Storyline Template
This example has been designed to demonstrate how Storyline can be a useful approach when considering the learning and teaching of
aspects of the Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood organiser within Health and Wellbeing. It is derived from the Storyline ‘New
Neighbours’ created by Steve Bell and Sallie Harkness (Storyline Scotland) and has been developed in conjunction with Yvonne McBlain
(Support Teacher: Effective Learning and Teaching, Falkirk Council) and Sallie Harkness.
The storyline features a number of episodes, it is important to remember that it will take time to explore and revisit these, and that these
should not be seen as individual lessons. The first page of this template allows the opportunity to record the overall Learning Intentions and
Success Criteria for the piece. It would be expected that practitioners would, in discussion with pupils, develop ongoing Learning Intentions
and Success Criteria in response to the path that the Storyline takes. These should also be linked to the range of evidence gathered and noted
in the last column. The template provides some examples of possible key questions and activities to give an introduction as to how this
approach might be used, leaving empty space for practitioners to complete their own information.
It aims to enable children and young people to build, consolidate and revisit skills for learning, life and work such as:
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Understanding the complexities of a range of relationships and experiences of family life
Empathy for the great diversity of family units
Evaluating, considering and making judgements around a range of “incidents”
Devising creative solutions to a range of concerns
Decision making skills
Assessing and managing risk
In addition it attempts to:
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Promote the exploration of parenthood skills and family relationships in a creative and engaging way
Allow pupil personalisation and choice in creating a relevant and enjoyable context for learning
Facilitate links to other connected or interdisciplinary learning
Allow practitioners to adapt key questions and other plan content to maximise the relevance, coherence and progression for their
pupils within their own learning communities and take account of prior learning.
Health and Wellbeing experiences and outcomes – Overarching Statements: l can expect my learning environment to:
 support me to develop my self-awareness, self-worth and respect for others,
 meet challenges, manage change and build relationships,
 acknowledge diversity and understand that it is everyone’s responsibility to challenge discrimination
Storyline Title:
Area of focus:
Learning Intentions & Success Criteria
Learning Intentions:
Success Criteria:
These should be focused around the actual learning that is taking
place. Particular reference should be made to the skills being
developed in the relation to the particular aspects of experiences
and outcomes being contributed to.
These should be explicitly and clearly linked to the Learning
Intentions. This is breaking down the learning taking place into
things that you might observe children saying, writing, making or
doing. These should be used to enable you to make professional
judgements about how much and how well children and young
people are learning.
Storyline Episode 1: Families
Examples of Key Questions
Possible Learning
Experiences
Who are the different
people who make up a
family?
Brainstorm family roles
to gain vocabulary and
existing knowledge of
family groups and
relationships – record
collaboratively as word
bank
Groups discuss the
Which family characters will make-up of their family
be in our group's family?
and each pupil chooses a
character.
What do your family
members look like?
What information can we
give about the family
members?
Each pupil makes a
drawing or collage of
their family character
and the figures are
displayed in family
groups.
Simple biographies giving
name, age, family
role, job, interests, and
two words to describe
personality are shared
with the class.
Methodologies/
Resources
Curriculum Areas/Focus
of Experiences and
Outcomes
Gathering Evidence –
Say/Write/Make/Do
Use this column to track the
evidence you gather as you
go through the storyline.
Notes:
Evidence gathered should link
back to the Learning
Intentions and Success
Criteria.
As you go through your
storyline there will be lots of
opportunities for you to
gather a range of evidence
from what pupils SAY / WRITE
/ MAKE /DO.
It can be helpful to ask pupils
when and how they would
like to be assessed
remembering that assessment
should be to support the
learning and not just about an
end product.
Use of open questioning can
be helpful in establishing how
much and how well pupils
have learned.
Learning conversations
around evidence should focus
on how pupils can progress
their skills.
Storyline Episode 2: A House for each Family
Teacher tells pupils that all of their families live in the same street. The class house front and plans can be displayed in the
classroom as a frieze or picture or compiled in group /class evidence folders.
