Organisers of a storytelling initiative designed to get more children in Scotland exploring creative language and storytelling have been overwhelmed in the first year of the project.
More than 13,000 children participated in the Scottish Storytelling Centre’s Storymakers initiative in its first year, almost nine times more than the original 1,500 target. Co-funded by the Scottish Arts Council, organisers believe the project’s success is the result of storytellers taking a creative and proactive approach when organising workshops and activities.
Storymakers is designed for children aged 8 to 11 and encourages children to have fun with stories by making up new stories, turning stories into games, drawing characters or making puppets or maps of the places where stories happen.
The Scottish Storytelling Centre has developed links with Scotland’s local authorities to promote the initiative to children through a variety of clubs and projects, which have been tailored to local activities but maintain the core feature of using the storytelling circle to build childrens’ trust and foster creativity.
Parents and teachers of children participating in the initiative have commented on the positive impact of the project which has included increased confidence, more creative expression in talking and listening and in written work, as well as more children participating in environmental studies at school.
Projects that have been developed in the first year have explored using multi-media in different ways, while some story tellers have also used the expertise of musicians and artists in their workshops. Isle of Lewis based story teller, Ian Stephens and Ewan McVicar from West Lothian have developed CD-roms and DVDs to capture the live action of story-telling while Judy Robinson from Edinburgh explored using computer games in her story telling workshops with children.
Dr Donald Smith, Director of the Scottish Storytelling Centre, says: ‘When we launched the Storymakers initiative, we referred to is as opening the door to children’s creativity but having witnessed the success of the programme so far, it seems as if it’s the floodgates that have been opened. The response to the project, from children, parents and teachers has been fantastic and the network of story tellers have really embraced the project, developing activities to help children get the most out of the workshops and activities they are involved in. We are now looking to build on the programme’s success and will be highlighting this with an interactive presence at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival.’
Gavin Wallace, Head of Literature at the Scottish Arts Council, says: ‘We are delighted that the first year of Storymakers has been such a huge success. With children’s books increasingly having to compete with television and computer games for children’s interest, it is vital to develop creative ways to get children interested in reading and developing their literacy skills and this initiative is one way that is helping to do this.’
Storymakers will be at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on Sunday 15th August, 11.30am – 4pm in the Lloyds TSB Scotland Children’s Book Shop. This will provide an opportunity to see the project in action as children get storymaking in the Activities Corner. Young storymakers will be invited to tell stories, read and draw pictures to appear on the website and meet the Story Monster.
For more information on the initiative visit the website, www.scottishstorytellingcentre, which includes fun activities for children to complete while providing information on local events and organised storytelling clubs in different areas.
