“Where every child is a storyteller.”
The basic idea is simple: learning to tell stories from memory is a great way to learn all sorts of essential skills. Children who fill up with stories by listening and retelling create an inner store of language, ideas and imagination. They will then draw upon this store in their work and life.
Speaking, listening, confidence, empathy, ideas, facts, sequences, plots… you name it, storytelling can teach it.
In September 2015 we introduced ‘Storytelling’. This is a proven strategy which helps foster a love of reading, writing and oral storytelling in our children and school community. This strategy is based on the Pie Corbett ‘Talk for Writing’ model which has been proved to raise standards in writing for all children.
“Storytelling provides a natural way of developing rich and active story language, for children to recycle in their own story making and writing. In this way attainment can rise quickly and be sustained’.
The simple joy and magic of storytelling is seen as a crucial part of an all-round education, a core skill for learning and sequencing ideas, a way of developing skills and confidence in speaking and performing, and a way of developing ideas about stories that enable high achievers to go further in their story making.”
In September 2017, after two years of intensive staff training and mentoring, we became an accredited International ‘Story Telling’ school. This means that we can now share our outstanding storytelling practice with other learners too!
Take a look at two of our teachers using storytelling as part of their practice.