Tales Retold Storytelling Festival – welcomes over 700 young story makers and storytellers to Blackpool Grand Theatre to share their stories on our stage.

The Tales Retold schools programme will welcome 12 schools to showcase our local young story makers and storytellers. They will tell stories of resilience, hope, and a sense of belonging featuring characters from The Ugly Duckling, Sleeping Beauty, and Unexpected Twist.

In the past couple of years, our innovative drama project has helped Blackpool children to strengthen their resilient confidence as well as gain new skills and confidence in storytelling, drama, and oracy. Through its Tales Retold project, Blackpool Grand has created opportunities for over 800 schoolchildren from 12 local primary schools to take part in the programme. The project started in December 2020 and runs until July 2024. The schools involved are; Westminster Academy, St John Vianney RC School, Our Lady of the Assumption, Roseacre Academy, Armfield Academy, Marton Academy, Highfurlong School, Gateway Academy, Baines Endowed CE School, St Kentigern’s RC Primary, Revoe Learning Academy, and Kincraig Academy.

Tales Retold Storytelling Festival

In the project, pupils from Years 4 to 6 (aged 8-11) are exploring storytelling and story-making. In the first year, they worked with an adaptation of Gangsta Granny by David Walliams, watched the play at Blackpool Grand, and retold parts of the story through performance. In the role, they advised the characters about resilience and practiced ‘resilient moves’ that could improve the outcomes for the characters. This year, children are working on Michael Rosen’s Unexpected Twist. They’re looking forward to seeing the play at Blackpool Grand and sharing their performances on stage in July. The theatre has commissioned the North West theatre company, The Knotted Project, as lead artists and drama practitioners for the initiative.

Celine Wyatt, Head of Creative Development and Learning at the Grand, says: “Tales Retold Project draws on our unique Story-Led Resilient Practice that uses stories as a gateway to identify and explore resilience through characters’ journeys. This allows children to stop and pause the action, identify when characters are responding well to challenges and when they could have used a different approach.”

Pupils are encouraged to spot resilient behaviour such as planning, being brave, trying new things, being helpful, and expressing feelings. The Tales Retold project forms part of a broader commitment in Blackpool to help strengthen resilience and literacy for children and young people across the town. The Grand’s ground-breaking Story-Led Resilience Programme, of which this project is part, seeks to improve young people’s resilience and confidence. Through story and drama, children build their oracy skills, helping them to communicate more effectively and strengthen their ability to cope with life’s ups and downs. The impact has been profound. Since taking part in the project, more than 75% of young people agree they’ve increased their skills in a range of areas, including being organised, making friends, calming down, following rules, making decisions, joining in, understanding others and sharing ideas out loud.

Tales Retold Storytelling Festival

Reporting on the experience, children from St. John Vianney RC School, one of the participating primary schools, shared their thoughts. One said: “During Tales Retold, I’ve learned to be confident and express my feelings, and just experiment,” another commented on the link between friendship and resilience, saying: “Resilience can help when you’re making friends because you can’t make friends if you don’t speak to them.” A third child simply said: “I felt like loud and proud of myself.”

In focus groups that explored reactions to Tales Retold, young people overwhelmingly reported that they believe resilience means never giving up and keeping going when times are tough, as well as being helpful to each other. This suggests that the project is deepening young people’s understanding of the idea of resilience. “Children have gained so much confidence from the Tales Retold project,” says Dr. Elaine Allen, Executive Headteacher of St John Vianney RC School in Blackpool. “It’s helped them to feel safe and secure when they’re speaking to each other. They’re thinking about what they should say and how they should say it.

“We’ve also discovered that children often feel safer talking about how characters in stories have behaved in a resilient way, rather than referencing their own experiences. So the project has helped them to evaluate different ways of dealing with people and situations in their lives.”

As further proof of the power of the Grand’s Story-Led Resilience Programme, it was shortlisted for the ‘Community Project of the Year’ at the prestigious, Stage Awards.

Adam Knight, Chief Executive, Blackpool Grand Theatre “We are thrilled that the Goldsmiths’ Company Charity is our main funder and that the Arts Council continues to support us to deliver this transformational programme of work.”

Story-Led Resilient Practice™