A group of Year 2 pupils gather in a school corridor. They are fixated on one thing: where there was once a classroom door, there is now a bookshelf.

Why is it here? What’s behind it? After some discussion with a librarian, Portia, it’s revealed that this bookshelf is actually a doorway: and behind it, is a magical library. As they enter, they are in awe of shelves upon shelves of whimsical objects, pictures and, of course, books. 

In the corner, sat at a desk, is a man: Mr Peabody. This, he explains to the children, is the miscellaneous section of The Lost Lending Library.

He patiently tells them (while they point out different objects of wonder surrounding them) that The Lost Lending Library is the largest collection of books in the world and travels from place to place. Beyond these walls, he adds, are 314 floors with 72 departments full of books. 

For five minutes, they are captivated as he reads them a story. Then the phone rings: it’s Gillian, another librarian, and there’s a problem. A number of books have gone missing from the library. She needs more stories - and fast.

Mr Peabody has an idea: maybe the children sat in front of him could write some stories. The pupils are quick to agree and race off to their classroom, inspired and eager to get writing. 

The Lost Lending Library, produced by theatre company and charity Punchdrunk Enrichment, has been touring schools around the world since 2009.

And for headteacher James Searjeant, who had the library visit his school - Wyborne Primary School in South East London - in 2019, the experience translated to the best impact on whole-school literacy he had ever seen.

Primary literacy is a problem: in November 2022, the Education Endowment Foundation found the number of very low-attaining pupils in Year 2 reading has more than tripled compared with pre-pandemic levels. It also found the proportion of low attainers in reading in Year 3 had more than doubled - from 2.5 per cent to 6.5 per cent between 2017 and 2022.

So, when thinking about reading recovery, should schools consider immersive experiences like The Lost Lending Library as a way to boost literacy?

“Definitely,” says Searjeant. “I’ve never seen pupils engage that much or such a buzz of excitement around the school,” he says. “We’ve had things like a mobile farm come to the school, but this was in a different league.”

Children, teachers, parents and governors were all captivated by it, he says - no matter what age they were, or how interested they had previously been in literacy.

“We had two boys in Year 6 who had serious behaviour issues, and I thought they wouldn’t have any of it, but actually, I would say they were the most curious of all the pupils in their class. They didn’t want to admit it, but you could tell it was really grabbing them,” he says. “They were so invested in finding out what was behind the bookcase, and then following up with writing the stories.”

Others have felt the impact, too. A research report published in 2015 on the experience found that 92 per cent of teachers reported increased motivation for writing among their pupils, and 84 per cent of teachers said the theatrical experience encouraged pupils to engage with stories. 

It also found vocabulary and oracy were prompted by the immersive experience, with some nursery pupils speaking for the first time at school and more ambitious vocabulary being used both in speaking and writing across year groups.

This immediate impact is encouraging, but how much difference can an experience like this have in the long term? Is it just a fad that is forgotten once the actors have left the building?

The Punchdrunk Enrichment team tries to avoid this, says Pete Higgin, the company’s artistic director, by supporting teachers to deliver activities before and after the main event.

The experience is a three-week programme: in week one, Portia, the librarian (who is actually an actor with Punchdrunk Enrichment), comes to school and delivers a standard library workshop to each class, and gives school staff training on immersive learning experiences. 

“We help teachers to build their own myths and their own fantastical rituals, through a very simple sequence: problem, work, reward,” Higgin explains. “There should be a problem only the children can solve, and to do that, they need to do the work, which teachers know how to tailor to the curriculum, and off the back of that there is a reward.” 

He remembers a CPD session conducted with one school where “Moon Juice”, a magical storytelling elixir that stimulated imaginations, was created. Teachers really ran with this idea, he says, and embedded it quickly into their English lessons. 

The theatre space used for the experience remains in place for the whole three weeks. Throughout the first week, every class visits the library and is given the same task: to fill up the shelves with their own stories. After this, children are given library cards, which means they can access the space at any time to get inspiration. 

And even after the library itself is dismantled, the project’s legacy can live on. At Wyborne School, Searjeant and his team turned an old classroom into Gillian’s office. Here, they placed a map of the world, provided by Punchdrunk Enrichment, which pinpoints all the places The Lost Lending Library has been. As Gillian moves around the world, she sends the children postcards, asking for more stories - for example, a postcard from Africa might ask for stories about safaris and African animals. 

Every now and then, Gillian writes to thank the children for their stories, and highlight some excellent ones. 

This practice is embedded across the curriculum, says Searjeant, and can give extra weight to any piece of writing. 

His school has also opened their own immersive space: a “Museum of Everything” (see video). Like The Lost Lending Library, it’s a space full of books that encourage reading for pleasure and also showcases artefacts that support cross-curricular learning.

A love of reading and literacy is now embedded into the culture of the school, says Searjeant, and they have seen improved outcomes, particularly in key stage 1 reading and in phonics, as a result.

“At the heart of this is having an immersive reading for pleasure space. Teachers do storytime in the museum, and children can access it at other times. It’s a very imaginative and creative space,” he says. “I really believe that has had an impact in terms of how the children experience reading for pleasure, and that is contributing to the improved literacy outcomes, especially at KS1.”

The Lost Lending Library experience doesn’t come cheap, though - which might be a problem at a time when school budgets are increasingly stretched. 

Searjeant says his school paid around £3,000, but that it was “worth every penny”. 

“It reached 450 pupils and parents, and it was money really well spent,” he adds. 

Higgin says Punchdrunk Enrichment is keen for this experience to be affordable for schools. The company often works in specific areas of the country, where the local authority or education improvement groups invest to allow each primary school in the area to take part.

“It costs around £9,000 and around 70 per cent of the cost is subsidised. What schools are paying is a fraction of the project cost,” he adds.“We want to create high-quality experiences with the theatrical production values we would put on the west end stage.”

However, Searjeant is keen to stress that the immersive experience is not a silver bullet to improving literacy, but rather a great first step to fostering a true sense of reading for pleasure.

“We know that if children enjoy reading, then it opens up the whole curriculum, and makes it accessible. Everything starts with reading,” he says.