The children were told a story from ‘Science through stories’ about three lighthouses which go out in a storm when the wire in the circuit breaks.

After a sequence of lessons exploring the electrical circuits used on this fictitious island the pupils were asked to play a couple of talk games from the Storytelling Schools method:

• Persuasion Role Play – the son persuades his father to use electricity on the island instead of the old oil lamps. He points out how easy it would be with one switch for three lighthouses.
• Phone home – where two children take on the role of characters from the story – one who witnessed the storm and one who was not there at the time. The character who witnessed the storm then explains to the other how the circuits are constructed and why it was a problem when the wire was broken.

From this the teacher could hear the level of understanding as they orally explained the circuit, the switch, the broken wire and how the problem was solved with three separate circuits.

Storytelling schools

Year 6, Cumnor Primary School, Oxford