Literacy through Sport

Hey, we're Pobble, a team of teachers, writing experts and sports enthusiasts! When it comes to writing, we're respected, trusted and proven to work... Over the past 10 years, we've grown to become a multi-award-winning platform, we were also selected as one of just 8 organisations funded, independently evaluated and supported by the UK Department for Education as a recipient of the government’s Edtech Innovation Fund. We're on a mission to inspire young writers around the world. Our million-strong community is ever-growing and already spans over 50 countries. 

We've had the privilege of hosting free workshops and full-day sessions at iconic sporting venues. Collaborating with esteemed partners, including DP World Tour Dubai, European Tour Wentworth, Hotel Football Old Trafford, and supported sporting foundations such as Bradford Bulls Rugby League, Hull Kingston Rovers and Chelsea, Burnley, Middlesbrough, Derby, Doncaster, as well as academies throughout Yorkshire. Our ultimate goal is to expand our reach within the community whilst also raising awareness of the incredible work carried out by our partners.

Working closely with Yorkshire Cricket Foundation, Middlesbrough FC Foundation and Rudding Park Golf we've delivered 6-week Literacy through Sport programmes. These targeted underachieving students with low literacy attainment and on occasion poor attendance. We introduced them to new sports whilst developing key literacy skills. We work with our partners to make a positive impact within their local community and provide support to overcome the literacy challenges faced by the students and their schools.

In an era where we're all moving less, it's vital that we create opportunities for children to be active while learning. We've created a set of Active Literacy cards to help pupils reach their recommended daily active minutes and inject some fun and energy into their literacy learning opportunities. We also share ready-made, sporting-themed writing lessons to get children motivated and engaged in writing. They include warm-up tasks, links to awesome video content, and writing activities, followed by a longer writing task.

Key international sporting events bring an excellent opportunity to motivate young writers. In 2022 we ran an online writing event to Kick off the Football World Cup. During the 90-minute online literacy session, pupils in Year 5 and 6 worked alongside our expert writing coaches to channel all the excitement of The World Cup into their work to produce a winning piece of writing! The live lesson was attended by over 12,000 pupils from 350 schools around the world and the feedback was resounding, teachers and students LOVED it!