Thanks to the support of generous donors, education charity
SHINE has awarded £600,000 to introduce The Story Project into schools across the city over the next three years.
The Story Project provides training and resources for teachers so they can use popular, diverse and engaging children’s stories to teach children
skills that will support their wellbeing, while developing their literacy.
Five Bradford primary schools are taking part in the pilot of the project. They are Bowling Park Primary School, Horton Park Primary School, Beckfoot Heaton Primary School, Beckfoot Allerton Primary School and Newby Primary School.
It is hoped that many more schools across the borough will join them as the project progresses. The organisation will expand too with new vacancies, such as an Education Programmes and Partnerships Lead, being posted in March 2024.
The Story Project is the creation of former English teacher Olivia Richards, who won a Let Teachers SHINE award in 2019 to develop the innovation. Since then, the project has provided training for more than 500 teachers across the country. It has been well
received, with 90 per cent of teachers seeing an improvement in children’s wellbeing and 76 per cent seeing an improvement in children’s literacy after using the resources.
Participating schools will receive The Story Project books, training and resources for free.
Zoe Mawson, Headteacher at Beckfoot Heaton Primary, said "I know the impact for my pupils will be significant because they will LOVE it. We can’t wait to see the difference it makes to individuals, classes and the whole community. integrating a love of books
with personal development is genius"
If you are a school in Bradford that could benefit from free books, training and resources to support children’s wellbeing and literacy, please get in touch to find out more about eligibility and how to access it. Just contact olivia@story-project.co.uk
For more information about The Story Project, details of resources and current vacancies head to story-project.co.uk