Introduction to Therapeutic Storywriting Groups and Story Links

Introduction to: Therapeutic Storywriting Groups and Story Links

Two SEN interventions to support pupils’ emotional, social and mental wellbeing l Therapeutic l 10 week intervention for groups of 6 pupils with BESDs (wave 2) l Storywriting Groups Links 10 week intervention for parents of pupils with attachment anxiety and poor reading skills (wave 3) Delivered by

Therapeutic Storywriting Groups l Evidence-based 10 week intervention that uses story metaphor to process difficult emotions while developing writing skills l Works with groups of up to 6 pupils identified as having BESDs l Research* shows that Therapeutic Storywriting Groups develop social skills, help to process difficult emotions and improve writing skills ★ www. therapeuticstorywriting. com/research

Research: Therapeutic Storywriting Groups SERSEN (2004) evaluation: · Enabled pupils to use the medium of story writing to process difficult feelings · Helped pupils develop co-operative and trusting relationships with peers · Increased pupils motivation to engage with writing Hampshire EPS Evaluation (2013) l Significantly improved in terms of their NC levels in both reading and writing l Significantly improved in terms of hyperactivity, peer problems and total score on the Goodman’s SDQ. l www. therapeuticstorywriting. com/research

Therapeutic Storywriting Groups: Training Target group: SENCOs + SEN teachers, HLTAs, Learning Mentors or School counsellors supporting pupils with BESDs at KS 2 & 3 l Mode of delivery: 3 -day training direct to professionals implementing intervention l Online training manual: all participants are given a login for the online training manual that supports the 3 day training l www. therapeuticstorywritingtraining. co. uk l

Video: Therapeutic Storywriting Groups Video of Therapeutic Storywriting Groups (TSW) in Tottenham schools on home page of online training manual: http: //therapeuticstorywritingtraining. co. uk

Pupils’ comments: Therapeutic Storywriting Groups The group helped me to release my anger in small portions. Now it goes into my pencil and into stories. I can make a story around how I feel I can write my own story - it’s just me and the paper. (Mike Y 5) I think it’s really fun and relaxing because we can- like if we’ve had some problems or if we’re just not in a good mood -we can come here and relax and we’ll concentrate easily’. (Yasmin Y 6)

l 10 week intervention involving parents in co-creating stories that address their child’s emotional and behavioural issues l Research* shows that Story Links improves parental involvement in their child’s learning, reduces exclusion and supports pupils’ engagement with reading ★ storylinkstraining. co. uk/? page_id=16

Story Links: Training Target group: SENCOs + SEN teachers, Learning Mentors or School counsellors supporting pupils with BESDs at KS 1 & 2 l Mode of delivery: 3 -day training direct to professionals implementing story Links intervention l Online training manual: all participants are given a login for the online training manual that supports the 3 day training www. storylinkstraining. co. uk l

Video Clip: Story Links l Teachers TV programme l View on home page of online training manual: www. storylinkstraining. co. uk

Parent and teacher comments: Story Links l. The school thought she would be very hard to engage. . Mum is very eager, surprisingly eager, the school is quite shocked that she’s actually turning up religiously and is very committed (SL teacher) l. John’s got behaviour problems so my interaction with the school was horrible all the time - the only interaction was ‘John’s been bad, this happened, that’s happened’. . . now, it’s nice to look forward to coming in. . . John glows and picks up his reading and is eager to tell us his story. (Mother)

Further information, research and resources Centre for Therapeutic Storywriting: www. therapeuticstorywriting. com Online training manuals: www. therapeuticstorywritingtraining. co. uk www. storylinkstraining. co. uk