P7

Continued from p6

We recently organised a day where the whole school was ‘raided’ by storytellers. The children were totally unaware of this until suddenly, unannounced, from nursery to year 6, storytellers visited classes, dressed in costume, to tell stories.

Excitement reigned!

You can imagine the excitement as the children found themselves helping Agent Green, a Minister from the Order of the Dragon, to look for a wayward beast. How amazed they were when a plumber burst into the classroom looking for a leak in the radiator and how a flamboyant partygoer resplendent in hat and blowing a kazoo ran into classrooms looking for a birthday party, insisting it was someone’s birthday!

The following day, the excitement hadn’t waned as the whole school embarked on a hunt because poor Agent Green hadn’t found her wayward dragon. The stories produced were amazing, full of imagination and language that had been inspired by the authors. The children were motivated to read the authors’ books further and find out about dragons.

It is clear that unusual approaches work – and anything that raises the profile of reading is well worth working for.

* Heroes is a series of books designed to help boys switch on to reading, with stories based on adventure, crime, horror and villains. Visit www.pearsonschools.co.uk/HEROES for more information, teaching aids and offers.

Beth Davies is Head Teacher at Alltwen Primary School, Swansea, assistant division secretary for Neath Port Talbot, NUT Executive member for Wales and chair of the NUT’s primary advisory group.