Why Storytelling?

Storytelling is a powerful educational tool. This ancient art is accessible to children of all ages and abilities. It encourages good listening skills, supports language development and is a huge stimulus to the imagination.

Storytelling sessions fit well into school sessions and they require very little setting up. Storytelling can be used in many ways, including developing a love of stories and literature. It can be used to develop specific vocabulary or introduce simile, metaphor, alliteration, etc. into speaking and writing. As you may well be aware, this is an important link between listening, spoken language development and writing.

Empathy and Wisdom.

Storytelling can help support particular areas of the curriculum from History to PHE. The power of empathy has a strong impact on children's emotional literacy. So a story can have a profound effect on a child helping him or her to understand other people and other situations. The traditional stories carry with them a wisdom that has been honed through many tellings and this is brought to the children by the storyteller.

Storytellers will often lead further sessions of oral story-making, art, music or work to develop the children's own storytelling. We want our children to be clear confident speakers and storytelling will aid them to do this.

...this ancient art is accessible to children of all ages and abilities. It encourages good listening skills, supports language development and is a huge stimulus to the imagination.

In this shrinking world we have access to the stories of many cultures and with so many cultures represented in our classrooms the stories can acknowledge the value of other cultures.