(Each year group contains examples of narrative poetry including rhyme, classics, performance poetry and a different type of poetry to focus on per year group to show progression).
| Year Group | Poetry/poets |
| Nursery 2s Focus – Nursery Rhymes and Rhyming Narrative | Various nursery rhymes (to perform) Shark in the Park/Shark in the Dark – Nick Sharratt Dinosaur Roar! – Henrietta Strickland Ten Dancing Dinosaurs – John Foster |
| Nursery 3s Focus poet – Giles Andreae Focus – Nursery Rhymes and Rhyming Narrative | Various Nursery rhymes (to perform) Park in the Dark – Martin Waddell Here is the Seed – John Foster Commotion in the Ocean – Giles Andreae Splish, Splash, Splosh – James Carter Sharing a Shell – Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks |
| Reception Focus poet – Nick Sharatt Focus Poetry Style – Alphabet List Poems | What’s in the Witch’s Kitchen – Nick Sharratt Oh No! Shark in the Snow! – Nick Sharratt Room on the Broom – Julia Donaldson What the Ladybird Heard – Julia Donaldson Hurt no Living Thing – Christina Rosetti My Many Coloured Days – Dr Seuss A Great Big Cuddle: Poems for the Very Young – Michael Rosen Alphabet List Poems – e.g. in Twinkl Twinkl Chocolate Bar Book Various Nursery rhymes – (to perform) – e.g. Miss Poly Hot Cross Buns One, Two Buckle My Shoe Miss Poly Caribbean Counting Poem – Pamela Mordecai The Dark Wood – anon |
| Year 1 Focus Poet – Julia Donaldson Focus Poetry Style – Alliterative List Poems | Little Rabbit Foo Foo – Michael Rosen Yo Ho Ho! A- Pirating We’ll Go! – Kate Umansky The Magic Beach – Alison Lester The Puffin Book of Fantastic First Poems Please Mrs Butler – Allan Ahlberg Each Peach Pear Plum – Janet and Allan Ahlberg Out and About – Shirley Hughes Pirate Pete – James Carter Bed in Summer – R.L. Stevenson (Classic) Alliterative List Poems – e.g. Alphabet Poem Michael Rosen Performance Poems The Rhythm of Life – Michael Rosen There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly Voices of Water – Tony Mitton My Colours- Colin West Hands – Julia Donaldson Queue for the Zoo – Clare Bevan |
| Year 2 Focus Poet – Roald Dahl Focus Poetry Style – Acrostic and Shape Poems | Revolting Rhymes (Little Red Riding Hood) – Roald Dahl 10 Things Found in a Wizard’s Pocket – Ian McMillan Pleasant Sounds – John Clare I think Mice are Rather Nice – Rose Fyleman Now we are Six and Halfway Down – AA Milne (Classic) The Owl and the Pussycat – Edward Lear (Classic) On the Ning Nang Nong – Spike Milligan (Classic) Various Acrostic and Shape poems – e.g. Acrostics – e.g. Fireworks – Gervais Phinn Christmas – Gervais Phinn Shape Poems – e.g. What is he? – Liz Brownlee The Shape of a poem – Chris Odgen Aaaah!!!! At last it’s Spring – James Carter Family Tree – Damien Harvey Word Whirls – John Foster Performance Poems I’m Walking with my Iguana – Brian Moses Solo with Chorus – Rose Fyleman Nut Tree – Julia Donaldson The Dinosaur Rap – John Foster Cats – Eleanor Farjeon Shhhhhh! – Julia Donaldson Soloman Grundy – Days of the week |
| Year 3 Focus Poet – Michael Rosen Focus Poetry Style – Haiku and Tanka | Chocolate Cake – Michael Rosen Plastic Bag Tree – Michael Rosen The Marrog – R. C. Scriven The 3-Headed Dog – Clare Bevan The Months – Sara Coleridge Ducks Ditty – Kenneth Grahame The Lost Words (book) – Robert Macfarlane The Camel’s Hump – Rudyard Kipling (Classic) Haiku & Tankas – e.g. Haiku Seaview Haiku – John Foster Windy Day – John Foster Haiky Riddle – Celia Warren Tanka Silver aeroplane – John Foster The Penny Black – John Foster Two Tanka Riddles – Marian Swinger Performance Poems The Sound Collector – Roger McGough Life doesn’t Frighten me at all – Mya Angelou Twenty Four Hours – Charles Causley Instructions for Giants – John Rice |
| Year 4 Focus Poet – Ted Hughes Focus Poetry Style – Limerick | Heard it in the Playground – Allan Ahlberg The Magic Box – Kit Wright Refugees – Brian Bilston We Refugees – Benjamin Zephaniah The British Poem -Benjamin Zephaniah City Jungle- Pie Corbett Snow and Snow – Ted Hughes Jack Frost – C.E. Pike What is the Sun? (Metaphor poem)– Wes Magee The Witch’s Poem from Macbeth – Shakespeare (Classic) Various song lyrics Performance Poems Macavity by T.S Eliot The Treasures – Clare Bevan Today, I feel – Gervais Phinn The Trouble with My Brother – Brian Patten You Can’t Stop me – Miriam Moss Loopy Limericks (book) by John Foster (for example) |
| Year 5 Focus Poet – Joseph Coelho Focus Poetry Style – Cinquain | If All the World Were Paper – Joseph Coelho (Various Joseph Coelho poems/books) The Rainforest Grew All Around – Susan K Mitchell Shimbleshanks the Railway Cat – T.S. Elliott Junk- the Story of Jasper O’Leary -Kirk Hendry (also on Literacy Shed and Youtube) The Highwayman – Alfred Noyes (Classic) Jabberwocky – Lewis Carroll (Classic) The Tyger – William Blake (Classic) Cinquain November Night- Adelaide Crapsey Snow – Adelaide Crapsey Winter – Adelaide Crapsey Blackbird – John Foster At the Gate – John Foster The Wood in late Autumn – John Foster Mirror – John Foster How to Write Cinquains? – John Foster Performance Poetry Give and Take – Roger Mc Gough Conversation Piece – Gareth Owen Football Mad – Benjamin Zephaniah Rum Tum Tiger – T.S Eliot |
| Year 6 Focus Poet – Carol Ann Duffy Focus Poetry Style – Sonnets | Where the Poppies Now Grow – Hilary Robinson The Christmas Truce – Carol Ann Duffy Sea Fever – John Masefield Night Mail – W.H. Auden (Classic) Daffodils – William Wordsworth (Classic) Performance Poetry From a Railway Carriage – Robert Louis Stevenson (Classic) The Visitor – Ian Serrailler Cargoes – John Masefield The Lion and Albert – Marriot Edgar If – Rudyard Kippling The Jumblies – Edward Lear What I Love About School – Roger Mc Gough Sonnets Compare 2 classic sonnets for content, use of language and rhyme pattern. (E.g. Summer-water Sonnet Gillian Clarke Lines Upon Westminster Bridge by William Wordsworth). Mermaid – Susan Rogerson Who Can Know? – Susan Cartwright Smith The bottom of the Jar – Susan Cartwright Smith |
| KS1 AND KS2 BASES | Staff to choose poems and poetry styles from year groups appropriate for their children and rotate the following years to avoid repetition. |