Starting this Saturday 30th January, until the following weekend, National Storytelling Week is taking place across the country.
In 2020, Leicester Libraries spent much of lockdown conducting online storytelling sessions for families, and now, for National Storytelling Week, they will be utilising a new way of providing stories for these families. The city council’s libraries service will be using the Zoom online meeting app to bring these stories into homes across Leicester for free and require no form of library membership to take part.
These sessions are planned to feature stories for all ages of children. There will be a story for pre-school and reception age children, followed by an interactive chat, and then a story for older, school-aged children where families can also chat with the storyteller afterwards.
The sessions will run at the following dates and times:
- Saturday 30th January – 11 to 11.30am
- Tuesday 2nd February – 4.30 to 5pm
- Thursday 4th February – 4.30 to 5pm
- Saturday 6th February – 11 to 11.30am
Cllr Kirk Master, assistant city mayor for neighbourhoods, said: “This is a great way to mark National Storytelling Week. We know lots of families are missing visiting our libraries for storytelling and a lot are coping with the pressures of home-schooling. These sessions are a chance for children to hear some of their favourite stories, talk to the storyteller and feel that they are participating in something with others. It’s a great opportunity.”
These sessions are planned to be live sessions, but the council have said that these stories will be available online on the city council’s YouTube channel, or will be recorded and uploaded there in the future so nobody misses out.
To book, email libraries-childrens-team@leicester.gov.uk and a Zoom link will be sent out an hour prior to the session.
Visit www.leicester.gov.uk/libraries to find out more.
By Sam Ellison
