Earlier this week, Year 5 and Year 6 visited Weymouth Pavilion to watch the traditional teller of tales, Daniel Morden. Sitting amongst 500 other school children, the pupils of Southill were entertained by the storyteller as he performed and told different stories, one entirely based on fibs and the other – an old tale based on the contrasting lives of two brothers, Jack and Tom. Daniel then gave the audience a chance to ask their own questions about stories and books. We learnt about his favourite stories as a child, the different processes of writing a story, and his favourite tips and techniques for effective story writing.

Year 6 then had the amazing opportunity to work with Daniel in the afternoon in their very own storytelling workshop back at school! The afternoon started with the children sitting on the carpet, listening to Daniel perform one of his traditional tales. He told the story of three brothers, whose father was sadly dying, and how the brothers had to face the struggle of power, jealousy and determination in order to save their father and those in need around them… but Daniel didn’t reveal the ending of the story! It was up to Year 6 to decide on how the story ended. In order to do this, they were given three rules for the ending:

• No new characters or objects
• Include a plot twist
• They must all live… happily ever after!

These rules meant that the children had to think really carefully about their ending and it ensured that it stuck with the theme of a traditional tale. Over the next few days, the class worked on their story endings and had the chance to perform theirs to the rest of the class.  After hearing all the brilliant endings that Year 6 came up with, the true ending to the story was finally revealed! We couldn’t believe the similarities between some of our own endings and Daniel’s real ending!

Daniel Morden’s visit has left Year 6 feeling incredibly inspired and excited to get stuck into more storytelling over the next few months. We are looking forward to using lots of his tips and techqniues in our own writing! What a fantastic week of listening to stories and creating our own!