Perform poetry for the CLiPPA 2025 award

Schools around the country are shadowing the CLiPPA poetry award, with children choosing their favourite poems to perform and helping to spark a life-long love of poetry. The best performers could also win a place at this year's CLiPPA Poetry Award in London!

The CLiPPA Shadowing Scheme invites schools to explore the shortlist with their pupils, looking at the poems in depth and creating live performances of individual favourites.

CLPE provide specially created support materials for teachers, including videos of the shortlisted poets. The resources are supplied free to schools when they register to take part in shadowing the award.

Washing Machine Jive performed by children from English Martyrs Catholic Primary School at the National Theatre

Each year the Shadowing Scheme prompts poetry performances in hundreds of classrooms. Winners of the Shadowing competition are invited to perform at the CLiPPA Award Ceremony, aka CLiPPA Poetry Show, onstage at the National Theatre alongside the shortlisted poets. This year's CLiPPA Poetry Show will take place on Friday 20th June.

Find out more about the CLiPPA Shortlist on the CLiPPA website, including resources for the 2025 shortlist.

"We've never had so many children reading and writing poetry, both in lessons and in their own time."

Taking part in the CLiPPA Shadowing Scheme supports engagement in poetry and children's oracy skills, said Emily Richardson, deputy headteacher at Summercroft Primary in Bishops Stortford, which regularly takes part in the CLiPPA Shadowing scheme. 

She explained: "We look forward to the release of the CLiPPA shortlist every year. The chosen collections are always brilliant, and we've been introduced to lots of new poets, as well as discovering new poems by old favourites. This year, we're particularly excited to explore Let Sleeping Cats Lie by Brian Bilston because he writes such funny poetry, and We Are Family by Oliver Sykes, both for its themes of love and family and because we're very partial to stories told through verse.

"We've found that taking part in the shadowing scheme means that children get to know the poems really well and get very attached to their favourites. We've seen this increase engagement not only with the shortlisted collections, but with poetry in general. We've never had so many children reading and writing poetry, both in lessons and in their own time.

"With the importance of oracy becoming clearer and clearer, participating in the shadowing scheme is the perfect way to give our children the opportunity to practise so many key skills, from debating their favourite poems to discussing what makes a poetry performance effective, and from working collaboratively to create a plan, to performing for purpose. Our pupils love the creativity and seeing how their initial ideas translate to a final performance. There's also a chance for the winners from each category to perform their poem onstage at the National Theatre alongside poets and with Chris Riddell live-illustrating - a once-in-a lifetime opportunity.

"If you haven’t taken part in the shadowing scheme yet, we thoroughly recommend getting involved. There are videos of previous winners available on CLPE's website which are aspirational and give children (and their supporting adults!) a great starting point, and there are free plans and resources there too, which have given our teachers a lot more confidence in and enjoyment of teaching poetry. It’s truly one of the highlights of our year!