Power of stories dates back to the Bard
Warwickshire teachers are finding how to uncover the JK Rowlings of the future among the county’s children.
They will be finding out how the power of storytelling can fire youngsters’ imagination and help them learn.
A Learning Fair is being held by Warwickshire County Council’s Education Development Service (EDS) to give teachers ideas they can use in the classroom.
And the experience of two Leamington primary schools in making the most of Shakespeare will be shared with others.
The Learning Fair, which will be held at Manor Hall in Sandy Lane on 4 January, will feature an exhibition that takes teachers and school governors along a path through different stages of how storytelling is used across the curriculum and for all ages.
It will give examples of items that can be used such as puppets and tabletop play for primary children to more sophisticated props for story telling.
Miles Tandy of EDS said: “It is the most traditional way of teaching, yet as soon as a new piece of technology appears, people want to use it to tell stories. This exhibition will show teachers how to harness the power of story telling in all kinds of ways to really bring lessons to life for pupils.”
In June 2005 EDS worked closely with the RSC to host a national conference in Stratford on Avon called Primary Shakespeare Conference.
Working with Sydenham and Clapham primary schools, the aim of the conference was to explore how Shakespeare could be used in a modern way to fire imagination and develop creativity.
Juliette Westwood, headteacher at Sydenham Primary School, said: “We do a lot of work on using different learning styles to help the children make the most of their learning experience, and we wanted to do something that was based on movement. Simply reading a Shakespeare text can be quite dry, they were written to be acted and need to be brought to life.
“We have a high number of children from minority ethnic backgrounds and we were able to take the chance of working with the RSC to produce a Bollywood-style version of Romeo and Juliet.
“The children really enjoyed the experience and it has stayed with them. By doing something so active and visual they were able to understand the passion of Shakespeare so much. The experience has stayed with them, and I hope that other schools will take any opportunity presented to them through the Learning Fair to allow their children to enjoy something similar.”