The School of Education is rounding off a year-long series of poetry seminars tomorrow with a range of workshops and a reading by prize-winning poet Jackie Kay.

The Poetry Matters seminar series, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), began in January 2011 and looked at the importance of poetry to education and society at large. Former Poet Laureates Sir Andrew Motion and Michael Rosen took part in the series, which was organised by Dr Sue Dymoke in association with the universities of Greenwich and Exeter. The seminars explored important issues in teaching poetry in schools and encouraging young people to read and write poetry.

Now the successful series is drawing to a close, with a final day of workshops and presentations taking place tomorrow, Saturday 21 January, in the School of Education. Keynote speaker Professor Teresa Cremin from the Open University will present 'Positioning oneself as a poetry reader in the classroom' and Dr Janette Hughes of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology will talk on 'Digital Poetry: A Multimodal Literacy Experience'. Award-winning poet and novelist Jackie Kay will give a reading of her works.

There will also be workshops led by the following poets and academics:

• Julie Blake: Education Manager, The Poetry Archive.
• Andy Craven-Griffiths:  Poet, rapper, singer.
• Joelle Taylor: Professional spoken word artist, published poet and Artistic Director of SLAMbassadors UK.
• David Whitely and Professor Morag Styles, University of Cambridge.
• Ally Davies Education Officer, The Poetry Society.

For further information, contact: Dr Sue Dymoke, sd100@le.ac.uk.