I was early years trained, and taught in Reception and Year 1 for four years and having lectured in early years development and language I have developed an intuitive grasp of the needs and understanding of the younger listener.

The whole focus of the sessions with the pre-school and foundation age children is to give them an appreciation of the diverse language of stories.

The sessions are split into manageable sections so that there is always a physical activity occuring every ten minutes. This ensures that the children can build up their own concentration span and vocabulary of stories.

In each session I would tell a self-penned, age-appropriate story with actions and active participation.

The stories are linked with an appropriate series of Nursery Rhymes or self-penned songs by myself or Keith Donnelly.

There will be a general discussion of what a story needs to have in it and we will create a story using everyday objects taken randomly out of a carrier bag.

This is an activity that the children and teachers can copy and use after I have gone to create their own stories and extend their own imaginations.

At the end of the session there will be a 'cool off' period where the children will be calmed down and ready to return to their classrooms. Having been a teacher I know how irritating it can be to have children whipped up into a frenzy and uncontrollable after an unstructured 'show'.

In every instance I view a storytelling session like a P.E. lesson where there is a need to return to normality after a series of exciting events.

I have recorded a large number of stories on CD that I have developed and written with children in the Nursery and Reception classes. 'Scraps of time and night' released in 1999 is a collection of stories for little children and 2006's 'For Little Ears' is the accumulation of stories written during two projects for Reception and Nursery children in Inner Manchester and North Shields. 

I have also recorded a CD of Nursery Rhymes called 'The House That Jack and Jill Built'.