The Everyday Magic programme is currently running in 21 school classes in Kensington and Chelsea. Every year over 1,500 children aged 3 to 11 have their imaginations fired up with colourful and vivid storytelling at school.

For the last seven years Everyday Magic has been delivered by the Company of Players and Tellers, an association of 15 storytellers, artists, visual artists, musicians and dancers who captivate, inspire and excite the imaginations of children with their special brand of magic.

At the heart of Everyday Magic is storytelling, complemented with other art forms. Artists work closely with teachers and schools to devise programmes which develop children’s imagination and creativity, to inspire, motivate, engage and entertain through a multitude of interactive stories, songs, music, arts and crafts.  This Autumn term we are introducing new projects:

This project was developed in response to Our Lady of Victories’ Year 6 teacher’s request for a project that covered journalism/ textiles and narrative poetry. Children will explore the history of ballads and write their own ballads in response to either a story from history or a current event.

At Ashburnham, storytellers will present stories, songs and rhymes featuring castles; some with a historical basis, others from the rich collection of European fairytales. We will include vocabulary particular to castles: from barbican and belfry to pike and portcullis and integrate information on castles into the stories.

Days in the Lives of Victorian Children:

We are working with the teachers and Year 5 classes in Ashburnham and Servite schools on this project. Both classes will visit the V&A to enjoy a tour given by an attendant dressed in Victorian costume. The children too will be able to try on Victorian dress and be shown some of the many amazing artefacts at the museum about the Victorian era.

For more details about these projects please click on the link below for the Everyday Magic Newsletter.

For further information on storytelling at Westway, call Lynda on 020 8962 5720 x 2143 or 07818 513 996, email: lrosenior@westway.org.

Everyday Magic Newsletter - Autumn 2010