About Mike Church
Welcome to the website.
I hope these few pages will inform you a little about what I do.
'You make reading really cool' said Finley aged 9 years old at Monmouth Library in March 2017.....that'll do for me.
I was a teacher for many years and a deputy headteacher until Christmas 2006. I departed the school to work as a freelance writer and left behind a passion for arts friendly education with a strong school ethos.
I've written poetry for many years and represented Wales at the first ever National UK Poetry Slam in 1997 at the Watershed Centre in Bristol (I like to think of this as my one Welsh cap).
Since 2007 I've been visiting schools ( it’s now 100+ a year), prisons, parks, castles, football stadiums, residential homes and squash courts....yes poetry in a squash court in Aberdare! In 2019 I was asked to tell a bedtime story at the Millennium Stadium to over 100 people sleeping out to raise awareness of homelessness.
In the summer of 2013 many of the poems written and used in those performances and workshops were published by Pont in a collection entitled 'A Wee Bit of Trouble'. Paul Doyle the Children's Librarian with Neath Port Talbot said of the collection;
'Mike Church's infectious enthusiasm at school visits is here in bucketfuls. This wonderful engaging collection is there to be shared, read aloud and enjoyed by all.'
Welcome to the website.
I hope these few pages will inform you a little about what I do.
'You make reading really cool' said Finley aged 9 years old at Monmouth Library in March 2017.....that'll do for me.
I was a teacher for many years and a deputy headteacher until Christmas 2006. I departed the school to work as a freelance writer and left behind a passion for arts friendly education with a strong school ethos.
I've written poetry for many years and represented Wales at the first ever National UK Poetry Slam in 1997 at the Watershed Centre in Bristol (I like to think of this as my one Welsh cap).
Since 2007 I've been visiting schools ( it’s now 100+ a year), prisons, parks, castles, football stadiums, residential homes and squash courts....yes poetry in a squash court in Aberdare! In 2019 I was asked to tell a bedtime story at the Millennium Stadium to over 100 people sleeping out to raise awareness of homelessness.
In the summer of 2013 many of the poems written and used in those performances and workshops were published by Pont in a collection entitled 'A Wee Bit of Trouble'. Paul Doyle the Children's Librarian with Neath Port Talbot said of the collection;
'Mike Church's infectious enthusiasm at school visits is here in bucketfuls. This wonderful engaging collection is there to be shared, read aloud and enjoyed by all.'
Since then other books have followed and there are details of a few of them in the 'Books' section of this website and a photo in the Gallery section of of a more up to date version of published titles. Please let me know via the contact page if you want to purchase books or need further information. It has been an enormous privilege and a great pleasure to get involved with groups of all ages and develop a range of community based publications at a professional level. Since 2013 I have worked with the Petra Publishing in Caerphilly and together we have produced over seventy children's books, making us the largest publisher of children's picture books in Wales. In January 2018 we had recognition and support for that from the Welsh Books Council as we continue to spread a love of words and stories. Many schools are purchasing books as texts for their libraries and PSE programmes. In 2018/19 I toured over 200 schools with ‘The Elephant Who Forgot’ delivering to over 3,000 Year 2 children who took their own book home to raise awareness of dementia. This work was recognised and discussed in the Senedd during a debate in 2020.
My work as a teacher, actor, storyteller and a children's entertainer are thrown together in the projects I get involved in. Here's what Lee Burnell the headteacher of Gorseinon Junior School said in his school newsletter in the Spring of 2012;
My work as a teacher, actor, storyteller and a children's entertainer are thrown together in the projects I get involved in. Here's what Lee Burnell the headteacher of Gorseinon Junior School said in his school newsletter in the Spring of 2012;
"Poet Mike Church has worked with our Year 6 children in order to promote enthusiasm for literacy (focus on engaging boys). This has been extremely successful in its initial aim and has generated outstanding comedy poems and sketches by the pupils. These were performed at Penyrheol Theatre. The event was an amazing experience for the children and their performance was outstanding to a huge audience... This has been an outstanding success story for all schools involved and an excellent example of the cluster working in partnership to raise standards of literacy".
Justine Wheatley, Director of Arts Alive Wales, once described me as:
'a human tonic'
(which I'll take, daily, as a compliment, thank you Justine) or as Alex Winters from CBBC put it when we worked together at the Wales Millennium Centre in October 2014:
'Do you want some more of mad, crazy, bonkers Mike? '
'a human tonic'
(which I'll take, daily, as a compliment, thank you Justine) or as Alex Winters from CBBC put it when we worked together at the Wales Millennium Centre in October 2014:
'Do you want some more of mad, crazy, bonkers Mike? '
