storyteller in schools
The Storyteller in Schools project was conceived to
provide a group of children with the opportunity to experience the benefits of
storytelling over a period of time.
The Storyteller visited the same 10 groups of P5s, P6s and P7s in 6 Pollok
primary schools every week. Each group formed a Community of Enquiry - a group
of people working together to ask questions and search for greater understanding
through deep thinking and challenging each other's opinions. The Community of
Enquiry is the main vehicle of the Philosophy for Children approach, in which
the children's ideas and opinions are central.
By the end of the year feedback from teachers, parents and children indicated
the project had brought significant impacts on several levels: children were
more confident in speaking and expressing ideas; they showed a greater tolerance
towards others' ideas; more self awareness; better listening skills; an
increased interest in asking questions and searching for reasons and even an
increase in the support given to one another in class.
A report was compiled by Julie Dawid (Storyteller in Schools) (Title - The Storyteller in Schools Project) at the end of the project and is available for purchase (£4.00) by contacting Margaret or can be downloaded here (follow link below if required)
The project continued the following year with the post of the Community of Enquiry worker.
The project funders were: