FOR TEACHERS · KS1 AND KS2 · 2027
National Storytelling Week 2027: an assembly and a week of KS1 and KS2 activities
National Storytelling Week 2027 runs from Saturday 30 January to Sunday 7 February, and its theme is “Every Story Has a Place and Every Place Has a Story”, according to the Society for Storytelling, which runs the week. Below: a 15-minute assembly, one storytelling activity for each school day with KS1 and KS2 versions, and the National Curriculum links.
- Dates
- Saturday 30 January to Sunday 7 February 2027. The school days are Monday 1 to Friday 5 February 2027.
- 2027 theme
- “Every Story Has a Place and Every Place Has a Story”
- Who
- KS1 and KS2 (Years 1 to 6), with a whole-school assembly to start the week
- You need
- Your voice, paper, and a whiteboard for Wednesday’s story. No app or account is needed.
Assembly · Monday to Friday · Telling tips · Curriculum links
What National Storytelling Week is
National Storytelling Week is an annual celebration of storytelling run by the Society for Storytelling. It was established in 2000 by Del and Pippa Reid and is held each year from the last Saturday in January. The Society says the week is open to everyone, and it invites people and organisations across the UK to take part.
The 2027 theme is “Every Story Has a Place and Every Place Has a Story”. The Society describes it as an invitation to explore the connections between people, places and stories. That suits a primary school well: every child already knows places with stories in them, from the playground to a grandparent’s kitchen, so each activity below starts from a place.
The Society’s page lists ways to join in (host an event, find an event, share a story, celebrate your community) and offers resource packs, including one for early years settings and primary schools, which you request through a form. Check it before you plan, in case anything changes. Litsee is not connected with the Society for Storytelling or with the week: this page is our own set of classroom ideas.
Storytelling here means telling a story aloud in your own words, without reading it from the page. A child who tells a story out loud has already ordered the events, found a voice for each character and watched a listener react, which makes the week a natural lead-in to a unit of story writing.
A 15-minute assembly to launch the week
A 15-minute assembly to launch the week on Monday morning. It needs one adult who is happy to tell a short story without a book, and a photo on the screen.
| Time | Step | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 0–2 min | Welcome | Name the week and read out the theme. Show a photo of a place every child knows, such as the school gate or the hall itself, and ask: what story could have happened here? |
| 2–4 min | Story places | Invite three children to name a place that has a story for them: a park, a bus stop, a grandparent’s house. Say the theme together: every place has a story. |
| 4–11 min | A told story | One adult tells a short story from memory, with no book: a traditional tale they know well, or a true story about a place from their own childhood. Give the hall a repeated line to join in with. |
| 11–13 min | The hall decides | Stop at a turning point and offer two choices for what happens next. The hall votes with hands on heads or hands on shoulders, and the teller finishes the story the hall’s way. |
| 13–15 min | The week ahead | Explain the plan: a story activity every day, and on Friday each class tells stories to another class. Set the family challenge: ask someone at home for a story about a place they remember. |
One storytelling activity a day, Monday to Friday
Monday
Map a story place
KS1 (Years 1 and 2)
Walk the class round the school grounds and stop at three places, such as the gate, a tree and the hall door. At each stop, ask what might happen there in a story. Back in class, children draw a story map of the walk with three stops, then tell a partner a story that moves from stop to stop, pointing at the map as they go.
KS2 (Years 3 to 6)
Pupils choose a real place they know well and jot down what they would see, hear and smell there. They turn the notes into a one-minute oral story set in that place and tell it to a partner, who says which detail made the place feel real. Collect the strongest details on a class word wall for Friday.
Tuesday
Tell it without the book
KS1 (Years 1 and 2)
Choose a traditional tale the class knows, such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Learn it together in five parts, with a picture and an action for each part, then retell it as a class, in groups and finally in pairs. Change the place and tell it again: Goldilocks finds a cottage by the sea, or a tent in the woods.
KS2 (Years 3 to 6)
Pupils retell a myth or traditional tale they have read this year in their own words, without notes, aiming for two minutes. Then they move it to a place they know, such as their own town or the school field, retell it, and discuss what had to change and what stayed the same.
Wednesday
Choose the path together
KS1 (Years 1 and 2)
Put The Whispering Woods, Litsee’s free interactive story, on the whiteboard and read chapter 1 together. At the fork in the path, the class chooses between the fireflies, the moon ladder and the oak door with a hands-up vote. Ask two children for a reason first (“I want to go… because…”), then read the chapter the class chose.
KS2 (Years 3 to 6)
Read The Whispering Woods on the board, then read all three paths, not only the winner. It is written for ages 6 to 8, so in KS2 the focus is structure: in groups, pupils compare how each choice changes the story. Each group then invents a fourth path out loud and tells it to the class, keeping Suzie, the owl and the woods consistent.
