10:27am Monday 7th December 2009
By Ruth Meech
STORIES and ancient tales came to life for pupils at a Dorchester school.
Actor and musician Tim Laycock spent a day at Sunninghill School teaching the different years folk songs and stories from Dorset and further afield.
In the session for Years Seven and Eight, the top two classes in the school, Tim encouraged them to tell tales to each other.
He explained: “As well as listening to stories, they have been having a go at storytelling.
“I split them into two groups and told stories to one group which they then retold to their partners. They then swapped around.
“They are all folk tales from Britain and around the world, but here in the UK we have an extraordinary tradition of storytelling. Some are very short, but others last for 10 or 15 minutes and become sagas, and we have been doing a bit of both of them.”
Tim added: “It is really good fun, particularly with children of this age, because they are old enough to listen really well – but not too old that doing something like this becomes uncool.”
Head of English Caroline Dowdell said: “Learning about storytelling is part of the curriculum, so they are learning how to listen to stories, remember them and retell them. It is a bit like Scheherazade, the legendary Persian queen and the storyteller of One Thousand and One Nights.”
She added: “We are very lucky to have Tim coming in to spend time with the children – and they like having someone different in the class.
“It has all tied in with local history in Dorset and I think they have learned a lot.”
The storytelling day was a hit with the students.
Year Seven pupils Tara Chittenden and Lucy Buckwell said they both thoroughly enjoyed the day and learned a lot about Dorset’s history that they had not known before.
“I will definitely be doing some more research in local history,” Tara added.
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