The team at 主播大秀 Writersroom Scotland recently worked with 主播大秀 Learning on an exciting new project to develop and produce audio stories for children. Producer, Anne McNaught, explains more:
“Stories, stories and more stories.”
That’s what one primary school teacher said she’d like when 主播大秀 Scotland Learning conducted some research into audio for schools recently. “Stories on any topic,” she said. “Real life or fiction, either’s good.” (And someone else reading them would be a bonus, as “they’re sick of the sound of my voice …”!)
This was a pretty universal response from the teachers we asked – more stories please, and make them easy to play. Everyone knows how ear-grabbing a good story can be, and in the Scottish school curriculum, listening skills are considered every bit as important as reading skills. A key difference between listening and reading though is that most classrooms have lots of books, but they don’t have lots of audio resources.
has been making audio for teachers and children since the original days of school radio, and it all lives online now, so it’s got the potential for a long and useful existence.
At the end of last year, we were in the market for some new stories, and some new writers we’d not worked with before so we got together with the 主播大秀 Writersroom team in Glasgow, and presented their Scottish Voices writers with the opportunity to write a five minute story for a primary school audience via Time for a Story. (“You may have worked on gritty dramas or topical comedy up till now, but how are you with 6 year olds?” That’s how it felt, as I described what we were looking for!)
Loads of great ideas came in, with the range of subject matter we’d been hoping for. We had script editor Jamey Claffey and schools’ literacy consultant Grace McKelvie on board.
Listen to Rory Bear and the Totally Completely Boring Weekend written by Ali Taylor, narrated by Gayanne Potter and illustrated by Ashlee Spink.
In the end, five new stories were selected to be given the full audio treatment, including Rory Bear and the Totally Completely Boring Weekend by Ali Taylor, about a young girl’s very mixed feelings around her new baby sibling’s arrival; The Day the Stories Ran Out by Linda MacLaughlin, about a quest through a fantasy landscape to the home of stories… and a poem, The Great Bumpkin King by Justin Anderson and Juliet Cavanagh Anderson.
Actors were invited in to read the stories for us – including (of Raven fame, and Molly & Mack), who read Niki Rooney’s story, Thistle and the Circle of Champions.
Listen to Thistle and the Circle of Champions written by Niki Rooney, narrated by James MacKenzie and illustrated by Darren Gate.
Music was selected, and sound effects found - and at times created specially.
The part of the process that was totally new to me was sourcing and commissioning freelance illustrators to create an image that would complement each story. We needed graphics with enough big shapes to look good on a tiny phone screen, but also enough detail to look interesting on a large smartboard at the front of a class.
The illustrators were a joy to work with. I was amazed at their creations and the amount of time they were happy to spend getting everything just right
Listen to The Day the Stories Ran Out written and narrated by Linda McLaughlin and illustrated by Meg Owenson.
Edinburgh-based illustrator Tom Morgan-Jones created a colour-tastic image for the Great Bumpkin King, on a very loose brief involving fantasy animals, a scary neighbouring country, and a landscape “a bit like The Lorax”.
… and Sophie Humphreys found a way to depict the idea of a dull day in the playground, with a simultaneous escape into a magical other dimension for the main character. Impossible for me to describe to her visually, but that’s why you hire a professional...
Listen to The Wee Shop of Magic written by Fiona Connor, narrated by Toni Frutin and illustrated by Sophie Humphreys.
We launched the collection, Time for a Story just before the Easter holidays, including all five stories from the 主播大秀 Writersroom writers.
I like to think of it giving as many teachers as possible an enjoyable five-minute breather – with some great material to discuss afterwards with their pupils, that might even inspire them to write and draw their own stories.
Listen to The Great Bumpkin KIng written by Justin Anderson and Juliet Cavanagh-Anderson, narrated by Helen Mackay and illustrated by Tom Morgan-Jones.
Two of the writers, Juliet Cavanagh-Anderson and Justin Anderson, explain how they approached their story, The Great Bumpkin King
When we got the brief for this project, what really struck both of us was the question: “Why is it important to tell your story now?” As parents, it didn’t take us long to come up with a topic that worries both of us: the constant flow of disturbing news and how that affects kids. Between us we have a psychology degree (Juliet) and a deep interest in politics (Justin) so the bones of the story around dealing with scary news came together fairly quickly. We hadn’t written in this rhyming style together before, so we wrote a sample for the pitch.
We’d already pitched a few ideas through Scottish Voices before this one, and had collected some “thanks but” emails, so when we got the “delighted to tell you” email, we both had to read it a few times! We couldn’t believe how positive it was. The producers seemed to love it; we got a real sense of excitement from the feedback. Once we’d written the rest, there were a few tweaks to be made. Working with the script editor and producer, who were both hugely encouraging, was a real pleasure. In the end, the biggest challenge was cutting it down - we could easily have written twice as much! When we saw and heard the finished product, we were delighted. Tom Morgan-Jones’ illustration completely sums up the feel we had for the story, and Helen Mackay really brings it to life. We hope people enjoy it as much we enjoyed writing it!