The impact of the Story Links parent partnership intervention to support pupils at risk of exclusion
An eighteen-month evaluation of the Story Links Programme (Waters, 2009) supported by Esmee Fairbairn and the TDA shows that the intervention reduced pupil stress, improved their behaviour, increased parents’ involvement with their child’s learning and improved home/school relationships.
Here are some key findings from the evaluation report:
Significant reduction in pupils’ emotional stress
The Goodman’s SDQ showed there was a significant reduction in overall stress related to BESDs for all of the pupils over the course of the Story Links programme.
Goodman’s SDQ for impact of Story Links intervention on pupils’ Overall Stress
All of the pupils in the evaluation were experiencing above average Overall Stress before the intervention, with the majority showing ‘very high’ overall stress. Improvement in this area was marked: all of the pupils showed a reduction in overall stress post intervention.
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Improvement in classroom behaviour
The Goodman’s SDQ showed there had been a significant improvement in pupil behaviour over the course of the Story Links intervention.
The majority of the pupils scored above average for behavioural difficulties before the Story Links intervention with half falling into the ‘very high’ category. By the end of the intervention there had been a significant reduction in the behavioural difficulties of the group.
Increased frequency of pupil reading to parent at home
Prior to the intervention two-thirds of the parents heard their child read less than once a month, if at all. This improved dramatically during the Story Links programme with the majority of parents hearing their child read at home at least twice a week.
An Improvement in home/school relationships
The majority of the parents and all the teachers thought the home/school relationship had improved during the Story Links programme.
Story Links Evaluation Report for Esmee Fairbairn and TDA (6.2 MiB, 4,291 hits)
This section includes useful resources to support the understanding and delivery of the Story Links intervention. It includes:
Research Reports
View evaluative research supported by Esmee Fairbairn and the TDA on the impact of Story Links in schools. Other research such as that commissioned by SERSEN on Therapeutic Storywriting Groups also included here.
Web Links
Useful links to other organizations supporting the emotional well-being of pupils.