The Red Room Company

Red Room Co.'s National Poetry Education Program.

Welcome to Papercuts, The Red Room Company’s national poetry education program. Papercuts is aimed at promoting the living practice of poetry in centres of learning across Australia, through a series of workshops with contemporary Australian poets. Students and educators in primary and secondary schools, correctional centres, community organisations, professional associations and universities, have all enjoyed the experience of Papercuts.

"It made me appreciate what a powerful tool poetry was... there was so much opening up, respect, and sharing, from the most unlikely group of poets!"
Sarah Johnston, Mt Carmel High School
"I recently saw this program on display in Melbourne... It seemed to spark the students' interest in language and verse to a degree I had not anticipated."
Professor Geoffrey Blainey, The Ian Potter Foundation
"Papercuts is enormously flexible and can easily be adapted to suit the needs of the school…. It provides opportunities for differentiation and accommodates a range of learning styles"
Maura Manning, Head of Teaching and Learning, Pymble Ladies' College
"In many ways my workshops at these high schools were some of the best experiences I have had with poetry."
Dr Lachlan Brown, Papercuts Poet, 2009 & 2010
"The Red Room Company provides the right environment and stimuli for students to discover their talent."
Ann Ding, Year 10 student at Pymble Ladies' College
"Poet Luke Beesley gave me, the ‘teacher’ (aka, the learner) new ways to talk/think/appreciate/write/share poetry."
Natalie Bellis, Head Teacher, The Peninsula School
"The students and I consider the program transformative. Its benefits to students are exceptional."
Dr Felicity Plunkett, Papercuts Poet 2010
"The Red Room Company... brings poetry to where students are and to where their interests lie, and then transports them beyond."
Eva Gold, Executive Director, ETA NSW
" I used the poetry cards with a Year 9 class yesterday and they were a huge hit. Students finished one card and then swapped with others... Absolutely fantastic!"
Bryan, Teacher, Wollongong High School

For Teachers

FAQs, information about the learning units and resources for the classroom.

For Students

Find out how to get a living, breathing poet to your school.

For Poets

Professional development and employment opportunities for poets.

Contact Us

Tony Britten (Education Officer) Email: education@redroomcompany.org Phone: 02 9319 5090

Redroom Library

View Redroom library

Support Papercuts

The Red Room Company relies on the generous support of individuals, corporations, government funding bodies and philanthropic foundations. Become a sponsor

Marrickville High School

Read The Sydney Morning Herald article about this specially devised Papercuts project

Papercuts Blog

Poetry at the MCG: Papercuts at the 2012 Annual Conference of the Australian Association of Teachers of English

On Sunday 3 December I flew to Melbourne to run a workshop at the 2011 Annual Conference of the Australian Association of Teachers of English.

The conference is entitled Finding a Place for Falstaff: Language and Creativity in the Australian English Curriculum. More than one speaker at the sessions I attended pondered as to whether there should have been a question mark at the end of the title. And, I might add, always to enthusiastic agreement from those assembled.

The allusion to Falstaff in the title comes from the 1998 Boyer Lectures given by Red Room Company supporter David Malouf ...