For Secondary Schools and School Clusters

We support you to be ‘at the heart of your community, working with other schools and the wider community.’

We offer tailored packages to suit your cluster and primary-secondary transition needs. Our writers and storytellers are experienced in such work, motivating pupils to produce creative work across the cluster for a final showcasing.

Literacy Development stalls for many children, and declines for some, at Transition or Transfer to secondary school. It is important to maintain that inspiration at a time of major change in a child’s life.

Parents are more eager to be involved with their child’s school at times of Transition than at any other. Engaging parents and the community is crucial for a school’s ethos.

Children can be anxious about their progression to secondary school. Children’s literature is about children experiencing change. Children address their anxieties through stories and their own writing.

Secondary schools want to show what they have to offer to their local primary schools; to inspire and encourage children; to generate eagerness about reading and writing and the new demands of secondary education.

Cluster strategies to engage all schools are important, and literacy and creativity are crucial to all curriculum and cluster priority needs.

Components can include:

• Writer and storyteller workshops and mini-residencies in all the cluster primary schools, for years 6 or 5
• Workshops linking primary and secondary pupils, years 7 & 8
• Showcasing at the secondary school of pupils’ creative and performance work, with parents involved
• Storyteller performance at the final showcasing
• Online writer support for developing creative written work
• Local media coverage

Educational research has highlighted that literacy attainment ‘dips’ at periods of Transition. Up to 40% of pupils can lose motivation and make no progress in the year after transfer to secondary school, and 7% ‘unlearn’ skills.

Feedback from cluster-project schools:

‘It was great to see the children, boys in particular, more confident about their ideas, both spoken and written.’ Primary

‘Impact on pupils especially noticeable with the very highest and very lowest achievers, and reluctant writers.’ Primary

‘We were very pleased with the project and felt it reinforced our ties with the local schools and the importance of literacy to help pupils engage with the wider curriculum. The organisational and logistical processes were great.’ Secondary

‘The experience was an excellent one for our feeder schools… One of the keys to success was the preparation work that had been done beforehand in partnership with the class teachers…The authors and storytellers certainly engaged the children. The project represented good value for money and gave me a positive link with the schools in terms of contact with the head teachers…It was a pleasure to be involved with the project.’ Secondary