Tower Poetry Development Grants

We believe that excellent and enjoyable poetry education involves both formal literary analysis and creative engagement: memorisation, recitation, composition, translation, and other creative activities are all routes to the intelligent appreciation of poetry.

The best poetry education introduces students to the long and rich tradition of English verse-writing; familiarity with the formal variety of poetry – its rhythms, rhymes, metres, forms, and so on – is an essential foundation for a satisfying engagement with both canonical and contemporary writing.

The proper ends of such teaching are the enjoyment of poetry and confidence with the English language. The classroom should produce students who take pleasure in reading and writing poems, who are confident in their own taste and judgment, and who will continue to read beyond the close of their school years.

Tower Poetry Development Grants are intended to support strategic activities geared towards improving poetry education in schools.

We believe that effective reform in this area can only be achieved with input from those currently facing the realities of the classroom. As such, priority will be given to projects which work closely with teachers to improve pedagogical practice or to make the case for curriculum and assessment reform.

Examples of eligible activities include:

• Teacher training and continuing professional development activities
• Conferences and networks relating to the teaching of poetry
• Research into poetry education in schools
• Curriculum and resource development
• Extracurricular programmes operating across multiple schools, particularly those which aim to demonstrate excellent pedagogical practice and/or influence educational policy

Development Grants can be used in conjunction with Schools Grants to enable teachers to participate in research projects.

The scheme will run, in the first instance, for three years from 2025 to 2028. As such, these grants are designed to support one-off projects or to provide start-up funding for new initiatives; we do not give grants to support the day-to-day running costs of established programmes, although we will consider applications for stop-gap funding.

Payment of a Development Grant may be made in several instalments at the discretion of the Tower Poetry Prize Committee.

We welcome applications from all types of school, as well as charities and higher education providers.

1. We ask recipients of Development Grants to:

   a. Submit a written report at such times as we request (for longer projects) and/or at the end of the project, detailing use of funds, outcomes, and future plans

   b. Ensure that Tower Poetry is properly acknowledged in any publicity, publications, or resources relating to or resulting from the project

   c. Give Tower Poetry permission to share details of the project on our website and social media

2. We reserve the right to request the return of part or all of the Development Grant if it has not been used strictly in accordance with the application for which we agreed to make the Grant available.

3. The recipient of the funding needs to ensure that:

   a. The outputs are made freely available within the United Kingdom so that others can benefit from them

   b. Tower Poetry is acknowledged as funder in any material created (such as books, curricula, or online resources)

   c. They can agree to this sharing of the material and that the permissions of any relevant third party will be duly obtained

To submit a proposal, please complete our online application form. By submitting an application you are deemed to accept the above terms.

   Submit an application

Applications are assessed on a rolling basis. If you would like to discuss your project prior to submitting a formal application, please contact the Tower Administrator.