Thursday
Pass the story round
KS1 (Years 1 and 2)
Sit in a circle. Read out a starter from the KS1 story starters and pass a soft toy round: whoever holds it adds one sentence to the story. Model joining words such as “then”, “next” and “suddenly”. Scribe the story on the board as it grows and read it back together at the end.
KS2 (Years 3 to 6)
In groups of four, pupils pick a starter from the KS2 story starters. Each pupil tells the next part for thirty seconds before passing it on, and the fourth teller must bring the story to an ending. Swap the order and tell it again: does a different teller change where the story goes?
Friday
Share stories with another class
KS1 (Years 1 and 2)
Children tell their Monday place story, using their map, to a partner from a visiting class, or the class performs its Tuesday tale with the actions. Practise in pairs first: look at your listener, speak slowly and point to your map when you get stuck.
KS2 (Years 3 to 6)
Pupils tell a polished version of one of the week’s stories to a KS1 class, in pairs or small groups. Before the visit, they rehearse with a partner, who gives one tip on voice and one on pace. Afterwards, pupils plan the written version on a story mountain, ready to write it the following week.
Telling a story without the book
- Learn the shape, not the words. Know the five or six main events by heart and tell the rest in your own words. A quick story map on a scrap of paper is a good prompt.
- Give the audience a job: a repeated line to join in with, an action for a character, or a sound when someone opens a door.
- Slow down before the important moment and pause. A silence of two or three seconds holds a hall better than a louder voice.
- Look round the whole group as you tell, not only at the front row, and let your face show how the characters feel.
- Keep it short. A three-minute story told well beats a ten-minute one that loses the room, especially with KS1.
A family challenge for the theme
The theme makes a simple family challenge: ask a grown-up at home to tell you a story about a place they remember, such as where they grew up, a holiday, or their own primary school. Children retell it to a partner in class the next day, and the stories can go on a map of “our places” in the corridor.
Send the challenge home on Monday so families have the week to talk. Some children will not have a story from home, so let them choose a place from their own memory instead, and never ask for personal details they do not want to share.
Curriculum links
Statutory statements from the National Curriculum in England that the week’s activities cover, quoted word for word.
KS1: retelling and composing aloud
“becoming very familiar with key stories, fairy stories and traditional tales, retelling them and considering their particular characteristics”
Year 1, Reading – comprehension (statutory)
“becoming increasingly familiar with and retelling a wider range of stories, fairy stories and traditional tales”
Year 2, Reading – comprehension (statutory)
“composing a sentence orally before writing it”
Year 1, Writing – composition (statutory)
KS2: retelling and performing
“increasing their familiarity with a wide range of books, including fairy stories, myths and legends, and retelling some of these orally”
Years 3 and 4, Reading – comprehension (statutory)
“composing and rehearsing sentences orally (including dialogue), progressively building a varied and rich vocabulary and an increasing range of sentence structures (English Appendix 2)”
Years 3 and 4, Writing – composition (statutory)
“perform their own compositions, using appropriate intonation, volume, and movement so that meaning is clear”
Years 5 and 6, Writing – composition (statutory)
Spoken language (Years 1 to 6)
“give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings”
Years 1 to 6, Spoken language (statutory)
“participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play, improvisations and debates”
Years 1 to 6, Spoken language (statutory)
“gain, maintain and monitor the interest of the listener(s)”
Years 1 to 6, Spoken language (statutory)
Free resources for the week
- The Whispering Woods
A free choose-your-path story for the board, with three paths to compare. No account needed.
- Story starters
Openings by year group and theme, with a generator for the Thursday circle.
- Story plan templates
A story mountain and text-type plans for turning a told story into a written one.
- Seasonal story units
Lesson plans for Lunar New Year, Safer Internet Day and Book Day, the next dates after the week.
- Class stories on the whiteboard
A 10–20 minute lesson flow for reading a story together and voting on what happens next.
Sources
The dates and theme were checked against the Society for Storytelling’s page on 30 October 2026.
How this page was made
This page was drafted with AI help by Litsee. The dates, the 2027 theme and the facts about National Storytelling Week come from the Society for Storytelling’s own page; if they change, the Society’s page is the one to trust. The assembly, the activities and the tips are suggestions written for this page. The National Curriculum statements are copied word for word from the Department for Education’s English programmes of study. No teacher has reviewed this page yet, so we do not show a reviewer. Spotted something to improve? Email info@litsee.com.
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After the week: stories children steer
In Litsee, a child creates the hero, picks the world and chooses what happens next in an illustrated story that is read aloud. In class, the whole class reads a story on the board and votes on what happens next.
The free trial is for families (card needed). See Litsee for schools