Reviews

What educators say about The Story Spinner…

“The achievements of all classes involved indicate that The Story Spinner DVDs are a powerful resource for inspiring and encouraging children’s own storytelling. They have contributed significantly to raising standards in writing through the use of talk for writing.”

Summary of Final Evaluation Report by Eve Bearne, University of Cambridge and Marilyn Mottram, School Effectiveness Adviser, Birmingham LA.

“This carefully selected and beautifully produced collection is far more than an educational resource – it’s a cultural treasure trove, and a very special personal experience!”

Sue Palmer, Literacy Consultant and writer on contemporary childhood.

“This is a great resource to help children learn. They only see the storyteller’s facial expressions and gestures, so the images they create in their minds are completely unique to them. This unleashes their imaginations which in turn inspires their writing.”

Carol Smith, Literacy Consultant, Milton Keynes.

My class (KS1 Sp & L) have been having great fun with the ‘Three Little Pigs’ over the past two weeks! I used the reception story, rather than a Y1 or Y2 story, as my children all have a speech and language disorder and it was a good starting point for them. I was so impressed with the planning for it too. Making story maps and exploring the story (and their imagination) through the talking points has been so effective and is such good practice.

All of this fits perfectly with the ‘Talk for Writing’ initiative – our children have increased their word and phrase vocabulary and are starting to realise that their own versions of a story are of value too.”

Julia Browne. Churchill Gardens Primary School, Westminster.

“The Story Spinner is a very powerful resource for the Renewed Framework”.

Carmel Crevola. International Literacy Advisor

”When I sat down to let this story teller work his magic I was utterly spellbound from start to finish. Phil Dermott provides a model of story telling that we can all benefit from.”

Jill Catlow. Former National Strategy Regional Adviser and lead author of the professional development materials commonly known as the EAL Toolkit (Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching for bilingual children in the primary years [DfES 2006])

“The materials are lovely and will be a really great resource for classrooms.”

Sue Ellis. Director of Centre for Learning English in Primary Schools (CLPE)

“The stories are retold vividly with the storyteller’s face and voice providing all the detail children need to picture the action, and feel the tension. The fact that the stories could be replayed would help children internalise the language and structure of the stories.”

NATE Classroom Magazine

“However old we are – 3 or 83 – there is something enthralling about listening to these stories. The Story Spinner sows the seed for teachers, children and families to weave their own tales of wonder and delight for the National Year of Reading and beyond!”

Marilyn Mottram, School Effectiveness Adviser, Birmingham LA

“The stories have been selected following extensive research into the way children respond to stories. It is not just a simple teaching tool, rather a collection of both traditional and modern stories from a variety of cultures.”

The Independent, Reviews.

“A man, sat in a chair, talking directly to the camera for 15 minutes. Dull? Tedious? Not where the Story Spinner is concerned. Phil McDermott is the Story Spinner, and what a story he spins!

Marc Bowen, Deputy Head, Colerne Primary School, Wiltshire. (Review for “Teach Primary Magazine”.)

“The Story Spinner chimes in perfectly with all our developmental work around a curriculum fit for the 21st century … and it offers new opportunities for making stronger links with our families and communities.”

Jayne Bennion, Senior Adviser, Birmingham’s Curriculum, Support and Development Team

“I promise you – try out these DVDs with your class and you’ll be spellbound by the results!’

Michael Ward, Editor, Child Education Plus Magazine, April 2008 Issue.

“I like the possibility of returning to the stories and even pausing them for discussion purposes. This opportunity only arises with the DVD format, and is particularly useful for children who find engaging with text hard.”

M. Mattinson. Literacy Coordinator, Torriano Junior School.

“This is a great resource, particularly useful in schools with high EAL. In a school with high social deprivation, pupils often don’t have stories from home, and this would help to raise their understanding of the joy of stories.”

Rosey Lyell. Head Teacher, Holy Trinity Primary School.

‘Although the Primary Strategy refers to storytelling, many children do not get the opportunity to hear stories told rather than read, and I think that the DVDs capture the flavour of a storyteller being in the room very successfully, and it’s quite a challenge to achieve that.”

Susanna Steele. Unicorn theatre; Greenwich University

“These stories on DVD are absolutely fantastic! We use them all the time in our school room and on the wards and are invaluable for our sick children.”

Louise Hough. Literacy Coordinator, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children

“I’m delighted that the tradition of storytelling from a variety of cultural backgrounds is now available to all children through this new exciting resource. I believe storytelling is pivotal to children’s language experience, enriching and developing their appreciation of the joy of language and story.”

Maggie Crawford. Primary Literacy Consultant.

“In the new Literacy Framework, where the emphasis is very much on oracy, the value of a story teller, rather than a teacher reading from a book is increased and hence The Story Spinner is well timed and I believe will find substantial demand from Primary Schools across the country. I am very excited about this project.”

Hilary Horton. Primary Literacy Consultant, Camden

“The children sit entranced every time we put on The Story Spinner and the writing that comes from the work afterwards is always of a higher standard.”

Hannah Burman, Year 3 Teacher, Fitzjohn’s Primary School

“There are so many resources that come into school, that it’s actually quite rare that you come across something that really has, from what I saw, quite a powerful impact on children.”

Lin Reilly, Head Teacher, King’s Norton Primary School.

“I thought the idea and its execution, like all great ideas, was perfect in its simplicity.”

Phil Beadle, ‘Teacher of the Year’.

“The multiple viewing opportunities of the DVD was one of its greatest assets. Many teachers felt that, if given the choice between the Story Spinner resource and a session with a live storyteller, they would choose Story Spinner because of the greater opportunity to maximise the children’s exposure to story language and increase their understanding.”

Readingzone Review

“I just wanted to let you know that nine of my children who entered a poetry competition won with their Theseus poems! It is a credit to the wonderful stories on The Story Spinner that the children are motivated to write so creatively and for it to be recognised in such a way.’

Jacqui Hatchard, King’s Norton Primary School.

‘I thoroughly enjoyed the planning session with Pam. After feeding back to my headteacher, we have decided to give the whole of the year 1 and year 2’s English curriculum a huge overhaul and prune unsuccessful/unhelpful units/genres and replace them with creative story writing, based on the Story Spinner format!’

Sharon Smith, William Bellamy Infants School.

”There are few things more powerful than watching and listening to a good teller of tales and that is precisely what the Story Spinner DVDs provide – stories told directly to camera (no acting, no pictures) for all primary children…no school should ever be without them.”

Prue Goodwin, Schools Library Association magazine.