New literacy initiative Pobble gets more of the world’s children, including Emneth school’s pupils, writing

A new literacy initiative called Pobble, which is being championed by Emneth Primary School in Wisbech and has gained support from teachers and world famous authors alike, now boasts over 30,000 pieces of written work from more than 100 countries.

The initiative, which aims to increase imagination and motivation in children, comes after statistics showed that positive feedback is the best way to motivate children to produce better work.

The education platform, originally called ‘LendMeYourLiteracy’, is being used by a number of schools in the East of England to help build children’s’ confidence in writing after Department for Education figures showed that as many as one in five boys in Cambridgeshire left primary school this summer not able to write to the expected standard.

Thomas Abbs, deputy head teacher of Emneth Primary School, said: “As teachers, we all know the impact that effective feedback (in its different forms) can have on standards in teaching and learning, and there is increasing research that feedback, be it from peers, teachers or others, is a hugely effective way to raise standards – this was one of the main catalysts for our decision to take up Pobble.”

Pobble is based on the idea of an online classroom wall, whereby teachers are able to share and showcase children’s work.

Mr Abbs added: “The prospect of our children’s work being published - not just in a school corridor, but on a global platform - is an exciting one and so motivating.

“Even at our extremely successful launch day, we had groups of children – some of whom were previously considered reluctant writers – feeling enthused and ready to write and share their writing with the world.”