School Storytelling and Training

Children love stories and I love telling stories to them.

Listening to a storyteller can stimulate their imagination and contribute to speaking and listening skills, as well as helping to develop and enrich creative writing, poetry, drama, music, art and even science.

I can prepare a session on specific themes if desired and run workshops on storytelling skills and creating stories.

Workshops for Children

My workshops can range from single fifty-minute sessions through to multi-week residencies.  They are tailored to the requirements, e.g. the age of the children and the size of the group.  I can run workshops on oracy and basic storytelling skills, on storytelling and creativity into creative writing, or a combination as required.

Storytelling and literacy skills

For the younger ones a short session would normally concentrate on enhancing their visualisation of scenes,using all five senses, and some spontaneous storytelling within the group.  For older children my workshops are more heavily weighted towards the learning and telling of stories.  In longer workshops or residencies I look at story structure and develop each child's individual storytelling skills and voice, and building their confidence to stand in front of an audience and tell a story.

As well as oracy I run workshops for storytelling into literacy where I teach children creative ways to spark their imagination to come up with storytelling ideas, and then lead them through writing their stories down and enhancing them.

Creative Storytelling

Creativity is one of the keys to success.  Whether you are a scientist, a poet or a plumber you need to be able to think on your feet and and come up with new ideas.  In this session I teach ways of creating a story spontaneously.

When Animals Speak

Fables and folktales are full of talking animals.  Why are they there and what can we learn?  In this session we explore a few of the tales and create new fables or just so stories.

Riddles and Kennings

Norse and Anglo-Saxon poetry and prose is littered with kennings - periphrastic and poetic ways of referring to things.  Although most people today would not understand "battle-friend," others, such as "day's candle" are just as relevant today as they were a thousand years ago.  In this workshop we explore kennings and riddles, and apply them to poetry or prose to enhance the use of metaphor in written and spoken work.

World War I

A century ago the world was plunged into war, and ways of life were destroyed, gone forever.  As in many such catastrophes, stories abounded.  In this session I tell some of the folktales and legends which arose during the Great War, interspersed with the history of the war.

Public Speaking and Confidence

By the end of their school experience, most children are put in positions where they will have to speak in public.  Whether it be at a university or job interview, presenting results at a science competition, or taking part in debates.  Public speaking is one of the most feared things for people of all ages, and yet it has thousands of years of history and research behind it.  Whilst one session won't make great orators out of your pupils, it will lay the foundations for future success.

Arts Award

Arts Award is a national scheme to involve young people between the ages of 11 and 25 in the arts.  I am a accredited Arts Award adviser and can take your students through the Bronze or Silver award process.

INSET

I don't just train children in storytelling skills, I train adults too.  I can come into your school and run workshops improving the storytelling skills of teachers, and introducing them to many creative ways to spark children's imagination and help them to become better storytellers and story creators themselves.