Storyknowing Symposium by Clemma Fleat

Nicola and I went to York to a conference about storytelling with young people, organised by ICAN the International Centre for Arts and Narrative at the Theatre Royal.

(http://store.yorksj.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&catid=6&prodid=402).

We got there Friday late afternoon in time for a really nice hot dinner which we needed after our 5 hour journey. The first person we saw there was our dear friend and ex trustee Rona Barbour!

After dinner Jo Blake told a story about a husband who didn’t like listening to stories and how he changed his mind.  Then there were some performances by young people. The first one was a girl telling a personal story about her own life and her best friend. She used simple t shirts and vests to show changes in the story.  She used a blackboard with a chalk map of the main places in her story and she wrote on it as she told the story.  And she turned this story into a fairytale because the friend changed into a bird.  And there was an African story told by Cath Heinemeyer with some Indian dancers.And another group of young people did a play about refugees. 

On Saturday we had a fantastic breakfast in Betty’s Tea Rooms

(www.bettys.co.uk)  which has been in York for a hundred years.  

We heard about the work of ICAN. Then we went to a workshop given by some students on a theatre and storytelling course at Warwick University.

They came from China, Taiwan, Portugal and England.  They used gestures and sounds from Chinese opera. They all wore black. They used a mixture of  mime and narration, and we learnt a lot.

We ran a workshop on Multisensory Storytelling in the afternoon, and we think it went very well. 

Thanks to all the lovely people who took part and to Cath Heinemeyer from ICAN for inviting us and making it possible for us to go.  

STORY-KNOWING SYMPOSIUM CONFERENCE

Tomorrow I am going to the story-knowing symposium in 
York with Nicola Grove.


My name is Clemma Fleat, I am doing a workshop with Nicola Grove. It's a conference about inclusive storytelling for people with learning disabilities, Nicola has asked me along because I have an experience as a storyteller and also do creative writing and I am a professional Administrator and a poet that likes writing poems. I have been with Openstorytellers in Frome for 6 years now and still really enjoy everything I do. I have made lots of friends too.
And I'm going to take a poem with me and talk about myself a bit, I am so looking forward to this and so excited also because this is a great Opportunity for me and I'm looking forward to seeing other people's work also.

Autumn 
it is now
and the leaves
swirling from the tree
onto the ground
leaves
changing colour
silhouetting slowly
through the 
gardens and peoples                                                               
pathways
leaves blowing 
everywhere
as Autumn                          
is here. 


                                            

Cuts to benefits

There has been a lot in the news recently about Government cuts to benefits. Recently  I wrote to the Frome times about how I feel about the cuts.
Since  writing this letter Ian Duncan Smith has resigned with a letter that showed his disgust at the state of the government.
He has been replaced by Stephen  Crabb. 
Its good news that the government have done a complete u turn on disability cuts.
I felt angry but now I'm relieved.
The cuts shouldn't have been coming from disabled people.
I have emailed Stephen Crabb to ask him to be a champion for people with a learning disability.
We hope we never have these cuts again.
He needs to listen to the voice of people with a leaning disability .    by Tim

OUR EVENING WITH THE WOMEN'S INSTITUTE

Katie and I were invited to Frome WI at Trudoxhill to do a presentation about what we do at our work place. We explained what we do as a group and a  little about the different things we've done at different events, such as performing at the Bardic Chair storytelling competition.

We told the story of Awongalema, it went very very well. We enjoyed the night, Katie and I weren't nervous.

Katie and I did a presentation about our lives and what we've done and what we have become at the end of it all. 

The ladies from the WI thought Katie and I told the Awongalema story very well and loved it. They asked us if they could support the work we do.

  

Afternoon out to see 'Up down man' at Salisbury

We had a day trip out to Salisbury play house to see  a  play  called " Up down   man."

    Matty  was a young man with downs syndrome and he liked music and all he wanted out of life was a boyfriend  not a girlfriend. The story was   very good and it was about a family that didn’t believe that Matty  had  a life  of his own.  His family and Matty  were really missing their mum who was  no longer there with them  any more.  They all miss her very much. But he did love his dancing and we all thought he was very good, the performance he did was  really well done.

       All the characters did very well with their role, we felt  it reflected on our lives and  made us all think of our families and how it made us feel  about   his character, we understood the way that he was feeling as well.

   The  trip was possible to go on because we had a donation from the Lions club of Frome  that enabled us to go and watch up down man at Salisbury.

We are very grateful for their support and we all really enjoyed it.   Katie and Clemma 

Work Skills film

Hi from Work Skills  

We all attend Work Skills group on a Wednesday all day. The work skills group has been doing filming about things like where they live and other things what they get up to in their spare time and what their favourite hobbies are. It is really great because it makes us feel like actors and actress now doing the filming. We are all happy about doing the filming because it has encouraged me now and we have done the best film ever. We are all pleased about it because it is all finished. Myself and Peter's has finished because it is already done. We were really chuffed about doing the filming because it was something different on doing in the work skills group.  We worked as a team doing the filming and we worked by ourself with Ben then we put them on the computer or in pairs but when we put them on the computer.

Take a look at our preview.........

Presentation in Wiltshire by Katie

On  Friday 5th  February 2016 I went to Wiltshire Parents Carers Council with  Lara, Clemma, and Simon to do a joint  presentation.
We looked at different organisations stalls that  were promoting  their companies when we arrived. We saw the OST office staff  who were there speak to parents who may be instrested to sign up to any of our days services for their children and chat to us. Had a lovely buffet lunch provided by the WPCC.
Then  in the afternoon we did our presentation with me starting the introduction to the presentation. Then we showed 2 films about Storysharing and Hallsway Manor. We talked  about what  the organisation  does. I told them what we do at Office group and Storytelling group and answered questions, had a general chat with Simon about when I started OST and Clemma had a chat with Lara and the parents about what she does and how far she has come in OST.
We had question and answering time from the parents and Stuart said to everyone thank you OST for coming to do your presention you did a great job. I  really enjoyed it.
Then after presentation we went to say goodbye and chatted to everyone in the foyer, they were very pleased with what we did.
We had a great time  and felt pleased with ourselves .