How stories help pupils to learn the curriculum

Helping pupils to learn well is obviously important, otherwise we are likely to be wasting our time.

There are some ways that are more effective than others. It turns out that if we identify the big ideas and concepts and teach children these, then they are likely to know more, remember more and be able to do more, over time.

It also says in the quality of education judgement in the school inspection handbook that pupils are learning well when they are ‘making progress in that they know more, remember more and are able to do more’. And that ‘teaching is designed to help pupils to remember long term the content they have been taught and to integrate new knowledge into larger ideas’.

We have some helpful insights from psychology, for instance Daniel Willingham’s research that indicates that our brains ‘privilege’ story. Stories help pupils to make sense of new content, they help pupils to make connections and finally they are enjoyable!

There are plenty of stories across the curriculum which we can use to help our pupils know more, remember more and to be able to do more.

Find out more about how stories can help pupils learn more of the curriculum in this short film on Myatt & Co.