Stamford author Jay Clarke wants to help combat bullying with her new book
Poetry for PSHE contains poems about friendship, families and social media for secondary school children – and their teachers
It was a teaching assessment that brought about the publication of Poetry for PSHE, a collection of poems for school children of secondary school age. The author, Jay Clarke, was delivering a lesson based on the first poem in this book, “The Bully and the Bullied”, whilst being watched by her tutor. After monitoring the children's reactions, Jay’s tutor commented: “I would never have believed I’d see a group of 11-12 year old boys’ so enthused about writing a poem let alone practically begging to read it out.” It was then Jay knew that she had found a way to engage a difficult class, and possibly a way to help combat bullying – an all too common occurence in classrooms.
Poetry for PSHE, or Personal, Social, Health and Economic education, is an anthology of poems covering subjects such as friendship, families and social media. It is unique in that it is not only intended to be used as a teaching aid, but it also incorporates time-saving lesson plans. Jay’s intention for this book not only helps to explore modern issues affecting school children via poetry, but is also aimed to provide materials for teachers’ lesson plans around the topics that the book explores. The subjects covered in Poetry for PSHE are either rarely covered within a school curriculum or are spread between a number of disciplines, subjects and teachers. The Department for Education has said that PSHE is an important and necessary part of all pupils’ education, underlining this anthology’s relevance and importance.
Jay Clarke lives in Stamford and has had supply teaching roles at schools from the most challenging – teaching children with special needs and those that have been excluded due to malicious behaviour – to the most outstanding schools, high on the UK league table. As well as being a poet who is on a mission to get young adults to read poetry, Jay has learned what makes pupils listen, engage and participate. She spent 30 years working in business, writing poetry and teaching adult literacy. Jay started up her own consultancy business whilst taking up supply teaching roles, where she found herself very successful in engaging children with poetry. She is available for interview and more than happy to comment on any aspects of her teaching career, as well as addressing any queries on Poetry for PSHE and her motivation for writing the book – review copies of which are available on request.
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