Mary Medlicott | Free Early Learning Resources for Teachers

Mary is an author and storyteller. She has carried out storytelling training for many organisations including the Institute of Education in London and has spoken on storytelling at conferences up and down the land. She is currently taking time to write about storytelling. She has a Storytelling Blog called Storytelling Starters.

A story for St David’s Day

Posted by: MARY MEDLICOTT On: February 29, 2012 our contributors

Tomorrow is not only St David’s Day. It’s World Book Day too. A few years ago in a workshop on Local Legends, a Top Junior boy told me a wonderful little tale which suits both days. The workshop was in Ysgol Dewi Sant, my own old Secondary School in St David’s. Junior children from local schools were visiting to hear and tell stories. ‘Can I tell a story, Miss?’ this boy put his hand up to ask. The little tale he told and its subsequent history confirm my belief that modern children are far more inventive and orally literate than they are often given credit for. Read More...

National Storytelling Week

Posted by: MARY MEDLICOTT On: January 26, 2012 our contributors

We’re on the verge of National Storytelling Week. Between Saturday January 28^th and Saturday February 4^th, events that are part of the week will be happening all over the country. Remarkably, they are for every age-group from Nursery age to elderly people. The whole idea is to inspire people in all areas of the community with the joy of listening to good stories, awakening imagination and creativity. It’ll be worth looking out for any events near you. Read More...

Writing Voices

Posted by: MARY MEDLICOTT On: November 19, 2011 our contributors

Just out is a new book about writing in schools. Writing Voices is by Teresa Cremin and Debra Myhill, two highly experienced educationists with wide experience of writing projects of very many different kinds. The subtitle of the book – Creating Communities of Writers – says a lot about the spirit in which it is written. It deals with writing across all ages and draws on the feelings and experience of people involved at different levels and in different ways - children, teachers and professional writers. I feel especially delighted with it for three different reasons. Read More...

Language and Literacy are not only about reading

Posted by: MARY MEDLICOTT On: October 21, 2011 our contributors

It felt like a fantastic boost to oral storytelling to learn a short while ago that, as of June next year, the writer Kevin Crossley-Holland will add to his many other roles by becoming President of the School Library Association. Like Philip Pullman and Michael Morpurgo, Kevin Crossley-Holland is an excellent oral teller of stories as well as being a highly respected writer of children’s books. Read More...

Storytelling Starters for Children’s Book Week

Posted by: MARY MEDLICOTT On: September 27, 2011 our contributors

Next week is Children’s Book Week. But how do you get children to listen to stories? How do you keep their attention? As a professional storyteller, I have been asked these questions over and over again. It’s why I’m starting a new series of blogs called Storytelling Starters to coincide with Children’s Book Week. Click onto the blog via my website, www.storyworks.org.uk or you can go to it by googling Mary Medlicott’s Storyworks Blog. Read More...

Had Hoc

Posted by: MARY MEDLICOTT On: September 16, 2011 our contributors

Any day now I’ll be starting a once-a-week Special Interest course at my local Adult Education College. The course is Digital Camera and Creative Use of the Computer and I’m badly in need of the skills it might teach to help with my Storytelling Blog. When I went down the road to enrol, I realised I might also get a bit of a window on what we as a country are currently offering to the youth of my locality, Brixton, in the way of further education.