Students and school pupils learn the art of storytelling

​Library and Learning Services at the University of Northampton held an event on Wednesday 3 February to celebrate the Society of Storytelling’s 16th annual National Storytelling Week.

Jo Blake Cave, a Northamptonshire-based contemporary storyteller, delivered two workshops which introduced key ideas and processes for developing storytelling skills.

In the morning session, Year 5 and 6 pupils from Bridgewater Primary School and Duston Eldean School attended a  workshop, which involved lots of activities to fire up the children’s imagination and encourage them to have a go at oral storytelling.

The afternoon workshop was attended by a group of students from the University’s School of Education, who were keen to develop their skills and confidence in storytelling, which is especially useful in their work with children and young people.

Hannah Rose, Academic Librarian, commented: “It was great to see the school pupils and students engaging so enthusiastically with Jo’s different workshop activities, particularly the collective storytelling. Both groups exercised their imagination ‘muscle’ and made some great contributions to the stories – one of my favourite parts being the use of a time machine to teleport the story’s main characters back to Jurassic times where they were eaten by a T-Rex! Jo also shared some stories with the groups and had everyone captivated with her fantastic storytelling abilities.”