Year 10 student Rose Chaloner has helped lead a series of story creating workshop at the Museum of London as part of the launch of the Paddington 2 movie.  Rose joined Small Tales Storytelling Club founder Debbie Guneratne in running the event, following the completion of a seven-year storytelling apprenticeship which started at Sydenham High Junior School.

Debbie, as founder of the Small Tales Storytelling Club, was invited to lead workshops to celebrate the launch of eagerly-anticipated Paddington movie sequel.  For the event she devised a special game to get participants to create storylines for the next Paddington movie, which she and Rose delivered as a storytelling team.

The workshops were aimed at adults and children 6+, and Rose’s friendly manner and confident story skills enabled the participants to enjoy creating their own stories.  They were particularly impressed by Rose’s commitment to the storytelling tradition. One adult participant commented:: “It’s good to see young people helping and we’re amazed that she has completed seven years.  You can tell by the way she communicates.”

Small Tales has been operating as a club at Sydenham High for eight years and Rose joined when the club was fairly new.  The children come from years 3 to 6 and once they reach year 7 they are invited to join the group at Ripley Arts Centre, so they can continue their apprenticeship.

“I started these clubs to fulfil a dream of changing lives,” said Debbie.  “When I work with the young storytellers like Rose, I realise that the future is in safe hands!”

The club has been running for over 21 years and is the first and only storytelling club that trains future storytellers.