MakeBelieve Arts Education and Theatre charity in Kent

Helicopter Stories: Letting Imagination Fly - is an innovative learning strategy which allows practitioners to work in a truly holistic way with their children, leading to strong outcomes in key curriculum areas such as Communication and Language, Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Early Compositional Skills in writing.

Helicopter Stories creates an enabling environment which facilitates the development of story invention and storytelling skills in children and supports them to understand and be confident in their own imagination and distinctive style.

Based on the work of Vivian Gussin Paley, a renowned kindergarten teacher and author from the USA, and patron to MakeBelieve Arts, Helicopter Stories is a simple approach; a child tells a story, an adult scribes it verbatim and then the whole class comes together to act it out.

Helicopter Stories is a highly effective whole-class approach, for children aged 2-7 years old, which values and promotes the unique contribution of each child, irrespective of their background or ability.

This video shows how the approach works.

Princesses, Dragons and Helicopter Stories by Trisha Lee was published in 2016 by Routledge. It was shortlisted by UKLA for the Academic Book of the Year award. It contains a foreword by Vivian Gussin Paley and is a ‘how to’ on the approach.

What do we offer?

MakeBelieve Arts offers Full, Half Day and In-class Training Sessions for EYFS, KS1 and PVI practitioners, where participants learn about the approach, watch it in action with a group of children, and have the chance to try out storytelling and story acting for themselves.

We also deliver interactive Conference Keynotes and workshops.

Our money-back guarantee is that by the end of any training we offer, all participants will be excited to return to their classrooms and use the approach with their children.

MakeBelieve Arts has worked with schools across Brent, Glasgow, Greenwich, Guernsey, Havering, Islington, Lewisham, Kent,
Thurrock, Tower Hamlets and Westminster.

What are the benefits?

The Open University evaluated Helicopter Stories and found it to be highly beneficial in developing children’s speech and language, confidence, self-assurance, social and emotional skills, active listening as well as engaging pupils with literacy, specifically early writing skills.

“Helicopter Stories offers children an important bridge into the world of story writing as they begin to see the links between the oral stories they compose and the words on a page.” - Open University Evaluation

If you are interested in finding out more about Helicopter Stories and how it can benefit your school or setting, please do get in touch, and we will be happy to tailor a package to specifically meet your needs and budget.

Contact Details

Isla Hill, Creative Director - MakeBelieve Arts
Telephone: 020 8691 3803
Email: isla@makebelievearts.co.uk