MC Grammar busts out hip hop language lessons at Leeds primary school

But for pupils at one Leeds primary school, pupils can't wait to perfect their reading and writing skills thanks to dad and teacher-turned-rapper - MC Grammar.

The MC - whose real name is Jacob Mitchell - encourages his two daughters to read by rapping classic children's books.

Mr Mitchell's video of him singing The Gruffalo to his three-year-old has recently gone viral, with more than five million views, leading to appearances on BBC Breakfast, This Morning and The Ellen Show.

And this week he took to the stage with pupils from Cottingley Primary Academy to perform tracks including The Noun Song and The Antonym Song.

The children also took part in workshops run by Mr Mitchell, who is a primary school teacher in Liverpool.

The event was organised by Cottingley Primary Academy English lead teacher, Hannah Marshall.

She said: "Jacob Mitchell has been working with our school over the last couple of years as part of ongoing work with our academy sponsor AET to raise standards and engagement with reading and English.

"We launched Resilient Reader which is an engaging way of teaching reading skills and has been successful across school- including raising our Key Stage 2 SATs to 74 per cent achieving age-related expectation in reading at the end of 2018.

"Following this we introduced MC Grammar which has captivated the children's attention and helped them to remember grammatical terms in an easy and fun way. This helps them in their writing, as well as their grammar, punctuation and Spelling test at the end of Key Stage 2.

"The staff all received training from MC Grammar on new and exciting ways to deliver grammar lessons which at times can be quite a dry subject. The week after our training, Jacob went viral with his video of rapping The Gruffalo to his daughter and appeared on The Ellen Show.

The school is constantly looking for ways to promote reading for pleasure. This has included a Bedtime Stories day, a Superhero Reading day and the school has recently secured £500 from the Siobhan Dowd Trust to spend on books for its new library.

The concert was a celebration of all the hard work the children and teachers have put in, as well as the parents who have donated new books for the library.

Ms Marshall said: "The children love books - they stop me in the corridor to tell me what they are reading, to ask about new books and to celebrate reading awards they have achieved."

MC Grammar said reading opened doors for children.

"Reading books, acting books, talking about books, or rapping books- whatever it takes; whatever that child needs: reading for pleasure is the key," he added.