World Stories
Friday January 20, 2012
A remarkable new educational website is collecting traditional stories from around the world and translating them into 21 languages
A new website, World Stories, is aiming to collect traditional stories from around the world in order to produce a significant resource for enhancing children’s education and literacy. The stories will be available in the 21 languages spoken by most children in the UK and can be read and listened to online as well as downloaded for free.
Alongside producing their own stories, World Stories is also using crowd sourcing techniques, inviting children, translators, storytellers and other volunteers to contribute.
The project underlines the centrality of storytelling as part of a child's learning experience. The site announces that, "Our commitment is to support language skills and encourage cultural awareness whilst also aiming to inspire children to both discuss their responses and get creative."
World Stories has been set up by the children’s charity KidsOut, who’ve managed to cajole luminaries like Richard E Grant, Richard Briers and Colin Dexter to read children’s stories for them.
We spoke to World Stories Project manager Emma Coffey about the initiative.
http://www.worldstories.org.uk/
What made you decide to create this project?
We are very grateful to Esmée Fairbairn and Big Lottery for funding his project,
One in eight children in the UK speak a language other than English as their first language. Many of these children and their families don’t have access to stories in their first language. Children living with disadvantage frequently don’t travel more than a one mile radius from their home. We want to enrich the experiences of all these children.
Literacy and language skills are such a vital tool for all young people, and by strengthening children’s’ literacy we know we are benefiting their life chances.
The idea is a simple one but it is also unique – gather 105 stories representing 21 languages and make them available in their original language and English. The emphasis is speaking and listening – (so often side lined in the taught curriculum) we want children to listen to, read out loud and discuss the stories. Our goal is for quality – we want the stories to be attractive to children and to their parents and teachers who we hope will share the stories with their children and encourage their confidence in engaging with the storytelling process. We have created an online teachers and parents area with this in mind, so we can continue to resource the adults that are most influential in these young people’s lives.
“It has given the children I have taught a broader view of the world and of multiculturalism. All of the stories have a moral basis which has helped them grasp concepts that they wouldn't necessarily get from other lessons. Plus the stories are vivid, well written and engaging. I love world stories!” Primary teacher
It aims to gather stories from around the world in the 21 most commonly spoken languages... how are you going about this? Is it challenging getting the stories translated?
We have been amazed at the numbers of people offering to support us. This project is only possible because of the hundreds of volunteers that have stepped forward with various talents and skills. All our volunteers have a 
passionate appreciation of the power of story and its valuable role in inspiring individuals and communities.
Our volunteers have come from all walks of life- from universities, media professions, professors, storytellers, teachers, community groups and youth projects and have varied in age from eight to 80!
We are still seeking some translators and also we are still recruiting for some accomplished readers – especially those that can read in one of the 20 listed languages. It is a juggling act and again, we are fortunate to have recruited a wonderful, skilled volunteer to assist with every aspect of the administration.
How did you get Richard E Grant to read for you?
A lot of the successes of this project has depended on being in the right place at the right time and on the generosity of others- particularly writers and performers who care about reaching those children most in need. We are very grateful to Richard E Grant and to Richard Briers and Colin Dexter for reading for KidsOut. Most recently we have sound recorded poet and broadcaster Stewart Henderson and his actor wife Carol, who gave us a day of their time to sound record some World Stories, We are still very much looking for more ’celebrity’ readers, particularly to ensure our appeal to our young beneficiaries.
If anyone can help with any aspects of this exciting project do get in touch! We’d love to hear from you
The website works brilliantly; what are your priorities for it?
Thank you!
We want to get all the stories translated and recorded as soon as possible, we know we have lots of people waiting for various translated versions. Then our main aim is to engage children and young people with the stories in as many fun and creative ways as we can! We have designed the website so it can be displayed on white boards in classrooms, but equally can be enjoyed at home.
We have a dedicated Your World area in which we are hoping to display and celebrate hundreds of children’s writing and artwork , and to reward contributions with certificates and commendations. Exeter University are hosting a World Stories event during Storytelling week to celebrate the stories, which we are very excited about. www.worldstories.org.uk/exeterevent. [See also sfs.org.uk/news/show/938]
We are continuing to commission and gather resources to support teachers and parents with storytelling in the classroom. It is a wonderful project to be part of and this is just the beginning!