Introduction to the Programme

An Introduction to the Programme
and how it can benefit your school

Dame Jacqueline Wilson

Author of

The Story of Tracy Beaker

“To be a successful human being

you need to be in touch with other people’s feelings.”

About EmpathyLab

EmpathyLab is the first UK organisation to build children's empathy, literacy and social activism through a systematic use of high-quality literature. Our strategy builds on scientific evidence showing that empathy is a learnable skill and that reading can build real-life empathy skills.

Young people are growing up in a society with a major empathy deficit. Hate crimes are at their highest level since records began and there are increasing concerns about the negative effects of social media. We believe that empathy is a beacon of hope in a divided world, and vital for young people’s life chances.

EmpathyLab provides training, consultancy and creative resources to help Senior Leadership Teams and teaching staff integrate a much sharper empathy focus into all aspects of the curriculum and school life.

About the Programme and How it Can Benefit the School

EmpathyLab’s schools programme is called Empathy Explorers in primary schools and Empathy Activists at secondary level. It’s an empathy education programme involving the whole school community. The programme builds schools’ capacity to harness literature’s power to achieve this “triple win” – simultaneously developing young people’s empathy and literacy skills, and their social activism.

The programme takes a “teach a person to fish” capacity-building approach.

It is a multi-layered intervention, aiming to take pupils on this learning journey, and develop four specific empathy skills.

Through the programme, the whole school community will:

· Be introduced to the concept of empathy and its social importance

· Integrate empathy into every aspect of school strategy, pedagogy and relationships

· Explore empathy through the use of high-quality literature, focusing on characters and feelings

· Take part in inspirational activities to explore emotional responses and practise empathy

· Be part of a community of empathic readers, sharing reading experiences and book recommendations with families and other children

· Follow pathways to put empathy into action in school, homes and the wider community

Aims of the Programme Handbook and How to Use It

This handbook offers schools an approach to implementing the EmpathyLab programme. It is designed to be used alongside a large bank of resources and support from our team.

The programme is split into 6 phases, described here.

This sequence works well for most schools, but it very much depends on the individual context. Sometimes schools embark on

Phase 4 and 5 concurrently or in quick succession; some prefer to spend longer embedding the work with children in classrooms.

Our suggestions are based on our research and work with pioneer schools, but we know that schools are best placed to make

these judgements for themselves.

Our extensive body of accompanying resources can be accessed through the

AFFILIATE RESOURCE PORTAL >

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An Introduction to the Programme and how it can benefit your school