GrowStoryGrow

GrowStoryGrow is an educational website which teaches languages through stories and games. These uniquely ‘grow’ in length and structure, allowing for progression, inclusion and transition. This is achieved by focusing on high frequency words. Did you know that about 15 words make up 25% of all reading in many languages? GrowStoryGrow uses these words to provide your children with the sentence-building skills that are crucial for their language development.

GrowStoryGrow has over a hundred stories in English (ESL, TEFL), French, Spanish, Italian, German and Mandarin and offers a perfect resource to get your children started on their language-learning journey.

Prices are about £50 for a year's licence, depending on the size of the school. Price changes in March.

Just a quick line to let you know how much my class of Year 4 children enjoyed the story of The Four Friends from GrowStoryGrow. We started with level 1 and worked up to level 3. This is a great way for the children to follow how the sentence structure developed and gave them a tremendous sense of achievement.

I will definately be using the story again. Many thanks!

Just a quick line to let you know how much my class of Year 4 children enjoyed the story of The Four Friends from GrowStoryGrow. We started with level 1 and worked up to level 3. This is a great way for the children to follow how the sentence structure developed and gave them a tremendous sense of achievement. I will definately be using the story again. Many thanks!
Cath Doherty, Fulwell Junior School, Tyne and Wear

I showed our Year 5 & 6 class the "Sac en plastique" story- they are currently doing a topic on recyling and we have been doing some revision from last year. After one viewing of the story, they were then able to tell the story themselves- without the French words in front of them. They enjoyed it so much they asked if they could dress up and perform it to the school in an assembly.
Allyson Castle, Norfolk

I have used a couple of the stories on GrowStoryGrow with my Y3 class. To say they enjoyed them is an understatement! They loved the ‘silly voices’ on ‘L’heure M Loup’. They also liked the use of known characters to help. I liked the progression from simple introductory vocabulary to more complex phrases, which can be taken at a realistic pace for all abilities. Non-specialist teachers will also find it useful that the children can listen to the stories spoken clearly with a good French accent.
As our school is multicultural and we have some ‘New to English’ children, I have passed this on to the EAL co-ordinator, who believes it could be a useful tool for teaching English to N2E children. The lesson plans are useful, too!
Christine Brown, Hillary Primary School, West Midlands

The children love the stories and the graphics are brilliant. It will be a extremely welcome resource for specialists and non-specialists alike.
Letitia, French teacher/co-ordinator, Saint Mary's Catholic Primary School, Wimbledon
I really like your story based approach because it offers potential for use by specialist and non specialist teachers alike. I like the mulit-lingual approach (we have lots of speakers of other languages), the potential to compare different language versions of the same story and expose the children to other languages; also that there are easy to follow lesson plan ideas linked to the Framework.
Jenny Berry, MFL co-ordinator, St John's Primary School, Bristol

I really love this website and I know that it will prove a useful resources for teachers with limited knowledge of languages, as well as those who are more competent. Stories are a great way of practising language and compliment the Literacy framework too. I tested out these stories on my daughter and son before using them in the classroom and they were soon joining in with the language. Brilliant!
Wendy Budsworth, Primary MFL consultant, Swinton

The children love Jack and the Beanstalk and other stories. They already seem more motivated to learn French, as they repeat words and phrases during the day and never complain when asked to watch the stories. They find parts funny and are really engaged. I think this is a fantastic resource. Congratulations on a job well done. It's also helping my French! I would love to subscribe to the full programme of 100 stories if possible, as I think the children would benefit enormously.
Sarah Amoah, language teacher, Switzerland

I love your resource! Ive used it with my year 3 and 4 class and we will be using it in French week for KS2 assembly.Emma Chamberlain, Ashcott Primary School, Somerset
I have had a good look at the French stories at GrowStoryGrow and trialled the site with my French Club (Y5&6). We loved it and I particularly like the fact that you have such a mix of stories: fiction and non-fiction, traditional and modern. I plan to use the site with Y3 and Y4 this week and see how they like it.
Claire Jenkinson, MFL teacher, Velmead Junior School, Fleet

Last week the infants re-enacted Quelle heure est-il M. Loup from memory. Great site!
Helen, French teacher, Freshford Primary School

We've started using it in lessons with some of our year 5 and 6 pupils - just for sheer pleasure at this stage. They seem quite taken by it.
Jean Watts, Primary teacher, St Michael's Middle School