Examples of Key Questions
Possible Learning
Experiences
What kind of houses will
our families need?
Collage, drawing or
painting of the front of
the family home.
Teacher models
process to create
his/her own house
What should our family
home look like from the
outside?
Inside our houses, how
many rooms will each
family want / need?
How might these rooms be
used by the family
members?
Simple plan of family
home (could be done
as large scale drawing
outdoors or as a simple
composition of
coloured squares
arranged on paper)
Drama task allowing
pupils to demonstrate
existing knowledge of
family activities specific
to rooms in home
Methodologies/
Resources
Curriculum Areas/Focus of
Experiences and Outcomes
Evidence –
Say/Write/Make/Do
Storyline Episode 3 : Family Life – routines and
activities.
Examples of Key
Questions
Possible Learning
Experiences
What is our family’s
daily routine?
Use discussion, a resource
or teacher role-play of a
character to introduce
aspects of personal hygiene
What do our characters
need to do each day?
Drawing of pictures linked
to specific times of day –
each person in family draws
what they would do and
when.
Do any of the family
members have a health
concern?
What do our characters
enjoy doing each day?
What kind of things do
the families do together?
Class then group discussion
of hobbies & pastimes
enjoyed by families
Methodologies/
Resources
Curriculum Areas/Focus of
Experiences and Outcomes
Evidence –
Say/Write/Make/Do
Storyline Episode 4: Additional supporting information.
At this stage your pupils may have contributed ideas which allow you to naturally focus on aspect(s) of Relationships,
Sexual health and Parenthood. If not you can introduce a new family, who will move in to the ‘Empty House’ in the street
to introduce the focus that you want to take.
Pupils should now have developed ownership of their characters. This lends itself to being able to explore more sensitive
themes if required through the anonymity of the characters. This episode could be led by the teacher to sensitively focus
on issues which have been introduced into the storyline naturally. Alternatively teachers could use the family who have
moved into an ‘Empty House’ to introduce a range of incidents. These could include looking at matters around positive
relationships through the variety of family dynamics, personal safety, pregnancy, birth, parenting skills, changes in the
body, separation and loss. This is not an exhaustive list and there are many opportunities within this episode to introduce
a range of incidents or one which is particularly important for you and your learning community. You could also consider
which local services and / or partners you might need to support the families in the storyline.
Examples of Key Questions
Possible Learning
Experiences
Storyline Episode 4: Incidents and Events
To generate pupil ideas:
What sad / happy /
Brainstorm a list of
exciting things do you think possible events.
might happen to the
families now?
Teacher led:
What do you think would
happen if............?
Other helpful questions:
Are all of our families happy
and healthy?
How can we tell?
Is someone unhappy/in
trouble/needing help?
What could the family do to
make things better?
How could our family /
neighbours help to make
things better?
Teacher selects a
range of different
ideas to explore.
Methodologies/
Resources
Curriculum Areas/Focus of
Experiences and Outcomes
Evidence –
Say/Write/Make/Do
As you near the end of your storyline it is nice to plan a positive event, involving the families and characters and bringing
your storyline to a happy conclusion and celebration.
Storyline Episode 5: Culminating Event
Examples of Key Questions
Possible Learning
Experiences
Methodologies/
Resources
Curriculum Areas/Focus of
Experiences and Outcomes
Evidence –
Say/Write/Make/Do
Storyline Episode 6 : Review, Reflect, Respond.
Reviewing, reflecting and responding should be part of the ongoing process within the Storyline as well as a final evaluation.
Examples of Key Questions
Possible Learning
Experiences
What have I learned from
our storyline and about my
family and neighbours we
created?
Brainstorm of learning
gained – record on IWB or
paper
What have I done well
during this project?
Interview of pupil
recorded by adult
What can I do even better
next time?
peer assessment activity
What could we do to make
this project better for the
next class who does it?
Language activity
recording pupil ideas for
improving topic
Methodologies/
Resources
Curriculum Areas/Focus of
Experiences and Outcomes
Evidence –
Say/Write/Make/Do