GUTO DAFIS STORYTELLER
  • Home
  • About
  • Shows
  • Schools
  • Welsh Legends
  • Pictures
  • Videos
  • Dates
  • Contact

STORYTELLING IN SCHOOLS

Picture
Guto regularly works in schools, usually at primary level.  Oral performances (in other words, telling rather than reading) of traditional stories (folk-tales, fairy-tales legends, etc) provide opportunities for children to 
  • listen
  • participate 
  • and exercise their imaginations
(as they listen they create the pictures of the stories in their own minds - the experience is active as well as passive).

The appreciation of the patterns and structures of traditional stories help children make sense of the world around them.  But first and foremost, storytelling is enjoyable.  Stories engage children's attention.

Guto also plays a small button accordion, and includes a musical element in his storytelling sessions.  

He works in both English and Welsh-medium schools.

During a day, Guto usually does 4 sessions of up to one hour each (30 minutes for nursery and reception) with 4 different groups of children. He prefers to work with one or two classes at a time (up to around 50/60 children) in the classroom. 

"It was lovely to see the children so engaged in your storytelling ... we will definitely recommend you"  Llangewydd Junior School

Schools in which he has worked recently include:
Llangewydd Junior School (Bridgend); Coryton Primary School (Cardiff); St Michaels Primary School (Newport); Brynhafod Primary School (Cardiff); Grangetown Primary School (Cardiff); Moorland Primary School (Cardiff); Ysgol Gynradd Pencae (Cardiff); Monnow Primary School (Newport); Alaw Primary School (RCT)


Aesop's Fables at Castell Coch
Guto is one of a team of storytellers who tell a selection of Aesop's Fables to school parties at Castell Coch, near Cardiff.  The stories are chosen from those that are illustrated on the walls of the drawing room in the Castle.
To book one of these sessions, contact Castell Coch at:
castellcoch@wales.gsi.gov.uk
​029 2081 0101

Picture
The Dog & His Reflection and The Fox & the Crow at Castell Coch - Photo: Caletero

​Newport Library Service Boys' Literacy Project
In 2012 Guto spent three weeks with Yr 5 & 6 boys from seven different schools in Newport, telling them stories and teaching them to tell the stories they had heard.  During the fourth week Natasha James of Breaking Barriers Communities Arts (www.breakingbarriers.org.uk) recorded each group telling one of the stories and used the boys' artwork to create story videos.  

​Here are two examples:

The Hunter and the Skull (High Cross Junior School)
The Boy who had no Story (Gaer Junior School)
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.