Blog Post

EmpathyLab at Moorlands Primary Academy

  • By EmpathyLab
  • 31 Jan, 2017

Here Jon Biddle, an inspirational teacher at Moorlands Primary Academy in Great Yarmouth tells us about his class’s work with EmpathyLab

Empathy Lab

We are extremely excited to be one of only a handful of schools invited to trial a new project called Empathy Lab, which is all about how to develop children's empathy skills through books and stories. We will be taking part in different activities over the next few months, such as Empathy Detectives and Empathy Storykits, and then feeding back to the organisers in the summer. The plan is for the project to be launched in schools across the country in September.

Romy, Ethan and Gracie from Year 5 explain a little bit more about what empathy in books means to them.

Romy "Empathy is all about putting your self in other people's shoes, you have to think about how others might be feeling. For example, if a character is lonely in a book, it will make you think about what it feels like to be lonely."

Ethan "I've just read a book called How To Fly With Broken Wings by Jane Elson. There were loads of characters in the story that I felt empathy for, such as Willem, Sasha, Finn and Archie. Although Finn caused a lot of problems, we found out towards the end of the story why he behaved like he did. He was bad because of what happened to him, but he still had feelings."

Gracie "I've finished One Dog And His Boy where the main character is very lonely. When I'd finished the book, I thought a lot about it. One day when I was in the playground I saw a girl who looked really lonely, she was sitting down on her own, so I went and played with her. The book caused me to change my behaviour."

Ethan "I didn't really know what empathy was until we talked about it. It's weird but when I had it explained, I realised that I always try and show empathy to people. I now really look for empathy in books."

Romy "I find empathy in books really interesting, as I didn't used to think how people were feeling, I just used to read. Now I feel a lot more imaginative, it gives the story a lot more background about what might have happened and why."

Ethan "Thinking about it when I read makes me want to read more, because I get so much more involved in the story."

Gracie "I don't always think about what might happen next, but I always think about how a character might be feeling after a story ends. When I read Not As We Know It, I thought loads about the character of Jamie. His brother was probably going to die and I realised how hard it must have been for him to know that. It's never happened to me but I understood it through the story."

Ethan "There are loads of books about empathy. The Ranger's Apprentice has a character who keeps getting told that he isn't good enough. That must have been awful for him."

Romy "I now want to go back and read books like Matilda again, because I want to think more about the feelings of the characters in the story."

Gracie "When I read His Dark Materials, I empathised the most with Lyra's mother. That sounds strange because she's the bad character in the books, but she's only that way because she couldn't see her daughter. All she wanted to do was protect her."

Romy "I always empathise with Harry Potter. In the first book he has no friends and his aunt and uncle only care about his cousin. He must have found that really hard."

Ethan "There's lots of lonely and frightened people in the Harry Potter books. I think that's why so many people love them."

Romy "If other people, who maybe aren't so nice, read some of these books, maybe that would change the way that they acted. They would think more and maybe understand more. I think they should all read more. Perhaps schools should discuss empathy in books every week because it would help people so much."

Gracie "With our class, because we read a lot and always talk about books, we're all learning about empathy and getting on with each other every day. Should other classes choose to read books about empathy such as The Graveyard Book? I think they should."

Ethan "There are lots of books about making friends. Children need to know that it can be really hard if you're different in any way, like the boy in the wheelchair in How To Fly With Broken Wings. He just wanted to fit in with the others. He nearly died because of other people. But they didn't really want that to happen, they just didn't understand."

Gracie "If there's destruction all around you, you don't just see it, you feel it too. When the estate got smashed up I felt so sad because I know people who live in a world like that."

Romy "Can you enjoy books so much without understanding empathy? I don't think you can because it won't mean as much to you. It's just reading then. You don't just read the book, you have to stop and think and then go back to the reading. That's how things make sense to me."

Ethan "If you're younger you can still understand empathy. Stick Man, Hugless Douglas, The Day The Crayons Quit has got loads of perspectives and each colour is misunderstood. When orange and yellow argue about being the sun, that's how some people argue about silly things."

Gracie "I never thought I would care how Stick Man felt but now I really do. He's not just a stick, he has feelings."

