In-school

With our Story Suitcase sessions, students encounter new story worlds and develop creative and critical thinking through imaginative play. With our in-school and online storytelling sessions, students are empowered through oracy to become creative and articulate thinkers, discovering new stories and creating their own.

"I actually could not believe what was happening. X has been elective mute since returning from lockdown; I have not heard her speak since September, and it's now May. Not only did she volunteer to speak, she was confident and hilarious and the class were supportive of her and cheered as they couldn't believe it either. It is astounding.' - In-school session, primary school in High Wycombe, 2022

Story Suitcase Experience

For Early Years to Year 6

A Story Museum Story Leader visits your school for a day, bearing a mysterious battered suitcase that has travelled to many mystical story lands! The Story Suitcase contains a mesmerising selection of multisensory souvenirs from a themed story world (see options below) and is brought to life by a performance and participative role play session.

The experience includes:

• A dedicated Story Leader who will tell a mesmerising story and facilitate one-hour participative story-making sessions
• An exquisite textile backdrop to create the story setting, bringing a corner of The Story Museum to your school.
• The intriguing Story Suitcase containing multisensory objects to discover and explore.
• Pre and post session resources for the teachers to keep, including activity and lesson plan ideas designed to evoke creative responses and emotional connections to the story, seed empathy with the characters, and pique curiosity about what will happen next.

Choose from the following Suitcase options:

• Amazon Rainforest - explore the Rainforest through the traditional oral story, 'The Tree of Life'. Perfect for studying alongside climate change, the environment, kindness and sharing or texts such as Journey to the River Sea by Eve Ibbotson or The Explorer by Katherine Rundell.
• Narnia - step through the wardrobe into the frozen world of Narnia and immerse your class in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis with exciting sights and smells. Perfect for studying quests and themes of courage, loyalty and transformation.
  
• Grimms' Tales - take a journey into a classic tale from the Brothers Grimm Collection, including: Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, The Musicians of Bremen, The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids. Perfect for studying traditional tales or the study of satire alongside stories such as Shrek, Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes and Joseph Coelho's Fairy Tales Gone Bad series.
• Tales of Anansi – embark on an exciting journey to West Africa with the clever trickster Anansi. This engaging adventure is perfect for enriching classwork on Ghana and the Caribbean, while also supporting storytelling, exploring themes of wisdom, and developing creative problem-solving skills.

Length of session:
Nursery/Reception: 30 minutes.
KS1-2: One hour, to a maximum of four sessions per day
Timing: 09:30 and 15:00
Cost: £495+VAT per day + travel expenses
No travel expenses for schools in Oxford.
Note: The experience requires a space of 2m². We will need a dedicated space for the day rather than rotating classrooms.
We offer in-school sessions to schools in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire. We do not charge travel expenses for schools situated in Oxford.

In-School Storytelling

For Early Years to Year 6

The Story Leader visits your school for a full day. The Story Leader tells traditional oral stories from around the world and uses these as stimulus for students to create stories of their own, through collaboration and drama-based activities.

You can set the agenda for the day depending on your school's timetable and the number of classes you wish to involve. For example, the Story Leader could spend two hours with one class in which students develop a story together in detail or they could rotate classes with quickfire 30-minute story sessions. For EYFS we recommend sessions are no longer than 30 minutes.

We can offer in-school sessions to schools situated in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire.

Storytelling Sessions

Choose from: Dreamers, Healers, Tricksters and Shapeshifters, all of which can be differentiated from EYFS to Year 6:

• Dreamers: Stories for wellbeing, of wishes and dreams, including a turtle who wants to fly and a monkey who yearns for honey.
• Healers: Stories for wellbeing, starring various Wise Ones who encourage hapless characters to see happiness and luck right in front of them.
• Tricksters: Stories for critical thinking. Devise puzzles, learn how to trick a dragon or overcome a crocodile.
• Shapeshifters: Stories for critical thinking. Meet some shape-shifting characters, and find out how animals came to be, why koalas love climbing trees and why frogs have no tails.

Timing: 09:30 and 15:00
Cost: Full day: £435+VAT+Travel
Note: We offer in-school sessions to schools in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire. We do not charge travel expenses for schools situated in Oxford.

“Each time The Story Museum have visited, the children have listened and engaged in sessions beautifully. It has been amazing to watch how the children are able to participate in retelling a story after only hearing once before.” - Teacher at SEND specialist school, March 2024

“[The students] worked as a team, building positivity and enabling listening to each other, boosting and sharing ideas. Kids were excited and buzzing.” - Year 5 teacher, March 2025

Online sessions

For Early Years to Year 6

The storyteller tells two stories at the beginning of the day and sets a story-making task with accompanying resources. They then meet the class again - at the end of the lesson/day/week - to hear the students’ creations and tell a final story.

Choose from Dreamers, Healers, Tricksters and Shapeshifters, as described above, or request a specific theme relevant to your class.

All sessions can be adapted for Year 1 through to Year 6. We can meet up to four classes a day. For EYFS we recommend 30 minute sessions with no second session - this can be added to the costs below as a complimentary session.

Cost:
One class (30-minute story launch storytelling session, resources, and second 30-minute storytelling session): £95+VAT
Two classes (2 x the above): £120+VAT
Three classes (3x the above): £135+VAT
Four classes (4x the above): £145+VAT

“Each teacher said how engaged their children were with your storytelling – some were hanging off your every word! Your use of props inspired some children to incorporate them into their stories. There was great discussion around the characters and what they might be up to, particularly the ones around how animals came to have certain characteristics. We couldn’t find anything to improve on!” – Teacher, Zoom storytelling session, March 2021