'Teachers and Children: A Classroom Community of Storytellers' in 'Unlocking Speaking and Listening: Developing Spoken Language in the Primary Classroom' (third edition) edited by Deborah Jones and Pamela Hodson

Chapter Introduction:
In recent years, classroom storytelling has, to a certain extent, been linked with the Primary National Strategies (PNS) Talk for Writing materials (2008) and, with the demise of the PNS as a policy document in 2010, and the subsequent arrival of the new National Curriculum in 2014 (Department for Education (DfE), 2013), there is a danger that teachers may no longer see the relevance of storytelling to their classroom practice. However, storytelling is embedded within the National Currriculum (DfE, 2013) within both the mandatory guidance for spoken language and areas of reading comprehension (see below), and it is in the context of these expectations of the National Curriculum that this chapter explores the role of the teacher as the principal storyteller in a classroom community of storytellers.