Bringing the magic of storytelling to children with additional support needs in Scotland

ScottishBookTrust_Logo

Charity name:

Scottish Book Trust

Grant amount:

£300,000

Period of funding:

3 Years (2025-2027)

The Mohn Westlake Foundation is proud to be fully funding Sensory Storytelling, a three-year project by Scottish Book Trust, which aims to enable children who are pupils in Scotland’s special schools, to enjoy the magic of stories and the many benefits that books can bring.

With accessibility at the forefront of everything it does, Scottish Book Trust has designed this project so that every child with additional support needs who attends one of 135 special schools across Scotland is involved in some way. Whether that’s through receiving the gift of a tactile book specially designed for their age group, being part of an intensive creative residency in their school with an experienced storyteller, or enjoying a fun session with a visiting author at their school.

Scottish Book Trust has been bringing the benefits of reading and writing to everyone in Scotland since 1998, delivering world-class programmes and annual awards to well over two million people every year. From introducing books and storytelling to pre-school children to inspiring and empowering adult readers and writers, Scottish Book Trust believes it’s never too early – or too late – to begin a magical journey with words.

The charity’s mission is to give everyone an equal opportunity to thrive through literacy, and children with additional support needs deserve no less.

Having already commissioned a new tactile book from a specialist publisher, which will be more suited to P4-7 primary school aged children; Scottish Book Trust is about to visit, along with carefully selected professional storytellers, two special schools in Perth and in Paisley to discuss its projects and make all arrangements for the delivery of its creative residency in the Spring term, starting in January 2020. Scottish Book Trust is currently identifying suitable schools to benefit from the summer roadshow which will tour six special schools in July 2020.

To learn more about this project, please visit the grantees website: www.scottishbooktrust.com/reading-and-stories/sensory-storytelling

“It is a real bonus for our pupils to have an external visitor come in to do something that so captures our children's attention and imagination - and that children of very different abilities could enjoy and in their own way participate in. The art of oral storytelling, I feel is magical.”

A Deputy Head Teacher of a Special School impacted by the project