A Storytelling Curriculum
Blackhall Primary School develops a sustainable approach
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Jo Palfrey, a teacher at Blackhall Primary School, Edinburgh, has been instrumental in developing a storytelling curriculum which allows all classes to progress in the development of a wide range of storytelling skills during their lifetime in the school, creating the opportunity to put storytelling at the heart of many areas of their curriculum work. The initiative began in 2003 when headteacher Margaret Scott identified talking and listening as a key issue for the school and wondered if anyone on the staff was interested in exploring ways to tackle this through storytelling. Jo rose to the challenge and the result, via much collaborative working with her colleagues and input from professional storytellers, is an impressively well-structured and helpful storytelling curriculum, supporting both staff and pupil development from P1 to P7.
A coherent and well-resourced curriculum
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Jo has developed learning objectives, activities and assessment criteria for P1, P2-3, P4-5 and P6-7, ensuring a cohesive and progressive development of storytelling skills and experience over a child's lifetime at the school. Each stage is supported with background reading materials for staff, story exemplars, suggestions for activities and a richly stocked library of resources including puppets and props which are housed centrally in the school, tempting all who pass to stop and browse! |
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Celebrating success
On 26th October 2006 the whole school celebrated the work they have been doing in storytelling. Everyone dressed up as their favourite story character and enjoyed telling tales for parents and visitors. A team of sound engineers from P6 (Isla, Sophie and Sarah), toured the school capturing storytelling excerpts from P1 to P7 and turning them into podcasts – visit http://www.blackhallprimary.ik.org/ to listen to interesting tales and useful advice from these experienced storytellers!
In May 2007, HMIe also recognised the success of the storytelling venture, praising it highly in their report on the school: "Over many years teachers had developed innovative approaches in learning successfully. One example of this included recent developments in storytelling which were having a significant impact on pupils' oral and writing skills."
Stories go digital!
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As part of an enterprise collaboration with the ICT teacher, Jo has also gone on to make a DVD with her P4 class, which captures them in full flow as storytellers. The children were involved in every stage of the production, planning, rehearsing, filming and editing, and the end result has been shared with parents who were extremely impressed by the wide range of skills the children drew upon. |
Embracing A Curriculum for Excellence
Although the storytelling venture at Blackhall began life as a way of enhancing the 5-14 objectives for Talking and Listening, it has provided much more than the English language curriculum document suggested. The project richly exemplifies a wide range of the opportunities asked for by A Curriculum for Excellence. Children have benefited in terms of increased personal confidence as well as a deeper understanding of many aspects of storytelling and story types, which cross over into reading and writing, too. And children with reading and writing difficulties have shone as storytellers in ways which they would not otherwise have done. The initiative also flows across the curriculum, with storytelling about the Romans and religious festivals and the world of nature.
Reflective learning
The children have evaluated their skills at every stage of the way, learning to offer each other advice and guidance in story conferences and engaging in peer and personal assessment of their work. They appreciate the benefits that come from reflecting on their work and acting upon the comments of those around them.
Embracing Teachers for Excellence
Over the last four years the whole initiative has been funded directly by the school as an important strand of the school development plan. Staff training sessions have helped staff to grow in confidence as storytellers, drawing on the skills of professionals such as Judy Paterson, Judy Robertson and Senga Munro, as well as Jo's own skills as a storytelling teacher. Jo firmly believes that every teacher has a story to tell, and one of the first tasks she set them was to learn a story over a holiday and come back to share it with colleagues in a friendly and relaxed setting. The staff have been open and honest about the learning process and have appreciated the peer support that Jo has given them.
Jo is still at a relatively early stage of her career, but she is already gathering evidence from the initiative to start working to wards Chartered Teacher status next year. She has also been asked to deliver in-service training by Edinburgh City Council and to talk about her approach at national events including the Scottish Learning Festival and The Literacy Exchange.
Headteacher Margaret Scott believes firmly that the staff have gained enormously from being learners together as professionals, and from learning alongside their children, too. This is a project that has taken them out of their comfort zone, but the end result has had visible benefits for all. She adds, "All life is about telling stories," and the teachers who succeed are the ones who can connect in this way with their children.
Reflective practice
Feedback from staff has helped to inform the project at every stage as it has developed. Jo also set up a small storytelling club at the very outset so that she could find out which approaches worked best and what might be appropriate for any given age group. This commitment to reflective practice is one of the things that has helped to make the initiative such a success.
To find out more . . .
For more about this important initiative, contact Jo Palfrey or Margaret Scott on 0131 336 1023.
