Let children learn our best verse

My daughter is in Year 1 at our local C of E school and my son will start Reception this autumn. I grew up in America, so my children’s introduction to the British primary education system is mine too. I was pleased to learn that my daughter spent her first term studying the Battle of Hastings, which was taught with fitting seriousness and detail. It is local history to us – Battle is just 15 minutes down the road – and the children were encouraged to imagine our local scenery and surrounding villages as they would have been a thousand years ago.

I am baffled that the same rigour does not hold for the study of British poetry. There is a surprising lack of classic verse in the primary years. Last year in Reception my daughter studied Rudyard Kipling but without reading his actual poems or stories. Instead, the children were given a ‘simplified’ version of The Jungle Book and Just So Stories.