CONTEMPORARY poets such as Huddersfield's Simon Armitage are over-used in classrooms, Poet Laureate Andrew Motion says.

He said he admired work by the likes of Mr Armitage and Carol Anne Duffy, but there should be more diversity.

Schools may be choosing texts because they have an "ethical" message, rather than because they represent examples of good writing, he claimed.

Mr Motion told the Times Educational Supplement: "It must be extremely boring for the teachers, apart from anything else, though it may be that they don't want to rewrite their notes from year to year.

"I know teachers are overworked but there really should be more diversity, a greater range of forms of writing."