Children using The Story Project make gains in wellbeing, emotional literacy, empathy and reading skills
Second annual independent evaluation into Bradford schools project published
An independent evaluation has found that children across Bradford who used The Story Project saw marked improvements in their wellbeing, emotional literacy and empathy, alongside gains in reading skills.
The second annual study by ImpactEd gathered evidence from 997 pupils and 53 teachers across 12 primary schools in the city, all participating in a SHINE-funded pilot programme. Tracking progress from 2023 to 2025, the evaluation compared data year on year as the programme became more deeply embedded within schools.
The success of the Bradford pilot scheme has led to SHINE granting an additional £510,000 to The Story Project this year, to enable it to roll out the programme across the city over the next three years.
This new investment will support schools that have not previously taken part in the SHINE-funded pilot, giving more settings the opportunity to implement and trial The Story Project in their classrooms.
The aim is to for The Story Project to reach 150 Bradford nursery, primary and secondary schools by July 2029.
By the end of the last school year, The Story Project had reached approximately 16,000 children from 25 Bradford schools.
Impact highlights
“Overall, the data indicates that The Story Project had a positive impact on pupil wellbeing outcomes across multiple measures,” ImpactEd summarised.
Emotional vocabulary improved: Teachers rating pupils’ wellbeing and emotional vocabulary as Good/Excellent rose from 27.8% to 85.5% (+57.7pp).
- Higher-quality wellbeing discussions: Good/Excellent ratings increased from 2% to 92.7% (+44.6pp).
- Stronger wellbeing management: Pupils knowing who to approach or how to get help increased from 9% to 73.0% (+12.1pp).
- Greater openness: Pupils are more willing to share feelings and experiences, reflecting themselves and their lives in the stories.
- Increased empathy: Teacher ratings of pupils’ empathy as Good/Excellent rose from 8% to 71.6% (+52.7pp).
- Perceived literacy gains: Before using The Story Project, 6% of teachers rated their pupils’ reading and comprehension skills as Good/Excellent. After the programme, this increased to 64.5% (+30.9pp).
The report also found that teachers “benefitted substantially” from implementing The Story Project, reporting “increased confidence and competence” in supporting pupil wellbeing.
- Better equipped to support wellbeing: Teachers who agreed or strongly agreed they understood how to reduce gaps in pupils’ wellbeing knowledge increased from 3% to 86.8% (+41.5pp).
- Greater confidence with sensitive topics: Teachers reporting they felt equipped to handle challenging PSHE/RSHE wellbeing discussions increased by 9pp.
- Curriculum-wide impact: Teachers applied strategies from The Story Project beyond PSHE, using resources outside designated sessions, adapting lesson-planning structures for other subjects, and embedding the approaches across the curriculum.
The Story Project uses story-based learning to build children’s wellbeing and literacy skills. It provides teachers with training and high-quality resources linked to diverse children’s books, enabling structured exploration of characters and emotions.
Through stories, pupils learn to understand, manage and express big feelings, creating safe spaces to discuss real-life issues such as bereavement, online safety and financial worries. Spanning Reception to Year 6, the programme fully covers Relationships, Sex, and Health Education (RSHE) requirements, recommended Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education skills and age-appropriate reading outcomes.
The evaluation included testimony from pupils across year groups.
A Year 2 pupil using The Story Project said: “It’s OK to make mistakes because sometimes I get so I get angry. I just get a little bit upset with them. Sometimes you just need to talk to someone.”
Another added: “I learnt about my emotions in the story and that it’s OK to feel sad, nervous, upset.”
A Year 5 pupil reflected: “Mental well-being is […] basically just taking care of your mind, not only your body, but your mind. [The mind] is just as important to […] make everything else want to work.”
Teachers described the programme as “transformative”. One Bradford teacher said it had “boosted children’s confidence in speaking and listening, enriched their vocabulary, and fostered a love of reading”, while another described a “ripple effect” which had a “profound” impact on confidence, resilience and aspirations.
A member of the Education Advisor Team at Bradford Council said: “Schools that I work with have found that the resources are of a really high quality and that staff enjoy using them. Use of ‘The Story Project’ has impacted positively by reducing workload… The use of stories to support the delivery of the PSHE curriculum has really had an impact on the children – they have become confident in the use of a wider range of language.”
A teacher said: “The Story Project has had a transformative impact on our school. It has boosted children’s confidence in speaking and listening, enriched their vocabulary, and fostered a love of reading. As PSHE Lead, I’ve seen real improvements in wellbeing, with children better able to express emotions and show empathy.”
Another said: “It’s not an exaggeration to say that this project has ignited a love of learning and opened doors that some of our pupils never thought possible.”
ImpactEd concluded that engaging with The Story Project has “clearly improved pupils’ emotional and wellbeing vocabulary”, enabling them to “navigate through the world more openly” and begin to solve some of their own emotional and wellbeing needs, including restorative conversations and taking “a breathing break”.
It also found that The Story Project has “increased pupils’ capacity to understand and empathise with others”, with relatable characters helping them “open up about their own experiences”.
Teachers have “also benefitted”, with “clear positive trends” showing they feel “far more equipped to handle wellbeing conversations” and “sensitive PSHE topics such as puberty”, while finding the structure and approach “helpful in teaching other subjects such as English and RE”.
Moving forward, the evaluation recommends strengthening the evidence base in three ways. First, it suggests improving how literacy impact is measured by running the evaluation over a longer period, including more pupils, and using a validated assessment tool to better understand whether improvements can be directly attributed to the programme. Second, it recommends carrying out further focus groups to explore changes in how pupils talk about and manage big emotions. Finally, as the programme appears to have narrowed gaps for pupils with EAL and SEND, it proposes targeted research to understand which elements of The Story Project are driving this success.
Note: This study did not incorporate a control group; therefore, causal inferences regarding the observed improvements and their direct attribution to The Story Project cannot be established with certainty. However, the changes in reported outcomes between the start and the end of the study were found to be statistically significant across all wellbeing measures