Poetry in Motion: Alumnus Julie gets MBE for services to Education

“I’m motivated by the thought that education is our sacred duty to the young. I’m not a religious person but the idea holds good for me nonetheless,” says Dr Julie Blake, BA English Language and Literature (1988). “I approach my work with an absolute conviction that the English language and its literature belong to everyone, and with good teaching, everyone can enjoy it and is entitled to enjoy it.”

This work was recognised in King Charles III’s 2024 New Year’s Honours list when Julie was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to Education. For her passion, dedication and commitment to raising educational attainment across the country, at the University of Hull we’d like to extend our congratulations to Julie and express our pride in what she has achieved.

As a pioneering Director of Poetry by Heart, the nation’s leading poetry speaking competition, Julie has succeeded in bringing poetry to children across the country. 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.

Poetry by Heart has been described as a 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.

“I am proud to serve children, young people and teachers in this way, and I am proud that we are making a difference to the popular enjoyment of poetry on a mass scale,” said Julie.

Poetry was instrumental in helping Julie get to grips with her own education and find her way as an English student at the University of Hull. An initial difficult start to student life was overcome by encouraging words from a tutor and a realisation that poetry was a good place to focus her efforts.

“I had nowhere near as much experience of English literature as my peers and rather floundered in the first few terms. But my tutor was encouraging and I eventually worked out that my best tactic was to focus on poetry, an area not many students seemed interested in. From then on, I chose poets to write essays about where I could, I worked incredibly hard in my second year and things started to go better.”

After completing her studies, Julie pursued a career in Education, but when her work found her moving away from English, her innovative spirit came to the forefront and she took an entrepreneurial approach to English teaching.

“I taught English Language and Literature for about thirteen years, became a faculty leader and then worked in HE Widening Participation for a while. When my roles started drifting away from the English subject specialism I’d enjoyed, I teamed up with a colleague and set up a small independent business, The Full English, to generate creative educational projects and consultancy to re-resource English teaching for the digital age. We have worked on wonderful projects, including for the British Library, BT Learning, and The Poetry Archive.”

It was whilst working on this latter project at the Poetry Archive that a conversation with former Poet Laureate, and former University of Hull lecturer Sir Andrew Motion that the idea for Poetry by Heart began to take shape.

“[Andrew] told me of a conversation he’d had with a Minister in the Department for Education about having a national schools poetry recitation contest. I thought it was a fantastic idea and we decided to work together to bring it to life as an innovative collaboration between poets and educators, with the goal of bringing poetry off the page and into the voices, ears and hearts of young people.”

In 2013 Andrew and Julie launched Poetry by Heart, which she now co-directs along with Dr Tim Shortis. Upon hearing of Julie’s award, Andrew had some kind words to share: “You’ve turned Poetry by Heart into a wonderful thing, and it’s very heartening to see you getting the credit you so richly deserve."

It isn’t difficult to see why Julie has been so successful in this venture as her passion for poetry is never far from the surface. She is very clear as to why it is important for children to share experiences with poetry.

“It’s part of our DNA. Every culture and every language, now and across time, has poetry in some form or another. We need it to make sense of our experience of the world, in good times and bad. It belongs to all of us and by encouraging children and young people to choose a poem, learn it by heart and share it aloud for others, they get to own a piece of it when they’re young and take it with them into their unknowable futures.”

It is this idea of the unknowable future that Julie comes back to when she offers her words of wisdom for the next generation of students.

“None of us can see round the corners of life,” Julie said. “When I sat in tutorials tongue-tied by my feelings of social and intellectual inferiority, I could barely believe I’d complete my degree – and came perilously close to not doing so. I would have laughed if a visitor from the future could have told me I’d now be Dr Julie Blake, FEA, FRSL (Hon), MBE. So don’t try to predict it all. Set out on a path, never stop learning, find wise people to trust, and take all the risks and opportunities your path offers, even when you have no idea why.”

Julie was interviewed by David Simpson, Alumni Engagement Manager at the University of Hull.