Dr Julie Blake and Dr Tim Shortis are the pioneering directors of the nation’s premier poetry speaking competition, Poetry By Heart, and have been recognised in King Charles III’s New Year’s Honours list.
Solving the ‘problem of poetry’
Founded in 2013 by former Poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion and Dr Julie Blake, Poetry By Heart is open to all schools and colleges in England. The competition invites young people to choose a poem they love, learn it by heart, and perform it out loud. Schools hold internal competitions to select their own winners, with the best from each region invited to a Grand Finale at Shakespeare’s Globe, London to compete for the title of national champion in a day of celebration.
Feedback from teachers and students points to participation being hugely enjoyable and an effective solution to the so-called ‘problem of poetry’, bringing improvement in the quality of poetry provision in schools, greater understanding of poetry in participants and a rise in pupil confidence. Thousands of schools have taken part, and more than 110,000 young people were encouraged to learn a poem by heart in 2024.
On receiving the MBE in the New Year’s Honours List, Dr Julie Blake says, “We are proud to be recipients of this honour and accept it on behalf of all the pupils, teachers, school librarians, poets, partners and our incredible team who make Poetry By Heart such a joyful and rewarding celebration of poetry. We particularly welcome this recognition as we enter the twelfth year of the competition and prepare for higher than ever participation in 2025.”
Poet-Advisor to Poetry By Heart, Professor Daljit Nagra says, “Tim and Julie have dedicated themselves to the teaching of English and in particular poetry which they have pursued with vision and dignity both as academics and through their pioneering work with Poetry By Heart. For over a decade Poetry By Heart has benefitted students from diverse backgrounds across the country, touching the lives of children in thousands of schools.”
Dr Tim Shortis says, “Poetry By Heart is about daring to do it differently. Poetry is part of everyone's DNA and everyone can enjoy it. Receiving this award, my mind is full of all the wonderful recitations we have heard by children, young people and teachers at every level of the competition. We celebrate them all today."
Dr Julie Blake
Dr Julie Blake is an innovator in the field of education and literature. In 2012, with Sir Andrew Motion (then Poet Laureate), she was co-founder of Poetry By Heart, the national schools poetry speaking competition. She has been Director of the programme ever since. She is Co-founder and Co-director of The Full English (Education) Ltd, an artisan enterprise to re-resource English for the digital age.
Julie is a highly respected researcher and writer, with an impressive track record of publication, writing about poetry in education and the history of poetry for children. She also creates digital and print anthologies of poems for children and young people. In 2019 she was awarded a PhD by the University of Cambridge. Her thesis is titled What did the national curriculum do for poetry? Pattern, prescription and contestation in the poetry selected for GCSE English literature 1988-2018.
She is a Visiting Fellow of Manchester Metropolitan University and a contributor to the collaborative PhD Making the Case: What does poetry do for young people?, an ambitious project, funded by the North West Collaborative Doctoral Training Partnership, which has the potential to influence policy and create change across the literature sector.
Dr Tim Shortis
Dr Tim Shortis is likewise an innovator in the field of education, with expertise in language, literature and the impact of digital technologies on literacy. He is Co-director of Poetry By Heart, the national schools poetry speaking competition, leading on strategy, partnerships and curriculum vision. He is Co-founder and Co-director of The Full English (Education) Ltd, an artisan enterprise to re-resource English for the digital age.
Tim has led the development of award-winning digital resources for teaching and learning about English. These include the British Library’s Texts in Context website, BT’s All Talk resource about spoken language and interaction in everyday life, and an app for authentic video-based language learning that was a finalist for the British Council’s ELTon digital innovation award. In 2016 he was awarded a PhD by the Institute of Education at the University of London. His thesis is titled Orthographic practices in SMS text messaging as a case signifying diachronic change in linguistic and semiotic resources. His thesis has been described as making “extraordinarily relevant contributions to the study of literacy in general, spelling in particular, and inaugurates a new generation of Computer Mediated Communication studies”.
Tim taught English in Bristol state schools and colleges for many years, was a Head of Department, a Chief Examiner of A Level English Language, and a Research Fellow in ICT in Education at the University of Bristol.