Our ‘STORY’ approach: an evidence based way to teach to PSHE

There’s more to the name ‘The Story Project’ than meets the eye. Did you know that the word ‘story’ is also a nod to our tried-and-tested, research backed approach to lessons?

If you work in one of our member schools or have ever downloaded a free resource, you will have already seen how this approach brings consistency and structure to everything we do. It is what ensures our lessons pack such a punch! Emotional regulation, vocab training, oracy, literacy skills and wellbeing skills are all neatly drawn in to the sessions using our S.T.O.R.Y method. Clever, eh! Let us explain how…

STORY encompasses the 5 key elements of all our lessons. Settle, Training, Objective, Read, You. Each element has its own unique function and is equally important. Olivia, our founder, created this acronym during a walk while The Story Project was in its earliest phases of development.

The acronym was initial created to provide a framework for teachers so they could use books to support PSHE lessons. Since then, it has become intrinsically linked to the core of our approach.

We love that having this consistent structure encourages children to feel safe in our lessons. Children know what to expect, as each element feels familiar. Even our PowerPoints are designed to ensure a smooth, light cognitive load experience. It will come as no surprise to any class teacher reading this that, when children feel safe and ready for learning they are more likely to engage with the lesson.

Research-backed

It is really important to us that our programme is underpinned by research and classroom evidence. That’s why each part of our STORY structure is backed by Olivia’s PhD, current research in the fields of education and psychology, and her continued work to develop The Story Project.

Read more about Olivia’s research here

A closer look at S.T.O.R.Y

Settle – A short, easy-to-implement activity to begin the lesson. This encourages children to reset so they are in the right frame of mind to learn. Each settle activity provides a strategy to add to children’s emotional regulation toolkit and is linked with the unit’s chosen book.

Fun fact: There are over 200 settle activities across our curriculum!

Key research: DFE (2025), Tang et al (2015), Khoury et al (2013), Evans (2006), Bohm (1996)

Training – An opportunity to enhance children’s emotional literacy. By using our specially designed visual vocabulary grid, children identify and name different feelings based on characters in the story. This provides a grounding in emotion vocab knowledge ready to learn about wellbeing and PSHE topics.

Fun fact: by the end of Year 6, children will have covered 64 different emotion words!

Key research: Green & Sun (2024), Ornaghi & Grazzini (2013), Lieven (2010), Ameel et al (2008), Narvaez (2001)

Objective – As an objective-led curriculum, each lesson includes an ‘I can…’ statement. This provides focus for children while they read the book and complete the activities. In addition, it allows teachers to address any misconceptions before beginning the story.

Fun fact: in the final lesson of each unit, there is an opportunity to review the objectives and the learning.

Key research: Narvaez (2001)

Read – Perhaps our favourite part of the lesson; it is time to enjoy the story and celebrate the magic of books! All our books are selected for their thought-provoking themes, engaging characters and variety of topics. Guided reading questions, linked to the objective, are provided to help develop children’s inference, vocab and retrieval skills.

Fun fact: our guided reading questions are all editable. Need to adapt them for specific learners? Go ahead!

Key research: McGeown & Wilkinson (2021), Jerrim & Moss (2018), Ledger & Merga (2018), Kalb & van Ours (2014), Oatley (1999), Lave & Wenger (1991)

You – This section of the lesson is where you’ll see the lightbulb moments. Starting with a short class discussion to consolidate the themes of the book, the ‘You’ section allows children to reflect the story on their own experiences and opinions. Filled with practical, creative and oracy-based activities – this section is lots of fun to teach!

Fun fact: Every ‘You’ section gives teachers two options of activities. This means you can adapt the lesson to suit the needs of your class.

Key research: Larsen (2018), Narvaez (1991)

Adapting STORY for everyone!

While using the STORY acronym gives our approach a consistent structure, it doesn’t prevent it from being a flexible programme that works in all phases of education and with all children.

Our nursery and secondary programmes use STORY to their advantage, mixing it up to suit the needs of the youngest and oldest learners. In nursery, for example, the emphasis is on learning the core emotions. For this reason, more weight is given to ‘training’ – how does each emotion look and feel like, how can we describe, how can we recognise it in to other people, and how do we get help if the emotion gets too big.

In the secondary programme, the order is switched around to promote more discussion based learning and age appropriate lesson content.

For individual children and classes, we ensure that teachers have the autonomy to change sections of the lesson. That’s why adaptability is built in – activity options, editable questions and PowerPoints that can be changed where needed. Not to mention, our intentional move away from written and worksheet-heavy lessons!

Find out more

Interested in joining a growing community of schools using our STORY approach and seeing remarkable impact?