Poetry can move souls and thrum hearts: why wouldn’t we teach our children about it? | Joseph Coelho

A dispiriting new survey has found that nearly a quarter of schools teach poetry only once a year or less. What a shame that is

• Joseph Coelho is the Waterstones children's laureate

Schools are facing considerable barriers to teaching poetry in the classroom. That's according to a new survey from the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education and Macmillan Children's Books - the findings of which come as little surprise to me.

I have worked with many student teachers and spoken at many teacher conferences where it's clear that it is often a struggle to fit poetry into the classroom day. What a shame that is. We all instinctively know the power of poetry - it is the medium we turn to at weddings and funerals and new births, we know that it speaks to something deep within us and yet, on the whole, poetry tends to get forgotten until those times when we need it, and nothing else will do.

Joseph Coelho is a performance poet, playwright and children's author - and the Waterstones children's laureate 2022-24