Bristol Museums celebrate the power of stories

Celebrating National Storytelling Week and the National Year of Reading at Bristol Museums 

In February and March, Bristol Museums focused on bringing stories to life for families, Early Years and schoolchildren across the city.

With ‘Stories’ as our Learning theme for the year, we joined in with National Storytelling Week, which took place 1–9 February 2026. This year is also the National Year of Reading 2026, a nationwide campaign led by the Department for Education to encourage more people to enjoy reading. 

So what have we been up to?

Family storytelling: Story sessions at Bristol Museums 

We kicked off the programme with ‘Scrappy Saturday’ at M Shed on 31 January, where our friends from Children’s Scrapstore brought along piles of colourful scrap materials. Families got stuck in, creating brilliant costumes ready for World Book Day. 

The next day, ‘Story Sunday’ saw local storyteller Marcus Fagon captivating children with lively, imaginative tales that had everyone listening closely and joining in. One was a favourite story called ‘Never Trust a Tiger’ which asks the question, can bad deeds follow good? Or is it the other way round??? 

 

 

On 7 February, we held a free story‑themed family day for children under 4 where young visitors enjoyed simple crafts, cosy story sessions, and plenty of opportunities to play and explore.  

We were delighted to welcome the Lord Mayor of Bristol, who dropped-in to hear some stories and talk with families.

For World Book Day on 5 March, we held ‘Stories at the Museum’ sessions at both M Shed and Bristol Museum & Art Gallery. Staff dressed up as their favourite book characters and read stories to younger children, who were also encouraged to come along in costume.

Feedback from families included:

“A lovely social activity for children and the staff were very welcoming”. 
“Relaxed, friendly, just the right amount of time and a good choice of craft activities”. 
 “Very engaging! Both adults and our son (3 years) loved it!”
“Loved the storyteller! So nice to do something interactive with the children” 

Just over 500 children and adults came along to enjoy ‘Stories’ themed events in all.

Schools’ storytelling programme  

This year’s schools’ offer was created to give pupils lots of chances to develop their storytelling skills using real objects and ideas from Bristol’s collections. The workshops ran throughout the week, were free and designed to be hands‑on, active and creative. 

Twelve classes from 6 primary schools took part in storytelling workshops with Corinne Harragin– Bristol‑based writer and storyteller.
In these workshops, pupils developed their storytelling skills by exploring real objects from M Shed and uncovering stories rooted in Bristol’s history. Children also watched A  Reduced History of Bristol, commissioned by Museums Learning and performed by students from the Old Vic Theatre School.  

Discover Arts Award 

Every child who took part earned a  Discover Arts Award from Trinity College, London, recognising their creativity and engagement during the day. 

What children gained 

Throughout the day, pupils: 

• grew more confident speaking in front of others
• learned how to structure and share a story
• practised using descriptive language
• made creative links between museum objects and the stories they invented
• worked together, listened to one another and built ideas as a group 

Many children who were shy at the start of the session ended up volunteering ideas, sharing their stories with the class and proudly contributing to group activities. 

Webinar 

120 school children from local schools also enjoyed live online storytelling session with children’s author Polly Ho-Yen. The aim was to show children how to create stories using objects from M Shed as inspiration. 

Why storytelling matters 

National Storytelling Week celebrates the ancient art of oral storytelling, encouraging people of all ages to explore and share stories. It highlights how storytelling supports literacy, empathy and imagination.  

At the same time, the National Year of Reading invites the public to “Go All In” with reading, recognising the steep national decline in reading for pleasure and encouraging everyone to reconnect with stories in everyday life. Instead of asking people to “find time to read”, Go All In brings reading to them, through their passions. It’s about showing that reading isn’t a separate world; it’s the heartbeat of culture itself. 

Stories help children: 

• develop language and communication 
• explore their imagination 
• build confidence and emotional expression 
• connect with their local community and its history 
• enjoy learning in a relaxed, playful way 

 

 

Looking ahead 

Throughout 2026, the Bristol Museums Learning team will continue to support the National Year of Reading by: 

• providing literacy‑linked learning resources 
• including storytelling activities in our regular family fun events 
• working with local partners such as libraries and museum curators 
• hosting story sessions for early‑years groups 
• writing staff book reviews for our museum shops 
• creating new ways for children to explore stories through our collections 

Stories help us understand ourselves, each other and the world we share – and we’re delighted to be celebrating them all year long with you all.