Ethan "If you learn about empathy and read books that include it, it helps you get more from your reading. When I feel empathy in stories, I slow down, sometimes stop and think so much more. I turn the pages more slowly."

Gracie "Sometimes I empathise with more than one character in a book. It's really hard when characters aren't treated fairly."

Romy "When characters are separated from people they love, that always makes me think. I've had to move away from my friends and books make me feel better, like I'm not alone."

Ethan "Books that make you feel empathy can just change the way you are. They really actually change you."

By EmpathyLab 29 Feb, 2024
Ofsted have recently said that inspectors need to have more empathy. Journalists have asked politicians where their empathy is when talking about refugees or homeless people. These adults were obviously not at school when EmpathyLab started Empathy Day. But what we hope for children today is that even if they’re not seeing empathy being modelled at home, they are exposed to books in school which promote the consideration of others. The publication of the annual Read for Empathy lists supports schools aiming to develop this crucial life skill.
The collection consists of 65 books for 3-16 year olds, each chosen for its unique contribution in building young people’s empathy.

The primary collection for 3-11 year has 40 books; the secondary collection features 25 books for 12-16 year olds.
By EmpathyLab 29 Feb, 2024

I am very fortunate to have been on the Read for Empathy booklist judging panel over the past few years.

I’m also a practising classroom teacher so I would like to consider how the books on the list can influence what happens in a school.

Firstly, along with many other schools, reading aloud is an important part of our school day, every day, almost without fail. All the teachers at my school are aware of the EmpathyLab booklist, and often use it as a basis for choosing their next class read. Knowing that the books touch on important aspects of our children’s lives is key; we all understand how important representation is in stories. These are books that make a difference, that lead to passionate discussions in the classroom and can actually influence children’s behaviour .

The booklists become increasingly valuable. We have a couple of hundred empathy texts at our school – they are there on merit. Staff often refer to previous lists if there as a particular aspect of empathy that they want to include or share with the children.

Our Year 6 Reading Champions often seek out picture books from the  list to take in to KS1 and Reception when they read stories, so we already have the next generation educating each other about the importance of empathy. I love the fact they often meet beforehand (they tend to work in twos) to discuss what questions they might want to ask the children once the story has been read. After each booklist is released, they also spend several of their Friday recommendation slots in assembly talking about a couple of the books. We have parents in on our Friday assembly so it’s a great way to share the texts with them and help raise their awareness of our work.

We often use the books as our teaching texts for English, partly because they encourage excellent writing but also because they provide a fantastic opportunity for our pupils to develop their empathy skills.  The Wild Robot by Peter Brown, Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo, Freedom by Catherine Johnson, Eyes that Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho and A Street Dog Named Pup by Gill Lewis are all books that have made in into our English curriculum as a result of being on one of the Read for Empathy booklists. Well, that’s not strictly true - Edward Tulane was there before that as it’s one of my favourite ever books, but you hopefully take my point.

Reflecting on our empathy journey over the past few years, I’ve also found that the more books children read that address empathy, where they can relate to the characters and their choices, the more books they want to read. It’s almost a virtuous circle. Many begin to realise that such books can  empower them to think about situations.

For example, as soon as we finished A Street Dog Named Pup last year, several of them immediately wanted to read other books by Gill Lewis. Because empathy is a thread that runs through much of her work ( Gorilla Dawn , Moon Bear , The Closest Thing to Flying and so on). Thanks to EmpathyLab's lists, I was able to point them in the direction of several other books, by her and others.

I think we agree that teaching children about empathy and providing them with opportunities to develop it is one of the most important gifts we can give them as adults. The fact that empathy has gone from being something that schools sort of understood a few years ago to being something that has got an increasingly solid evidence base is crucial.

There’s always been anecdotal evidence that reading stories is important for children and that it can change how they think but now that’s backed up with research. The empathy revolution (and it is a revolution) is only going to pick up more momentum over the next few years as the need for it becomes ever more apparent. Working in schools and in the world of children’s books means that we’re in the front line. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be. 
By EmpathyLab 11 Apr, 2023
Teachers we work with say that children are finding it hard to communicate about their feelings, and have raised anxiety levels and emotional turbulence. We’re taking two steps to help.
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