Primary Education

The National Library worked with the Primary Professional Development Service (formerly the Primary Curriculum Support Programme) to  develop a primary school education programme consisting of tours and workshops to accompany the major exhibition, Yeats: The Life and Works of William Butler Yeats.

Booking a tour/workshop

Tours and workshops are by appointment only and must be confirmed in writing. To book a guided tour of the exhibition and/or a workshop, please email the education and outreach department. Please note that bookings must be made at least three weeks in advance of a visit.

Tour of exhibition (45 minutes; max. 15 students per tour)

This short tour introduces primary classes to WB Yeats, his friends, family and interests as well as some of his best-known poetry. Highlights of the tour include: the manuscript of Yeats’ first poem, which he wrote aged seventeen; manuscripts of ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ and ‘He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven’; a Japanese sword given to Yeats by a fan; a letter from Yeats to his young son; and the beautiful lapis lazuli carving given to Yeats for his seventieth birthday.

Before your visit:

Prior preparation for the visit is strongly recommended: you will find some suggestions in the pre-visit information sheet below. We are always happy to customise tours to include aspects covered by the class in preparation for their visit!

• Pre-visit information for primary schools  pre-visit information for schools.pdf (0.03 MB, Adobe PDF)

We also recommend that you visit the Yeats exhibition website before your visit. The following resource has been designed to help you guide your class through their virtual visit:

• Teachers" guide  Yeats website guide for teachers.pdf (0.03 MB, Adobe PDF)

Teachers may wish to complete the exercise below with their class in advance of their visit:

Classes can also use the website to devise their own tour of the exhibition using the map below:

Workshops (45 minutes; 15 students max)

Subject to availability, we also offer a number of workshops to complement the guided tour of the exhibition:

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

Suitable for 3rd class and up. This language and art workshop focuses on the rich imagery of Yeats’ famous poem, ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’. Participants listen to a recording of WB Yeats reciting the poem and then respond to it through art, depicting the island as they imagine it.

Library Detectives Workshop

Suitable for 4th, 5th and 6th class. The aim of this workshop is to introduce classes to the work of the historian and to primary and secondary source material.   Children work in groups to assess information about WB Yeats using facsimile material from the exhibition, including his passports and his school report from 1877.

Bookplate Workshop

George Yeats' bookpate

Suitable for 5th and 6th class. This history and art workshop looks at the history of the bookplate using examples from the Library’s collections (including the bookplates of WB and George Yeats, displayed in the exhibition). The group put their history skills into practice as they examine a number of original bookplates to find out as much as they can about the people represented by the plates. Finally, participants have an opportunity to create their own unique bookplate to put inside the cover of their favourite book.

Example visit timetable:

After your visit:

A range of post-visit activities has been specially developed to support learning done in the exhibition and workshops: