Embodied Literacy was a 24-month project which provided an embodied, imaginative experience of early Literacy for children across Reception (EYFS) and Key Stage 1. Paley-inspired residencies in four Torbay schools inspired children with performances via the ‘StoryGenerator’, creating delight & excitement around language & storysharing. Support networks established between teachers, artists & parents developed support for children’s ongoing literacy, with embedded CPD for teachers.
Aim 1: To place children at the centre of their own learning journey through supporting confidence and agency in their ideas.
Aim 2: To give voice to children’s stories, concerns and ideas, helping to express themselves and be heard. Valuing self-made stories that embody and articulate their own feelings and experiences.
Aim 3: To support children’s happiness and wellbeing.
Aim 4: To achieve a long term cultural shift and to impact and inform the wider learning ecology.
This programme of schools’ residencies was inspired by the work of Vivian Gussin Paley, a highly respected teacher and early childhood education researcher. The Paley-inspired residencies took children through the journey from inspiration to story-making and story-acting. Each residency included: five sessions with each of two classes in Reception (EYFS); five sessions with each of two classes in Key Stage 1, and four inset training sessions per school for teachers to learn and embed the practice.
Working across a number of classes, it was hoped that the residencies would then become more embedded in school life and influence the learning ecology. An addition, full-network embedding sessions were planned to develop peer-exchange, growing the network of advocates and practitioners beyond the residency schools.
Over the course of 24 months and 84 in-person sessions, The Embodied Literacy Project delivered residencies to four schools in Torbay, engaging with 510 children in Reception and KS1. Due to the pandemic the first part of the project was delivered digitally to an additional 90 children.
Each residency began with a StoryExplorer performance involving the StoryGenerator, created to engender a sense of excitement and curiosity about stories and story-making.
This was followed by five workshops with each class which involved movement, drawing, group/individual story-making and story-acting. Alongside this, we delivered four inset-training sessions for teachers in each school (16 in total) so that they could gain the skills needed to deliver creative and embodied approaches to literacy themselves.
They were additionally supported by accessing online resources on the Skylarker website: www.skylarker.co.uk.
We ran one parent engagement session with each school (four in total) to tell parents about the project and introduce ways to support their child’s creativity at home. They gave them a tour of the free-to-access resources we had created on our website, including an interactive story-making page, to inspire their ideas. Each child received a StoryMap booklet to take home and create a story with the support of their parents/carers. We ran one networking event where teachers had the opportunity to share discoveries and challenges with teachers from other schools, with the hope that this would lead to an ongoing dialogue between the schools.
The partner schools we worked with on this project were: Roselands Primary School, Oldway Primary School, Shiphay Learning Academy and Eden Park Primary School. We are deeply grateful to the talented and experienced teachers at these schools, who welcomed us in so warmly and who brought their own expertise and skill to the project.
We are excited to continue working with these schools as part of the ongoing Talking Turns Project, funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and led by partner organisation Daisi (Devon Arts in Schools Initiative). This ongoing schools outreach work has been made possible via partnerships from the Torbay Arts in Schools Network.
