Intent:

At GEMS Al Barsha National School (GNS), broadening students’ horizons and developing a genuine love of reading were central priorities for English improvement. As a diverse, multilingual community with a high proportion of EAL learners, we needed an approach that would immerse children in rich language, elevate the quality of writing, and purposefully deepen vocabulary across all phases.

Before adopting Literacy Tree, we identified key areas for development:

• Increasing writing stamina and frequency.
• Raising attainment in composition across year groups.
• Ensuring consistent coverage and progression in writing genres.
• Providing high-quality texts that would inspire, challenge and excite pupils.
• Strengthening vocabulary acquisition for EAL learners through purposeful, contextualised language exposure.

The Literacy Tree’s text-based, immersive curriculum aligned perfectly with our vision for a reading rich, vocabulary rich school culture. Its emphasis on high quality children’s literature, meaningful writing opportunities and carefully sequenced units offered exactly what we needed to transform English learning at GNS.

Implementation: 

To launch Literacy Tree with purpose and excitement, the whole school began the year with a unified Writing Root: Journey, a stunning wordless picture book. This enabled every student from FS to Year 6 to access the same high-quality text, regardless of language background or reading level. The impact was immediate: classrooms buzzed with discussion, visual inference, storytelling and imagination.

This launch culminated in a whole-school “Showcase Corridor” celebrating writing and art inspired by Journey, offering a powerful visual narrative of what Literacy Tree could do for engagement. Following this success, we opened the next academic year (2025–26) with The Fox and the Star, once again drawing students into a shared literary experience they adored.

Since implementation, the school has:

• Aligned tiered vocabulary lists directly with Literacy Tree units to support language acquisition.
• Purchased class sets of core texts, ensuring every child holds the book during lessons, critical for engagement and equity.
• Integrated Literacy Tree texts into the GNS GEMS Reading Challenge, strengthening reading for pleasure culture.
• Ensured consistent training and support for teachers, with Literacy Tree principles embedded across phases.

Impact: 

The influence of Literacy Tree at GEMS Al Barsha National School has been transformative across reading, writing and classroom culture.

Writing Outcomes

• Noticeable increases in writing stamina and students’ ability to write for sustained periods.
• Students show far greater purpose and clarity in their writing across genres.
• Writing frequency has increased, with pupils producing more high quality work independently.
• Attainment in writing has risen, with clearer evidence of progress visible in books across the school.

Reading and Engagement.

• Students are highly invested in their class texts, often eager to continue reading beyond lesson time.
• A growing number of pupils discuss authors, themes and vocabulary with confidence, demonstrating deeper comprehension.
• Vocabulary development, particularly for EAL students, has accelerated due to rich, contextualised language exposure within the units.

School Culture

• A stronger, more visible reading culture has emerged across the school.
• Families engage more deeply with reading through challenges, displays and conversations at home.
• Teachers report that lessons feel more purposeful, engaging and creatively energising.

Literacy Tree has quickly become a cornerstone of our school’s identity: raising standards, inspiring students and embedding a culture where reading and writing are celebrated daily.