Power of Pictures (PoP) is a children’s reading and writing programme provided to English schools by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE). Power of Pictures is available for all primary ages, but the version described here that EEF has tested was delivered to Year 5 pupils.
The version of PoP evaluated in this trial aims to raise children’s writing skills by enhancing teachers’ understanding and ability to teach using picture books. The programme includes teacher training delivered directly from an author-illustrator of a picture book. Pupils take part in a workshop with the author-illustrator, then teachers support pupils to develop their own picture book stories. Schools were required to commit at least four weeks of their English curriculum to PoP (equal to 20 lessons over two terms).
The EEF evaluated this programme as part of a ‘Learning About Culture’ funding round to generate evidence on the impact of creative cultural led programmes on children’s reading and writing attainment, after a review of the evidence on arts education found a lack of rigorous evidence for arts programmes on pupil attainment.
EEF trialled this specific programme at efficacy level. This means EEF have trialled this programme in a smaller number of schools in best possible conditions. The efficacy trial found that pupils taking part in the PoP programme made, on average, one months’ additional progress in writing ability (the primary outcome), compared to children in the usual practice control group. The three padlock security rating means we are moderately confident that this difference was due to the intervention and not to other factors. The evaluation found that the programme had a positive effect on children’s writing self-efficacy and writing creativity. The result was similar when looking only at children eligible for free school meals, but the smaller number of FSM pupils in the trial limits the security of this result. These positive results have led EEF to designate this as a ‘Promising Programme’.
The evaluator also produced an overarching report to draw together learning from all five trials within the Learning About Culture round.
- This was an efficacy trial, that took place in 101 schools. The schools were located in London, North East England, and East Sussex.
- 94% of the schools involved were Ofsted-rated Good or Outstanding schools. This is higher than national average, although there were more Ofsted-rated good and outstanding schools in the control group, than the intervention group.
- Around 29% of the pupils in the schools had been eligible for free schools meals at some point (EverFSM). This is slightly higher than national average.
- Around 36% of the pupils in the schools had English as a second language (higher than national average)
In the version trialled, schools had to commit at least four weeks of their English curriculum (20 lessons) to PoP. One teacher from Year 5 was nominated by the school to lead the intervention for their class. The teachers selected received 2.5 days of training out of school time directly from the author-illustrator and the PoP team. Throughout the implementation period, the PoP team makes web resources available to the teachers, including sample teaching sequences. The final training session (half a day) involves not only the teachers who have previously participated, but also the school’s senior leadership team (SLT) and the literacy coordinator.
Those teaching the programme highlighted the importance of providing guidance to schools and senior leaders on how the programme can be delivered whilst also meeting national curriculum requirements (e.g., spelling, punctuation, and grammar). The programme also requires schools to provide children with artistic resources (e.g., colouring pencils, watercolour paints, acrylic paints, collage materials, tracing paper and publication paper).
Senior leader buy-in was seen as being a crucial element of success, given the curriculum requirements. The majority of teachers attended all training sessions and case study data showed they found them to be useful opportunities for seeing how pupils would experience the PoP intervention. Teachers reported high levels of engagement with the programme and reported perceived increased interest in writing among their pupils, especially from pupils who were struggling to engage with the traditional writing curriculum and may not previously have enjoyed writing. In particular, the visual element of this programme was perceived to attract learners who traditionally have difficulties engaging in literacy activities.
For the programme as trialled in the evaluation, the average cost was approximately £352 for the year it was delivered, when delivered to 25 pupils (the number of pupils receiving PoP in this trial). This also translates to £5 per pupil per year when averaged over 3 years.
This is an estimate of holistic school costs to implement the programme at the time of the evaluation, schools will need to check the current cost of the programme through CLPE.
The Power of Pictures programme is available to schools nationally, and versions of the programme are available across all the primary age phases (EYFS-Key Stage 2). The training programme is the same format, with updated research and practice applied. The author workshops for schools that featured in the version EEF trialled are no longer a planned part of the programme, but schools can book author visits with the authors involved separately, which is encouraged.
Schools can find out more and sign up on the CLPE website.