Upper Four were treated to a storytelling session by professional storyteller Kevin Graal, followed by a morning of creative writing workshops with tutors from the Writers’ Centre Norwich and UEA’s Creative Writing School.

Kevin Graal has been a professional storyteller for over thirty years. He captivates audiences of all ages with tales from around the world, and Upper Four were no exception. The purpose of the day was to focus on character development in creative writing.

Pupils were given a choice of two tasks. The first was to finish a story, that Kevin had started but left on a cliff-hanger, of an old lady who wished to cheat death. She had managed to trick death once using words alone, but the challenge was to see if she could do so again, or whether death would outwit her. The second task was to re-tell a tale that Kevin had told, but from the point of view of one of the four characters in it. In a tale of revenge and death, each character would try to exonerate themselves from any blame, and pupils were asked to think about which character was the least grateful for the mercy shown to them, as well as to build up a history of that character in order to better understand their motivations and actions.

Pupils completed their writing tasks throughout the morning with the help of English department staff and the visiting tutors. Some of the best pieces were selected to be read aloud in the afternoon. It was clear that pupils had risen to the challenge as some excellent work had been produced. Thanks to Kevin's expertise and energy, pupils achieved much more than was expected. Teachers, tutors and Kevin assessed the writing from the four classes and outstanding work was read aloud from nearly forty pupils – perhaps just a striking phrase or an opening paragraph which caught the reader’s attention – and Mr Murray, Head of English, attributes this success to Kevin Graal’s extremely stimulating presentation.

Pupils were engaged from the start, and responded extremely well to Kevin’s presentation style which included music, riddles, jokes, and much interaction, as well as traditional storytelling.

We look forward to welcoming Kevin Graal back again in the future.