Michael Rosen Day

Resource type: Event

Price band: Free

Key stage: KS1, KS2

Region(s): All of UK

Michael Rosen Day is a day dedicated to celebrating creativity, poetry and reading, all inspired by the work of one of the UK’s best-loved children’s authors and poets. Michael Rosen Day 2026 takes place on Thursday 12 November. The theme for this year is Silly School Stuff.

The aim of Michael Rosen Day is to make reading, listening to and writing poetry enjoyable and accessible for all. Supporting resources include:

A 2026 Poetry Party Planner with book-based ideas and activities to help schools bring poetry to life through performance, writing, rhythm and rhyme.
A Silly Schools poetry competition: Open to pupils in Years 1 to 7, the competition runs from 10th September to 21st October. Poems should be no more than 100 words long and schools can submit up to 10 poems per age group thourgh the online portal.
An online Poetry Party event with Michael Rosen on 12 November 2026.

Cost: Free with registration.

About Michael Rosen Day: Michael Rosen Day is a Walker Books celebration in partnership with Read for Good, Puffin Books, HarperCollins Children’s Books, Bloomsbury Children’s Books, Simon & Schuster Children’s Books and Hachette Children’s Books.

Further resources:

Watch and listen

Explore Michael Rosen’s YouTube channel to find performance videos of your favourite Michael Rosen poems, including a recording of his 2024 Big 50 Year Show at the Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich and tips on how to create a Poetry Friendly Classroom.
Explore a bank of over 50 short videos of Michael reading his poems and discussing his writing on the National Poetry Centre for School’s website.
Listen to Michael Rosen and MC Grammar perform their work and discuss how poems and raps use language to create meaning in this episode of Author in Your Classroom podcast. Free teaching resources available to download with registration.

More to explore on Literacy Hive

Sign up to take part in this year’s CLiPPA Shadowing Scheme, which provides free teaching plans and video resources to enable schools to explore the poetry collections shortlisted for the UK’s leading award for published poetry for children
Find more resources to support the teaching of poetry here.