Primary School testimonials
Debbie has been coming to Raglan Primary every Friday for a year. She has been sharing her world stories and her songs with reception class. Her presence is eagerly anticipated by the children and staff who are spellbound by her magical tales. She uses repetition , incorporating expressions, actions and songs, allowing all the children to be engaged and participate fully. She doesn't use story books, instead she encourages the children to create pictures of the characters and events in their own minds. The children regularly request their favourite stories, and are encouraged to build and adapt the story as it evolves.
As the children grew in confidence they became more interested in telling their own stories and sharing them with others. We felt this has an excellent impact on their written work as well as verbal. We started an Author of the Week competition, with Debbie as their inspiration.
This has been extremely successful and we feel it is a direct consequence of Debbie's visits.
On one occasion a child asked to tell a story to the class, she imitated some of the actions and expressions of Debbie and told the story in great detail, whilst keeping he audience captivated, this little girl was 5 years old !
When speaking to the children about transition into year 1 we found many of them to be nervous and scared of change, we spoke to Debbie about this and she suggested telling stories about change, after hearing her stories we felt they were much more relaxed and reassured.
As a class teachers we feel Debbie is an invaluable resource. She is adaptive, creative, inspiring, considerate and kind. She respects the children and makes them and their opinions fell valued. We have been privileged to learn about the true art of storytelling from an expert, and we appreciate all she has done for us and the children.
This year we have a lot more children writing and telling stories and we believe Debbie has been a positive contributing factor towards their progress.
Jo Waterman and Lucy Fitzgerald
Reception Class teachers, Raglan Primary
Debbie has an amazing ability to grab the attention and imagination of any child through her storytelling. The animation in her voice and actions has the audience captivated from start to finish. When she visited our class of children with a range of speech and language difficulties she left them buzzing with excitement, repeating the stories and actions. even the more reserved children were joining in. Weeks after the class were able to talk about the stories, remembering the actions and their faces lit up as they talked about it. They talked fondly about Debbie: "she's funny", "she made us laugh". When asked about why Debbie doesn't use books, one child said "Because she wants us to imagine it"
Mrs Philips
Lower language
Raglan Primary
​“Debbie's storytelling is mesmerising. Our children were completely transfixed by her presence, voice and songs. They listened with anticipation and had a lot of fun joining in when invited. It was very refreshing to experience stories this way. After the story of Anansi, the children enjoyed making their own character props for the their own story telling. All in all, it was a such an engaging and inspiring learning experience for the children and staff."
St Georges Primary
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