As part of National Storytelling Week, our pupils took part in an exciting live online lesson with rapper and poet Alim Kamara. The children were completely inspired as Alim shared his passion for rhythm, rhyme and storytelling, giving them lots of brilliant ideas to help them write their very own raps.

National Storytelling Week is a long‑running celebration of the power of stories. It was first created in 2000 by the Society for Storytelling to honour the tradition of oral storytelling and to encourage a new generation of storytellers across the UK. In 2026, National Storytelling Week runs from 31 January to 8 February and focuses on celebrating stories in all forms.

This year’s theme, “Soundtrack Your Story,” was designed to connect music, rhythm and creativity with literacy learning, helping children explore how sound and words work together to tell powerful stories. Alim Kamara’s workshop supported this beautifully, demonstrating how stories can come alive through beats, rhyme schemes and expressive language. 

During the session, children learned how to:

• use rhythm and rhyme to express ideas,
• build a rap verse using their own experiences,
• tell a story through lyrics and performance.

There was plenty of excitement and laughter as pupils experimented with words and began drafting their own rap lines. The session not only boosted their confidence in writing but also helped them see storytelling in a fresh, modern way.

National Storytelling Week is all about fostering a love of reading, writing and sharing stories—and our pupils certainly embraced that spirit today. What a fantastic experience for everyone involved!