Telling Tall Tales at Merchant Taylors' to Celebrate National Storytelling Week
National Storytelling Week is an annual event that celebrates the power of sharing stories. Whether through the written word orally or on the big screen, stories play a vital role in who we are both as people and a society. Merchant Taylors’ School has long history of creating storytellers, both in fiction and journalistic fact, and that spirit of storytelling has continued this week with some engaging guest speakers and great work from the Lower School Book Club.
Ben Haggarty Delivers a Masterclass in Storytelling
By Ruby Millard – Assistant Librarian
The Thirds and Upper Thirds were joined by the Prep School to celebrate National Storytelling Week with world renowned storyteller Ben Haggarty on Monday. Exploring folk and fairy tales from far and wide Haggarty entertained the students wholeheartedly on his sixth visit to Merchant Taylors’ School.
Ben showed how stories and storytelling can make you think - there are always options; there are always different choices. He went on to show how you can tear a story apart and recreate it as your own.
Ben was keen to show how anyone can be an amazing storyteller regardless of their perceived talent and that there truly is power in your imagination.
To keep storytelling alive beyond this week, Storytelling Club will be held in the library on Friday 9th February. Students are encouraged to come along to tell a story of their own.
Creating Collaborative Quests
By Amanda South – Senior Librarian
On Friday, our Third and Upper Third Form book club celebrated National Storytelling Week by creating a collaborative quest story.
They chose a hero for their story and the focus of the quest, then split into groups and set about writing brief challenges that the main character needed to overcome along the way. They had the added task of including prescribed elements in their writing, set by each group throwing and interpreting story dice.
Mustafa Hussain and Arjun Mehta volunteered to write the opening to the story which set Gerry the Monster on his quest to find the Golden Book of Monster Spells which had been stolen by a mutated monster-rat who had bitten his finger off. Via a perilous Stone Age swamp and an enchanted musical forest, Gerry finally achieved his goal when a downpour in a deadly desert revealed the book in the sand.
The resulting story was dramatically performed by Mr Robinson, with an illustration by Krish Arya. All-in-all, it was a masterful display of collaborative storytelling and fun journey through the creative process.
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