PN Review 29 noted with approval the arrival of the Schools' Poetry Association and paid attention to two of its aims: to counter the copyright problem that prevents much contemporary poetry being taught in schools; to improve, as David Orme said, 'the art of poetry teaching everywhere, by encouraging research, passing on good practice and by producing worthwhile materials'. It is now two years since the Association was formed. What has been done, and have these aims been realized?

In attempting to describe what the Association has done, the quality of its initiative is perhaps most manifest. During 1983 the SPA provided members: a twice termly newsletter, a considerable termly magazine, The Schools' Poetry Review, various publicity and information leaflets, nine A3 Broadsheets of pupils' poetry, A4 an anthology of pupils' poetry, and Footnotes. This year promises even more - it is difficult to know where £5.50, the cost of individual membership, could purchase more material.

Publications are not the sole concern of the SPA, which has also been involved in promoting local poetry workshops, championing poetry festivals (especially Poetry Carnival UK), and generally attempting to encourage teachers to pool resources. The result of this has been an increasing recognition of its work together with a rapid growth in membership. Over £5000 in grants from different organizations have been made available to develop various projects, and much of this money is directly supporting poetry and poets. This leads to the pleasing reflection that the SPA's work transcends ...