The National Literacy Trust is a UK based charity dedicated to raising literacy levels.
As a Story Valley partner - we are leading development of ‘IO1’ – a bespoke pack of resources for Vocational Education and Training centres (VETs) worldwide.
Story Valley presented the charity with an exciting opportunity to work in a new sector. We have over 25 years of running literacy programmes in schools and communities - but had never previously produced resources for VETs specifically.
The first step in producing our resource pack was therefore to listen carefully to the unique ambitions and needs of students and staff in VETs. Our working group of Story Valley partners – spanning a range of colleges and countries – has provided a wealth of expertise to help us to build something impactful and sustainable.
Story Valley champions oral storytelling as a way to encourage integration and creative collaboration between local and migrant students. Stories are preciously personal – so our resources needed to be flexible enough to allow students to follow their own instincts; and supportive enough to equip them to do so.
Over the past year, we have honed our approach to this paradox – producing a range of modules for teachers to choose from and implement. Our resources are, as I write, undergoing exciting trials in Ljubljana, Edinburgh and Friesland. A bigger pilot, open to more settings, will launch in Autumn 2022.