involved in teaching poetry on the day, we helped deliver an easy and exciting alternative: the opportunity for schoolchildren to take part in the world’s largest online poetry class as part of a Guinness World Records™ attempt.
It’s always about the positive impact…
26,165 page views
of the free school resources page
4,388 new teachers signed up
150,000 pupils
took part in the Guinness World Records™ event
Overcoming barriers to teaching poetry
Research has shown that engaging with poetry has many positive benefits for children and young people. It offers an outlet for creativity and is associated with positive literacy behaviours. This is particularly true for children in lower socio-economic communities. (National Literacy Trust, 2022).
It’s also an important tool for children to express feelings, escape reality and make sense of the complex events going on in their lives.
And while many teachers would love to add more poetry into their classrooms, multiple barriers, including lack of time, confidence, training and resources, mean that only around 20% of schools include poetry as a significant part of their curriculum.
And that was our challenge – to overcome the barriers to teaching poetry, explain its benefits and make it easy for teachers to take part in this year’s National Poetry Day.
But the hardest job of all was getting our message in front of our overworked audience, who have a million and one other priorities and are constantly bombarded by other brands trying to get a foothold in their classrooms.
Getting our messaging into teaching communities
Engaging with time-poor audiences is never easy. But this is not our first rodeo and we learned a lot from our 2023 campaign. We partnered with key influencers and organisations, implementing a blend of organic outreach and paid promotions within teaching communities. Our strategy aimed to spread the word about National Poetry Day, highlight the educational value of poetry and communicate the ease of getting involved.
We focused on free teaching resources developed by curriculum experts which were ready to simply ‘plug and play’ as a lesson – an easy way to introduce poetry into the classroom, overcoming the biggest barriers to taking part in National Poetry Day. Whether you lack the time or confidence to plan a poetry lesson, we’ve got a range to choose from that are ready to go.
Every child counts
The National Poetry Day theme for 2024 was ‘Counting’. So we wrapped all our creative in a simple ‘National Poetry Day + You’ idea – with numbers and sums peppered throughout. All alongside a distinctive illustration style, created by Harkiran Kalsi and brought to life in a number of energetic, colourful ways across the many elements of the campaign.
Giving schools a record-breaking alternative way to take part
If teachers didn’t want to lead their own poetry lesson, they could take part in poet Laura Mucha’s – and bag their pupils a world record title at the same time. A huge part of this year’s campaign focussed on recruiting teachers to take part in a Guinness World Records™ attempt for Largest Poetry Lesson (multiple venues).
On National Poetry Day itself, Laura led an official Guinness World Records™ title attempt for the largest ever multi-venue poetry lesson, hosted by Zoom, where 150,000 brilliant children helped co-create a poem about ‘what counts’.
Here’s the children’s beautiful poem:
What do you think counts?
I’m counting how many licks to finish a lollipop,
how many times a grown up says “no”,
how many marshmallows I can fit in my mouth,
how many times I cry about homework,
how many sticky notes I can put on Mum’s face,
how many monsters I have in my head.
I’m counting the days
until I’m a famous tennis player,
days since the war started,
days until I see Daddy,
until I have a friend.
I’m counting on my nain and taid
because they give me hugs
and say “sweets cost 1pback in the day”.
And the friendsI don’t need to pretend to,
that respect me,
that play.
And my bunny, Binky,
my axolotl, Bob,
because although they eat my homework,
they always keep my secrets safe.
I’m counting on the people in power
to protect the planet,
on teachersso I can get a good job,
money, a better life,
and my football coachbecause
I WANT TO PLAY
IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE.
I’m counting cows on the way to school,
raindrops in my mouth,
memories of people I’ve lost.
I’m counting on someone
to love me no matter what,
to want the best for me,
keep their promises,
listen,
and keep me safe,
so I don’t have to worry so much.
I’m counting on
the small things –
because they all add up.
What do you think counts?
testimonial“I've LOVED working with the exceptional team at Storycatchers. They're creative, efficient, friendly, responsive, collaborative and supportive, and their endlessly can-do attitude is a joy. And I love their work!”
Laura Mucha, poet
testimonial“I've loved working with the team at Storycatchers again this year. The thing I love most about working with them – aside from they're really the nicest group of people ever – is that they understand why you're doing what you're doing. They understood our mission completely and every decision we made together stemmed from that drive. They're really brilliant!”
Jay Bhadricha, Head of Programmes, Forward Arts Foundation
It’s a numbers game
There were a few different metrics to judge success for this year’s campaign – including reach, resources page views, data capture and students who logged in for the poetry record. And we hit the numbers on every one.
Our social campaign had a reach of 94k, the resources download page had 26k views, 4.3k new teachers were added to the database, and a whopping 150k pupils took part in the record attempt.
A passion for poetry
Improving child literacy has always been a core passion for the entire Storycatchers team – but driven by the dedication of one of our Account Directors, who is focused on creating equal opportunities for disadvantaged children through literacy initiatives.
It’s projects like these, where we can channel our passion and achieve tangible, impactful results, that remind us why we love what we do.