Aims of the Programme

• To introduce pupils, schools and their wider communities to basic empathy principles and skills – what these are, why they are important and how reading helps in their development

• To use a whole school/whole key stage/year-group approach to embed this key social and emotional skill, employing creative, immersive and pupil-led approaches to learning

• Curriculum for Wales: to support schools in using fiction to develop empathy across all curriculum areas, from AoLEs to developing the characteristics in the Four Purposes

• To provide a practical experience of different ways to promote reading, combining an empathy focus with reading for pleasure

• To support the development of empathic communication skills, including active listening

• To increase pupil agency/ pro-social attitudes, using book character role models to help pupils understand how acts of empathy can change things for the better