Adam Guillain

Awards

• George's Amazing Adventures series: Spaghetti With The Yeti shortlisted for the Sheffield and Portsmouth and The Evening Standard Oscar's First Book Awards as well as the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. Treats for a T.Rex Junior Design Awards.

Organisations

• Society of Authors
• Scattered Authors' Society
• General Teaching Council
• National Association of Workshop Providers

Details

A typical author visit

Adam often starts with a half-hour performance to the whole school, including nursery and foundation. This is a typical literary festival type event, focusing on a picture book, for example one of the George’s Amazing Adventures series. In the performance, the children will meet the puppet of the character George.

Workshops

After the assembly there are many options for interactive workshops. With Adam, pupils can explore how to use stories in the George’s Amazing Adventures or Molly’s Magic Wardrobe series as models for innovating their own stories. Another alternative is to look at storytelling workshops, giving schools an insight into his work with Storytelling Schools. In these workshops, Adam demonstrates how to HEAR MAP STEP SPEAK stories, a methodology unique to Storytelling Schools and one that works for every kind of learner. Following these sessions, it works really well if the KS1 and KS2 children go straight into a ‘warm write’, as they have the structure of the story clear in their minds and have both experienced and used high level language. Through these workshops, the children have the chance to practise telling the stories in their own words – effectively innovating as they develop their telling of the story and finding their own story voice.

For more info on Adam’s workshops, please email www.adamandcharlotteguillain.co.uk

As well as writing for children, Adam is also a co-founder of Storytelling Schools, an international organization dedicated to working with children and teachers to teach and learn through the storytelling method. For more details visit www.storytellingschools.com

INSET Training

"Adam’s INSET sessions are lively, imaginative, practical and insightful. An outstanding teacher of teachers." (Pie Corbett)

Often schools add on a twilight training session following an author visit. The two-hour training takes participants through the methodology of Storytelling Schools (www.storytellingschools.com). Adam starts by telling a story that every teacher can use with their class. Here he demonstrates the HEAR MAP STEP SPEAK technique, considering calibration and extension. Following this, depending on time and the focus of the session, Adam explores how to elevate language as you move towards shared writing, identifying narrative foci and how to plan writers’ and language objectives. You could explore exemplar texts and toolkits that focus on shared writing before looking at what needs to be in place for innovation and invention to be of the highest quality.

Other Information

Adam has a full up-to-date DBS Enhanced Certificate and £10 million public liability insurance.

Testimonials

"An inspirational storyteller and writer who demystifies the creative process by sharing clear, multi-sensory strategies and techniques accessible to all." Chris Smith, Director of Schools Development, Story Museum, Oxford.

It is rare to find someone gifted enough to inspire teachers and pupils from Foundation to Year 6 but Adam is such a person. All these workshops were absolutely right for the age group - their content and approach were motivating and accessible for all children. Adam was encouraging and engaged the children in the process of writing. Staff have commented that they learnt more about the craft of writing after watching Adam for half an hour than they had over several INSET sessions."

Headteacher Oakmere Primary School, Northants.

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