On Saturday 5^th October 2019 I took part in the #RR_South Conference hosted by Kingslea Primary School in Horsham and organised by Where Reading Rocks!

Having moved out of London to Sussex and having very few contacts in Sussex, Kent, Surrey or Hampshire I have been looking for ways to promote my storytelling work to local schools.  Where Reading Rocks! have been on my radar since their 2018 conferences.  They exist with the mission statement to make reading rock for every reader, a message that teachers, authors and storytellers can easily get behind and I have upon occasion contributed to their group discussions about children’s books and reading on social media.  Well if you don’t ask you don’t get and I decided to see if I could get involved.  To my continued amazement my approach was met warmly and it was agreed that I would run a workshop at #RR_South and possibly #RR_North.  So it was that I packed my bag and an array of tried and tested games and exercises and headed to Horsham.

#RR_South was incredible.  I was struck by the passion (and number considering it was the weekend) of the delegates who seemed to represent towns all across the south east of England.  There was a positive buzz throughout the day with a series of key note speakers addressing the delegates about reading and books, workshops on reading and in the breaks the halls were filled with people buying books at a multitude of different stands and talking to each other about how they promoted reading in their schools.  With the focus squarely on reading and books you would forgive me if I felt a little awkward.  I listened as organiser Heather Wright give a really inspiring opening address followed by the passionate force of nature that was Jane Considine.  Josua Seigal’s poetry made me laugh and cry and Vashti Hardy’s presentation about how her books are used within the curriculum by different schools made me long to be 10 years old again.  The more I heard the more I felt like I an intruder amongst all these incredible people.  I knew I should fit in but I was questioning how until educational writer Bob Cox shared a quote by Sir Michael Morpurgo.

“give them the love of story first, the rest will follow.”

Read that again.  That is one of the UK’s most reputed authors of children’s fiction placing importance on storytelling. Books are incredible life enhancing, life altering things; they teach us about ourselves, our world and those we share it with, they can be windows into other worlds and they can challenge us with the possibilities of our future but at the heart of all good fiction is a good story.  If we can inspire and enthuse children with stories then maybe they’ll become readers or writers but a love of story must come first and storytellers have a massive role to play in that awakening.

Being allowed to present a workshop at #RR_South was an invaluable opportunity to talk about storytelling with people in the frontline of education.  Money, time and prioritising other things are just some of the reasons a school might choose not to engage a professional storyteller (if you can only have one visit per year, a storyteller might guarantee fun but a visit from a published author will have more wow factor) and teachers must fend for themselves when it comes to enhancing stories.  I therefore wanted to use my workshop to share some ideas that I think could be simply and effectively applied by a class teacher working in a primary environment when introducing or exploring a story.

We started the workshop with some statement games which are not only great ice breakers but immediately stress how human beings thrive when asked to share stories about themselves and the skill of bringing a story out of somebody else.  I also addressed how statement games can get children thinking about moments in their own lives which might help them to empathise with a character in a story (a carefully worded question about fear might be used as a lead into suspense stories).

Next I introduced the group to some narrative games in which we told The Three Little Pigs whilst sat in a circle.  First each person had a sentence of the story, then just a word, then I randomly selected the narrators.  By gradually removing control of the story the group were unable to pre-empt or predict the direction of the narrative making them more adaptive and spontaneous.  I also showed the group two structuring games for building stories with more and less able participants which in application allowed everybody the opportunity to contribute to the story.

In my storytelling work I use a lot of simple props sometimes repurposing them imaginatively (Mrs Twit’s walking stick becomes Mr Twit’s gun).  Working in pairs the teachers chose every day and unusual objects and tried to reimagine their use.  I then demonstrated how a blue cloth and a water pistol might become the ocean and how a pair of gloves might become flying birds; building an imaginative vocabulary through play.  I am very keen on open resource storytelling and therefore challenged the group to create the world of the Billy Goats Gruff as they might challenge their children using cloths, lollipop sticks, cardboard tubes, egg boxes and yoghurt pots.  We took this further as we tried to use these resources to create Trolls!  I do the majority of my work with young people and it goes without saying that adults and children are different but there was no mistaking the excitement caused amongst the participants by these exercises.

We then ran out of time.  I would have liked to talk more about sensory stories because I think they are a great way of telling a story with small groups (maybe I should propose this for 2020?) but as I say, the delegates were very positive and I have had some lovely feedback and a couple of bookings as a result of the session.

In the days after the conference I was asked if I could share any resources from the workshop.  I said I’d write a blog (this blog) and touch on this.  I have thought a great deal about the resources I could signpost to a teacher and the truth is that if you are visiting my website then that’s a great start.  Storytellers are top quality resources.  When I turn up to deliver a session I bring 20 years of experience performing to children, 10 years of storytelling experience and hundreds if not thousands of hours of experience as a workshop facilitator.  Many of my favourite exercises I use I have magpied from other actors, storytellers and drama facilitators, some I made up and refined in time.  If you wanted to do more storytelling in the classroom you could do worse than finding out about the professional storytellers working in your area and checking out their websites, blogs and dates (we’re all quite friendly if you ever want to discuss ideas for lessons).  To encourage conversation I created a Twitter list of some of the best storytellers in the UK under the hashtag – #followastoryteller – but The Society for Storytelling website also hosts an extensive database of storytellers if you don’t use social media.  I’ll also recommend “1001 Drama Games and Activities” by David Farmer.  It really is what it says on the tin and I delve into it when planning a session and looking for inspiration but there are loads like it on the market.

I can’t be at #RR_North in November but I hope I’ll be able to be involved again in the future.  The people I met in Horsham energised me and my work and reminded me that I can make a difference because their goal is worth striving for and should be shared by all of us. As a storyteller I can be an important resource to any primary school in the country who place value in the mission to make reading rock.

John Kirk is a professional storyteller based in Lewes, East Sussex. To find out more about his work or make an enquiry about a booking visit the contact form.