For Children and Young People
Every Child has the Right to be Heard
Apples and Snakes brings inspiring, diverse performance poets into schools, libraries and community spaces, so that more young people can find their voice and speak out.
For over 25 years, our programmes of performance poetry have filled classrooms, assemblies, local libraries, community and youth centres with irresistible energy. In 2026, we’re working with over 5,000 children aged 5 to 16.
Watch our Impact
Watch this short clip to show you the impact of our work and what it means to have an Apples and Snakes poet in the classroom. This film was made as part of Word Craft – a ten-week workshop programme at Dairy Meadow Primary School, Southall, with performance poet BREIS. It features students and teachers in Years 5 and Six and their process on creating and performing their poem ‘Think Big!’
Working with professional performance poets and trained poet educators, our joyful live shows, workshops and festivals turn poetry into a live, shared experience, all the while building young people’s self-expression, oracy and confidence.
Our poets can relate directly to the children they work with. They are skilled in transforming children’s relationship to words by helping each child explore their own stories and find their voice.
Why performance poetry?
- Self-expression
- Oracy
- Aspiration
- Emotional resilience
- Connection
- Belonging
For Schools
For Libraries
For Communities
What we do
We work with children and young people aged 3-18 to build oracy, self-expression, confidence and emotional resilience. Too many young people grow up lacking confidence with words, few chances to express themselves or see their lives reflected in stories and poems. We’re here to change that.
Why performance poetry?
Our poets are real, relatable role models with over 80% from Global Majority backgrounds. They are skilled in developing writing and speaking skills with many blending music, rap and storytelling, showing that poetry is for and about each and every one of us. We also actively commission new work from Global Majority poets so that more children recognise themselves in stories and believe they too can be writers and poets.
Why it works
Our performance poetry programmes give children and young people the courage to speak out.
Performance poetry is a powerful creative act that is proven to build pride, self-belief and aspirations, strengthen wellbeing and learning, and ultimately improve each individual’s future life chances. Our programmes reach more than 5,000 children and young people each year.
What we offer
We offer a mix of programmes.
We build partnerships and raise funds to run proven projects led by our highly skilled poet educators. Our poets are both performers and teachers — they know how to spark social confidence, oracy and joy with words.
For some of our (limited) funded programmes, we are able to deliver projects at no cost. Schools, libraries and community spaces can also book a poet anytime through our Book a Poet service. Our programmes include live performances like SPIN poetry gigs for children, workshops, and extended poets-in-residence through Telling Tales and Word Craft. We also deliver at festivals and youth-led events such as Poetry Festivals, SPINE Festival, and Library Takeover.
What is performance poetry?
Performance poetry is poetry created for live delivery. It can be spoken, sung or rapped and has ancient oral roots.
Many of our poets blend rap, music, movement, dance, storytelling and theatre together. Children and young people love the creative freedom this brings.
About our poet educators
Our poet educators are highly skilled professionals delivering high-quality performances, workshops and publications created for children aged 3-16 years of age.
For more than 25 years we’ve supported a community of children’s poets to create new diverse work for children who don’t normally see themselves represented.
Poets and poet educators we’ve supported include Joseph Coelho. Joseph credits our training programme as the foundation of his hugely successful career, which has seen him become Children’s Laureate in 22-24 and win the Carnegie Medal 2024. He has since returned to work with us to support a new generation of diverse children’s poets.
“The children really got out of their comfort zone which was great to see, and they all grew in confidence so much.”
Teacher, Falconbrook Primary School
To book a performance poet for your young people or develop a larger project with us check out our Book a Poet service or get in touch at [email protected]
programme funders
Thank you to our amazing funders over the years who have helped make this work happen:
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