The theme of this year’s National Poetry Day is ‘counting’ – and in the countdown to the big day on Thursday 3 October here’s just a taste of some events planned. One event is an attempt to break the world record for the largest poetry lesson, collaborating with poet Laura Mucha to co-write a poem about ‘what counts’ with 60,000-plus seven-12-year-old (Y3-Y7/P4-P7) pupils. Other organisations involved in the initiative are the National Literacy Trust, the Poetry Society, Poetry Archive, and the Centre For Literacy in Primary Education. You can find out more here.

National Poetry Day is organised by the Forward Arts Foundation, the same group that runs the Forward prizes for poetry. An event planned for older youngsters is the Young Poets Takeovers, which are free, online, open-mic events put on by the Poetry Society’s Young Poets Network. Anyone aged 14-25 can sign up for a two-minute open mic slot. Email queries to educationadmin@poetrysociety.org.uk.

An hour of nature poetry read by actors is planned at the British Library in London as part of National Poetry Day.

There will be events all round the country. One of them will be a celebration of the town of Alnwick in Northumberland, featuring poets Kirsten Luckins and Ralph Dartford. People Make Alnwick – Poem In A Day will involve the two poets wandering through the town’s streets, market, shops, bus station, museums and galleries, gathering testimony from the people who live and work in the town.

By the end of the day they will have created an epic poem for Alnwick written by the people who live and work there, and they’ll perform it at a free reading at Bailiffgate Museum & Gallery in Alnwick at 6.30 for 7pm. They will also be joined by the poetry group at the Duchess’s Community High School in Alnwick, recently featured on Write Out Loud. Here are more details of the event. 

Meanwhile 20 miles down the A1 at Morpeth there’s a reading featuring north-east poets Katrina Porteous, Harry Gallagher, Lesley Mountain, and Jean Laurie, to celebrate the return of the Northern Poetry Library – and its entire archive - to its original home at the main Morpeth Library in Gas House Lane, Morpeth. It starts at 7pm. More details