At Newark School, storytelling is given great importance. Storytelling goes to the heart of language learning; it is proven that storytelling offers the following benefits:

• Inspires purposeful talking, and not just about the story — there are many games you can play.
• Raises the enthusiasm for reading texts to find stories, reread them, etc.
• Initiates writing because children will quickly want to write stories and tell them.
• Enhances the community in the room.
• Improves listening skills.
• Really engages the children who love the acting.
• Is enjoyed by children from kindergarten to the end of elementary school.
• Gives a motivating reason for English-language learners to speak and write English.

  Why Do We Tell Stories?

  Children just love stories. Storytelling remains the most innate and important form of communication. At school we tell stories from Aesop’s fables, legends, daily life, and the news and so on. Children are encouraged to tell their own stories. Yes at first they might find it difficult to express them but the effort they make helps their brain to develop as they start expressing the start of the story, the middle and the end part.

  Storytelling is the oldest form of teaching. It bonded the early human communities, giving children the answers to the biggest questions of creation, life, and the afterlife. Stories define us, shape us, control us, and make us. Not every human culture in the world is literate, but every single culture tells stories. Since our children come from 38 different countries we have lots of stories to choose from!