The Poet from the Peaks

I am Andy Tooze, a poet from Buxton, Derbyshire. Before working as a full-time poet, I spent nine years working in primary schools (working with all ages from Nursery to Year 6) from where I draw a lot of my inspiration and professionalism.

I visit primary schools to deliver an exciting poetry experience. All my sessions are dynamic and interactive, involving speaking, listening, reading, writing and drama. I will read my poems and answer questions about their stimulus, form and content. I will give the children a variety of simple, helpful hints to enable them to compose their own poems. Most of all, I will inspire them with my natural enthusiasm and empathy. An assembly taken by myself at the end of the day has proved to be an extremely successful method of both sharing the children’s poems composed during the day and of showing the variety of approaches and techniques I have used.

Signed copies of my books will be available to purchase on the day of my visit. My first full-length book to be published by Troubador was ‘The Poetry Bug’ in 2016. This was followed by ‘The Poetry Bug Strikes Again’ in 2018 and then ‘Green Shoots Rising’ in 2021. I now have a brand new book out called ‘Go With The Flow’. It’s already proving to be much loved by adults and children alike.

All four books are available from the troubador website as well as from Amazon and all good bookshops at a cost of £8.99. When I visit schools I sell the books at a discounted rate of £5 each. My books contain a mixture of the thought-provoking, the amusing, the inspiring and the downright ludicrous. Over the years I have visited hundreds of primary schools in which I have sold more than 120,000 of my books to children and staff. Go to my Visits page for more information.

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“Just wanted to say thanks again for Friday, the kids loved it and the poems they produced in such a short space of time were great. Hopefully we will see you again in the future.”

Comments from Wooler First School, Northumberland

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“We had such a great day and the children are so inspired to write poems!”

Comments from Telford Infant School, Leamington Spa

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“Just wanted to say a big thank you for yesterday. The feedback I got was all very positive. I thought you would be interested to know that this morning two Year 2 boys came into school armed with their notebook with poems they had written that night.One boy in particular is quite hard to engage/enthuse and his mum wrote in his diary ” Since your poet day yesterday my child has been absolutely non-stop poems…. I have never seen him like this!!” So thank you again for inspiring our children.”

Comments from Rearsby Primary School, Leicestershire