School Visits
Supporting Schools
School Visits
Join us for a full day here at Seven Stories as we explore our nationally recognised collection of British children's literature through inspiring workshops, imaginative exhibitions and white glove experiences handling original work from our amazing archive.
Our years of experience working with diverse audiences have enabled us to develop unique experiences that allow children a real insight into how stories are created. By using our collection we aim to encourage children to look at stories in a different way, to not only see themselves and their communities but to also be inspired to create their own. Head to the links below to choose a workshop or contact the learning team for more information.
Workshops on the road!
Here at Seven Stories we are passionate about sharing our book knowledge with as many children and teachers as possible. This is why we are launching our unique workshops into schools, they are a perfect way for you to get the Seven Stories experience within your setting! With six workshops to choose from, all inspired by our extensive archive of children’s literature, there’s something for everyone! Head to the links below for available workshops or contact the learning team.
Summer Offers 2024
Summertime Story Parties & Tiger Afternoon Tea
Here at Seven Stories we want to help celebrate the achievements of every student in your
setting, whether they are amazing at spelling, picked up a book for the first time, wrote a
magical story, were brave and asked a question or managed to sit still for a whole story! Whatever their achievement, we want to celebrate every part of their learning journey.
Join us for a terrific tiger inspired afternoon tea, jam packed with yummy treats fit for a tiger
and rip roaring storytime to boot! This afternoon tea will be a cherished celebration of everything your students (and you!) have achieved this year!
Minimum of 20 students.
Available: 3rd June – 26th July
Date:
Monday 3 June 2024
Time:
Afternoon Only
Admission:
£7.00 Per person
Early Years & KS1
EYFS & KS1 Workshops
We understand that early years education is the foundation of a child’s future development. It is in these formative years that a lifelong love of learning is developed and nurtured. Seven Stories is here to support teachers and educators by developing an educational programme that not only encourages a love of reading but supports critical thinking, personal, social, and emotional development, and communication and language skills. We will help to build confidence, resilience and perseverance using a range of different texts, both fiction and non-fiction, role-play, rhymes and poems.
Rosie's Walk
In this classic tale of ‘overcoming the monster’, join Rosie on a stroll through the farmyard and discover just how brave one little chicken can be! Will Rosie make it back home to the safety of her cosy straw nest or will Fox finally catch her? Learn all about the life of chickens down on the farm in this engaging interactive storytelling workshop. With our chicken-expert Story Catchers, you’ll look at the life cycle of an egg, what chickens eat and where they live, and we’ll work together to build our own giant nest!
Featured text and archive items: 'Rosie’s Walk' by Pat Hutchins
The Case Of The Missing Nursery Rhymes
Oh no! Someone has stolen all of our favourite nursery rhymes! Help our Story Catchers put our rhymes back together by following the clues. Will Baby get their cake back? Will Jack and Jill ever fetch water again? In this fully interactive workshop, we delve into the world of rhyme and tradition from around the world, looking at a range of well know nursery rhymes in our Collection.
Featured text and archive items: 'Over The Hills And Far Away' – Seven Stories Original Book
Nature and Seasons
Explore the wonder of nature through rhyme and poetry in this imaginative and immersive workshop that will inspire a love of the world around us as well as the magic of the written word. Inspired by Elizabeth Hammill’s (founder of Seven Stories) treasury of nursery rhymes, Over the Hills and Far Way, this session connects us to our literary past as well as introducing poetry as another form of storytelling and expression.
Featured text and archive items: 'Over the Hills and Far Away' – Seven Stories Original Book
The Wombles
The Wombles – the original eco-warriors - are coming to the Ouseburn! Discover how the author Elisabeth Beresfordhoped that her stories would encourage children to fight pollution and think up ways to 'make good use of bad rubbish’. In this workshop we’ll look at how we can help fight climate change and what rubbish we can use for good, as well as heading out around the Ouseburn Valley together to see how we can help look after our urban environment and discussing what we could do to improve it.
Featured text and archive items: The Wombles original illustrations, Elisabeth Beresford (author) and Barry Leith (illustrator)
Key Stage 2
KS2 Workshops
In these sessions, we place emphasis on widening the depth of knowledge in poetry, plays and non-fiction. We know that a shared experience creates a deeper understanding and progressively helps build a varied and rich vocabulary while helping to develop narratives and character development, which in turn will build confidence in self-expression and awareness of the world around us that will open pupils up to a world of imagination and support a love of reading for pleasure.
The Case Of The Missing Manuscript
“NEWSFLASH! One of our most treasured Collection items has gone missing!” Pupils will help the Story Catcher team to find the clues and solve the case in this fully interactive whodunnit workshop. They’ll work together just like the Famous Five to figure out who has stolen the precious Enid Blyton manuscript and bring the culprit to justice! A fiction-inspired workshop that will explore language, structure and meaning as well as encouraging open discussions exploring and understanding the meaning and context of the many different elements found in the mystery of the missing manuscript.
Featured text and archive items: 'The Famous Five' by Enid Blyton
Dare Dream Believe Imagine
In this creative workshop we take inspiration from author Sita Brahmachari’s beautiful book 'Where The River Runs Gold', which highlights the urgent need to tackle environmental destruction. Sita was gifted a banner by young students who were inspired by her book and had created the banner for use in the Friday for Futures marches. T hat very climate change banner was donated to our collection by Sita in 2021. She said: "I felt a strong urge to leave this beautiful banner and my notebook at Seven Stories as COP26 closed and the calls from the young people of our globe were echoing everywhere... urgent calls to save the planet. It's my hope that this and the other creative 3D objects that have grown up around my stories will be exhibited and continue to pass on their empathy charges." This workshop is an opportunity for pupils to design and make their very own ‘story’ banner that expresses what is important to them through illustration and creative writing.
Featured text and archive items: 'Where The River Runs Gold' by Sita Brahmachari
Journey to the River Sea
In this workshop pupils will take a spectacular journey to an extraordinary new world as they join orphan Maia, and discover the wonders of the rainforest through Eva Ibbotson’s Journey to the River Sea Collection items. We’ll explore how it would feel to move to the other side of world…What food would you eat? What would you take with you? What new stories would you discover? How might it feel to be so far away from the only home you’ve ever known? In this fully interactive story workshop we will look at the challenges of displacement and how we can support others who experience loss and migration.
Featured text and archive items: Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson
Do Dragons Really Exist?
Could the legends be true? Are the mythical scaled creatures merely a myth or did dragons really exist? Join us on a journey of discovery as we delve into the science of dragons. Together with our team of Story Catchers, pupils will research and collect evidence to prove the theory that dragons could be real. Using a range of materials and texts they’ll look at myths from around the world, other cultures and local folklore – as nearby as the Lambton Worm - to discover the truth!
Featured text and archive items: The Flight of Dragons by Peter Dickinson
How to book
To arrange a school visit to Seven Stories, please fill out our enquiry form below or contact learning@sevenstories.org.uk
School Booking Enquiry Form
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