Booking for this Masterclass session opens on Wednesday 10 September 2025.
Suitable for: Class teachers (EYFS-KS2), English Subject Leads, Senior Leadership.
Relevant areas of the National Curriculum: Language and vocabulary, oracy, reading, writing personal, social, emotional development.
Date and Time: Wednesday 25 February 2026, 9am to 3.30pm plus optional twilight networking to 5pm.
Venue: Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, 44 Webber Street, London SE1 8QW (map).
Venue accessibility: Step free, access, accessible toilets and accessible parking.
Description of session
Full day teacher CPD.
Enhance your knowledge and understanding of how to use traditional tales and oral storytelling techniques across all Primary Key Stages to increase children’s motivation and attainment in spoken language and in writing.
Detail of activity
This Masterclass will be delivered by an expert advisory teacher from CLPE in partnership with the award-winning and acclaimed storyteller Jan Blake. It will support participants to enhance their knowledge and understanding of how to use oral storytelling techniques and traditional tales across all Primary Key Stages to increase children’s motivation, confidence and attainment across literacy provision.
We will explore:
- How storytelling can be integrated into the primary curriculum in ways that increase children’s comprehension of language and engage children in deeper reading response.
- How traditional tales can be used to develop children’s own use of language as well as a clear understanding of narrative structure.
- The value of storytelling to improve pupil confidence, engagement, language and vocabulary development, leading to independent writing behaviours – in line with the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Framework and National Curriculum.
Key areas of focus
- Why storytelling is an important element of the primary provision for all children.
- Understanding the importance of all forms of traditional tales as a vital part of children’s reading experiences across all primary years.
- Explore the importance and value of personal narrative.
- Develop an understanding of the ways in which storytelling and traditional tales provide knowledge of the initial building blocks of narrative (and later of a wider range of narrative arcs) to support children’s confidence and independence in shaping whole narratives of their own.
- Consider and practice a range of techniques to engage audience orally.
- Explore approaches which support remembering, understanding
and telling stories. - Develop an understanding of how language can be used for effect, including language structures and choice of vocabulary.
- Consider how to find and choose stories to tell and use with children across the primary age phase.
Takeaway
Participants will receive a high-quality children’s book for each primary phase (EYFS, KS1, KS2), as well as associated teaching sequences of detailed planning to support the implementation of the ideas from the day and to inspire creative and meaningful practice in their own classrooms and schools.
