A Lowestoft-area school has taken steps to make all of its pupils storytellers.

Carlton Colville Primary School has become the first school in Suffolk to receive accreditation from the Storytelling Schools Company, an initiative aimed at developing skills and confidence in speaking and performing.

The scheme provides a whole-school approach to literacy teaching and learning, and at Carlton Colville pupils will be learning a fiction and non fiction piece of writing every half term, so that by the end of the year each pupil has learnt 12 stories by heart.

The school adopted the approach in September 2016, and after receiving formal accreditation at the start of the term, Year 6 teacher Beth Lewis is keen to share their techniques with other schools in the area.

She said: 'It would be wonderful to have some other Storytelling Schools in Suffolk to enable a working partnership.

'Storytelling Schools approach to literacy is a fresh and exciting way to promote our shared cultural history as storytellers. It is also easy to teach the requirements of the primary curriculum through this approach. More importantly, the children love it, and become energised when they know a storytelling session is about the start.'

The school decided to join the scheme following a visit from Storytelling Schools founder Chris Smith a couple of years ago, and Mrs Lewis is now hoping to train as an accredited trainer.

Pupils learn stories by listening to a performance from their teacher, before mapping it out as a class pictorially, stepping it out and then having a go at speaking it. Stories are performed as a group chanting together or individually, with pupils learning their own lines and then passing the story on.

Mr Smith from the Storytelling Schools Company said: 'I have seen the excellent work at the school through which children learn key skills that are crucial for future life. We look forward now to sharing the method with other schools in the county.'

Any schools interested in finding out more about becoming a Storytelling School are invited to contact Mrs Lewis on 01502 572682.