Research School Network: Turning the concept of ​‘Reading for Wellbeing’ into practice within the Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) curriculum Part 2: Practical ideas for using stories in PSHE and the impact this can have on children

Key Strategies for Using Stories as a Wellbeing Tool in our Classrooms

PSHE supports children’s wider development by helping them stay safe, understand their emotions, and build healthy relationships. It also strengthens Social Emotional Learning, an important skill set that provides children with strategies to understand and regulate their feelings (EEF, 2021).

Using The Story Project’s research-backed S.T.O.R.Y. structure, we design evidence-informed sessions that create a safe, story-centred space for PSHE and wellbeing learning. Research from founder Olivia Richards’ PhD, validated with ImpactEd (2026), shows that this framework helps teachers maximise wellbeing learning through stories.

Below is an outline of key parts of the framework, alongside examples taken from one of our Year 4 units ​‘The Grand Hotel of Feelings’ by Lidia Brankovic which covers understanding emotions and regulation.

The explicit teaching of emotional regulation

The Story Project lessons begin with an activity to prepare children for the learning, linked to the relevant book. A short mindfulness activity allows children to be ready and attentive to join in with a shared story experience., as well as explicitly teaching skills to settle big emotions. For example, Rainbow Breathing: this activity asks children to imagine a rainbow, like the one in the story. Children are guided through deep breaths thinking about the colours and letting any distractions float away with the rain.

Emotional vocabulary exposure

Giving children focused time to build emotional vocabulary strengthens their understanding of complex wellbeing topics (Narvaez, 2001) and supports their ability to use emotional regulation strategies effectively (Ornaghi et al., 2013). In The Story Project, this is achieved using regular discussion of characters’ feelings, using increasingly rich and precise emotional language. Using the image of ​‘anger’ in ​‘The Grand Hotel of Feelings’, one lesson invites children to think more deeply about what anger feels and looks like by considering why this emotion occupies the largest room in the hotel. Across many units, children are encouraged to explore alternative words for familiar emotions, gradually expanding and refining their emotional vocabulary

Providing an objective gives children a wellbeing focus to consider while reading and discussing the book. It also gives opportunity for teachers to address any key wellbeing vocabulary related to the story, so that children can access and understand the learning effectively.

In ​‘The Grand Hotel of Feelings’, ​‘I can tell you why it is important to take notice of our emotions’ is the focus in one of the unit’s lessons. The following sections of Read and You are then built around the objective, to ensure learning is purposeful. Lessons are designed so that the objectives deepen prior knowledge gained in previous units and year groups.

Reading and rich discussion

Reading together supports children’s wellbeing, and the impact increases when books are paired with discussion that helps them explore emotions. To support this, questions are crafted around key reading content domains (vocabulary, retrieval and inference) and uses high‑quality language to prompt purposeful paired and group talk. These questions draw attention to characters’ actions, consequences and feelings, helping children learn vicariously through their experiences

In The Grand Hotel of Feelings, for example, children consider questions such as: ​“What does the author mean by ​‘anxiety loves the spotlight’? Why might the manager allow some feelings to share a room?” to deepen their understanding of different emotions.

Reflecting stories on ourselves

Giving children time to connect a story to their own experiences is central to effective Reading for Wellbeing. This reflection helps them unpack challenging topics, relate ideas to real situations, and avoid misunderstandings.

In the example ​‘The Grand Hotel of Feelings’, an Emotion Awareness Role Play invites children to explore scenarios where they might feel frustrated, embarrassed, angry etc. They compare scenarios where they ignore an emotion with ones where they notice it, helping them think about how recognising their feelings can help them respond to situations more positively.

Evidence from The Story Project that ​‘Reading for Wellbeing’ Works

Through external research and case studies, we see clear evidence of the impact these strategies have. A 2026 ImpactEd report comparing schools before and after implementation found:

Teachers rating pupils’ emotional vocabulary as Good or Excellent rose from 27.8% to 85.5%.

Teachers rating wellbeing discussions as Good or Excellent increased from 48.2% to 92.7%.

Pupils showed much stronger empathy, with teacher ratings of Good or Excellent rising from 21.8% to 71.6%.

One teacher told us: ​“The ripple effect of storytelling has been profound, supporting not only academic outcomes but also confidence, resilience and aspirations”. (The Story Project, 2026)

Find out more information and access a free trial of Year 4: ​‘The Grand Hotel of Feelings’ by Lidia Brankovic as mentioned above: story-project.co.uk

BookTrust (n.d.) The benefits of reading. Available at: https://files.booktrust.org.uk… (Accessed: 26 February 2026)

Education Endowment Foundation (2021) Improving social and emotional learning in primary schools. Available at: https://d2tic4wvo1iusb.cloudfr… (Accessed: 26 February 2026)

ImpactEd Evaluation (2026) The Story Project: Bradford – Final Report 2026. Story Project. Available at: https://story-project.co.uk/wp… (Accessed: 26 February 2026)

Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991) Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Oatley, K. (1999). Why fiction may be twice as true as fact: Fiction as cognitive and emotional simulation. Review of General Psychology, 3, 101 – 117.

Narvaez, D. (2001) ​‘Moral text comprehension: Implications for education and research’, Journal of Moral Education, 30(1), pp. 43 – 54.

Ornaghi, V. and Grazzani, I. (2013) ​‘The relationship between emotional-state language and emotion understanding: A study with school-age children’, Cognition and Emotion, 27(2), pp. 356 – 366

Oatley, K. (1999). Why fiction may be twice as true as fact: Fiction as cognitive and emotional simulation. Review of General Psychology, 3, 101 – 117.

The Story Project CIC (2026) High Crags Case Study. Story Project. Available at: https://story-project.co.uk/wp… (Accessed: 26 February 2026)