Empathy Schools

“I had a lightbulb moment at the first training. I thought, this is everything we want for our school.”

Assistant Head, Pentrehafod School
EmpathyLab School since 2019

Empathy is a learnable life skill—and books are a powerful tool for nurturing it.
Our evidence-based programme helps schools embed empathy education across the curriculum, school culture, and community. Schools that join us report lasting improvements in wellbeing, social and emotional learning, community relationships, and reading for pleasure.

Primary, secondary and SEND settings in England, Scotland and Wales are all part of our learning community. Come and join them.

“Amazing, thought-provoking, inspiring.”

“I left both sessions full of ideas I can realistically implement—without stress.”

Post-training feedback, 2025

Why take part

EmpathyLab supports your school to harness the power of diverse, empathy-rich literature with practical tools to strengthen four core social and emotional skills:

Perspective-taking

Building emotional vocabulary

Communication and active listening

Taking social action

Our approach is not a bolt-on—it’s a whole-school, curriculum-aligned practice that positively impacts your:

Curriculum development (PSHE, Literacy, SMSC)

School culture (values, behaviour, staff-student relationships)

Community engagement (family reading and local social action)

We offer a clear evidence-backed framework, and practical tools, which you can apply in your setting to suit your needs across the above themes. How the programme is implemented looks different in every school. You choose the priorities and pacing tailoring it to your needs, with our ongoing guidance and practical support from classroom resources, further staff learning and author events for pupils.

How the programme works

We ask for a two-year commitment—because lasting change takes time. You’ll join a local cohort, or you can take part as a multi-academy trust, building strong local or trust-wide networks with our support.

Year 1: Training & action planning

Your Empathy Lead (plus 1–2 colleagues, e.g. Literacy Lead, SLT, Librarian) attend 2 in-person CPD days, delivered locally

With our support, your team develops a school action plan, aligned with your SIP

Empathy practices are cascaded to staff and introduced across the whole school

Year 2: Embedding & impact

Your school implements its plan, integrated across curriculum, culture, and community
Empathy Leads join national Share & Learn sessions for continued professional growth
EmpathyLab supports progress in monitoring and impact evaluation

What's included

Programme cost

£700 per school (state/academy)
£900 per school (independent)

Included in the cost

2 days in-person CPD training & 1 impact/reflection half day.
Expert support to write, implement, and monitor your action plan.

+ 2 years access to:

Termly virtual author events (attend from the classroom)
Ready-to-use digital resources: booklists, lesson/assembly plans.
Materials for cascading, and ongoing learning webinars on relevant topics (e.g. SEL, Boys & Reading).
30% discount on books from Peters LTD

Ongoing membership

After 2 years continue accessing resources, and discounts for just £150/year

What schools say about the impact

100% of teachers say pupils better understand empathy and its value

87% observe pupils reading for pleasure more often

75% report calmer classrooms and reduced pupil stress

93% of teachers gain new skills and confidence in teaching empathy through books

100% of participating schools are satisfied or very satisfied with the training and support.

See impact stories and short films from school leaders.

Next steps

Be part of a growing national movement using the power of stories to build empathy-educated generations. Complete the form to register your interest.

Ready to bring empathy to the heart of your school?

Contact us to explore joining a local or trust-wide cohort.

Expression of interest form

Please fill out this form to enquire about our Schools Programme

Our current schools

Robin Banerjee: the educational importance of empathy

Headteacher Sonia Thompson on the power of EmpathyLab’s work

Pembroke Dock Community School: building curriculum with our cluster

Pembroke Dock Community School: the creation of their new curriculum