The Story Spinner also offers interactive half-day and whole-day workshops, led by experienced professionals, to help you make the most of this exciting resource in your school. As well as exploring the links with key National Strategy materials, the session will also focus on using the stories to develop children’s writing and to provide evidence to support periodic assessment.
Story notes for Year 6 by Phil McDermott
The Little Red Riding Hood Trilogy.
(For the traditional version please see the year 2 DVD.)
At the ancient heart of every traditional story is an event. It could be a long forgotten famine that frames the story of Hansel and Gretle, or a local insurgency that gives birth to and then sustains the many adventures of Robin Hood. Through countless retellings the stories develop far beyond their origins. Some are added to, others are heavily edited until what remains is a strong yet flexible structure that is able to adapt to extreme cultural changes and weather the passing of time. What is left is a robust and nigh on indestructible story which can bear various interpretations and vigorous manipulations and yet always return to its optimal structure.
One such tale is the story of Little Red Riding Hood. The Storyspinner has posited an historical context for this narrative as a means of approaching it from different points of view. What is striking about this period of the Middle Ages is that the extensive court records in rural areas paint a picture of lawlessness and banditry and an alarming number of children disappearing into the woods. What is also established is the high office and far reaching powers of the Coroner. The Storyspinner has used this character not just in a story context to attempt to solve the mystery of Nettles Lupin, but also to investigate the story itself. The Coroner appears after the event and using circumstantial evidence tries to piece together the truth about the death of the old woman and the disappearance of the girl. The conclusions he comes to may not help him in his attempt to discover a crime, but may reveal something of the origins of the tale.
There is an unacknowledged compact between a storyteller and the audience that accepts that the story told is not necessarily true. Unless that is, it is advertised as the truth. The Storyspinner uses a story within a story to examine how the Blacksmith Gulliford attempts to cover up the truth, and by using first person storytelling he convinces his audience of his version of events. He skilfully plays on the superstitions of the tavern crowd and their view of a still mysterious world in his weaving of the incredible werewolf story, discrediting and condemning Nettles Lupin and her family. When a storyteller appears in a story his words are best approached with extreme caution.
Finally the third part of this Little Red Riding Hood trilogy begins, as with the first, with the Coroner, but this time many years on. One of the reasons why fairytales and traditional tales are so robust is that the characters are flat and two-dimensional. But in this instance the Storyspinner has given these characters an inner life so that change through experience is possible. The loose ends are tied up and all is revealed. The story of Fulton Wood is a tale about bullying and persecution, about the twisting and misinterpretation of the truth and lastly about survival. This trilogy now joins the cannon of hundreds of other retellings of the story of the girl in the red hood.
The Storyspinner made this on a long walk through an English wood.
Part 1. The Coroner’s Report. Units 1, 2 (non chronological report)
An old woman is dead and a child is missing. No bodies have been found. The Coroner must investigate the crime scene. The deeper he goes into the woods the more he discovers that things are not all they seem. When questioning the witnesses the mystery only deepens and the Coroner is convinced that someone will do anything to hide the truth.
Part 2. The Real Story! Units 1, 2 (biography)
The Blacksmith tells the sensational, no holds barred, true story of the lives and sins of the worst girl in the village. This lurid and horrific tale contradicts the coroner’s report and paints a picture of a wanton and sinister girl well deserving of her gruesome end.
Part 3. The Diary. Units 1, 2
Many years later the Coroner comes into possession of the diary of Little Red Riding Hood. These thoughts and reflections of a girl on the brink of catastrophe confirm most of the facts related by both the Blacksmith and the Coroner but in doing so reveal that facts tell only half the story. The truth is finally revealed in this honest description from Little Red Riding Hood’s point of view.
The Sandman. Units 1, 2, 3
This story is not a trilogy but three episodes of the same story. When performed live it is told in its entirety and is so flexible that it can be told in a bare space or with props lighting and sound effects. In it the Storyspinner has brought together the ancient Ulster creature the Ganchana or changeling and the North European Sandman and set them down in an inner city landscape to create a modern fairytale. Other influences include Russian traditional tales, normal primary school life and his family’s obsession with crows. This fast moving and action packed story follows the adventures of Katie in year 6. Katie is troubled about her transfer to big school although she won’t admit it, and there have been changes at home too.
The action begins with the arrival of a new boy at school which contrasts with the less welcome arrival of someone at home. It is then that the real nightmare begins when no one in authority, teachers, parents, friends or police officers believes anything she says. The Storyspinner has worked extensively with children in years 6 and 7 and acknowledges that the transfer to secondary school is often the most immense step any person ever takes. The dread and excitement of the transfer can ignite huge growth and development or can crush those delicate seeds of hope. In the story Katie appeals to a supernatural power to come to her aid and it is with great reluctance that the Sandman (whose status as goodie or baddie is at the very least ambivalent), helps her.
It is apt that one of the gifts Katie receives is an immensely powerful voice that fills her with the physical confidence to face her fears. (Also very good for storytelling!). At the end Katie is lucky enough to begin a new life that mirrors the extraordinary new life that the majority of children experience when they start year 7.
The Storyspinner made this on the Night Coach from Glasgow to London.
The Sandman
Part 1. Curse of the Ganchana
The crows in the trees tell Katie to beware, but she’s in Year 6 so no one tells her what to do. She should have listened because an evil and horrific creature has taken over her family and stolen her little brother. Under its curse no one will believe her. When it sets fire to her house her and her family are trapped inside.
Part 2. The Jaws of Despair
Arrested for attempted murder and condemned to be sent to the sinister institution of Kiltegan, Katie attempts to call for help from the Sandman. Stuck on a ghost train rattling through the night will he save her in time?
Part 3. Journey of Hope
After the attack by the pack of wolves Katie can sleep at last. When she wakes she knows her baby brother is still a prisoner. Now she knows she has friends and she has power. Now is the time to stand up to the creature. Now is the time for the fight back to begin.