BEYN & The Rep: Storytelling and Drama Workshops at Featherstone Nursery School
Stories That Stick: Four Years of Early Years Drama Workshops
Now in its fourth successful year, Birmingham Early Years Networks (BEYN) has continued its inspiring collaboration with The Rep Theatre, delivering story-based workshops to early years settings across Birmingham.
To date, 40 early years settings from across the city have taken part in this enriching initiative.
Last year (2024/25), drama practitioner Summer Taft from The Rep led the workshops, engaging both children and practitioners in creative exploration.
The sessions centred on emotions and feelings, using two powerful stories: The Colour Monster by Anna Llenas and Worry Boots by Lisa Thompson.
These books served as starting points for interactive sessions focused on Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED).
Aligned with the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Statutory Framework (2025), the workshops supported children in:
Managing their emotions
Developing a positive sense of self
Building confidence in their abilities (EYFS Statutory Framework, 2025:9)
Through storytelling and drama, children were given space to express themselves, connect with others, and experience working with a drama practitioner.
Lindsey Miles from Featherstone Nursery School in Erdington shares her school’s experience
We were so lucky at Featherstone Nursery School to have been given the opportunity to work with Summer from The Rep, who delivered drama sessions to our pre-school groups of children.
Summer Taft from The Rep with an ‘angry’ Colour Monster puppet during a drama session at Featherstone Nursery School
The sessions were linked to two stories: The Colour Monster, a well-loved book at our setting, and Worry Boots, which explores the transition to school, a process many of our children are soon about to embark on!
These stories provided children with relatable themes and engaging narratives.
Through these tales, they could better understand and express their emotions while also developing their creative thinking.
The process of embodying stories deepens their understanding of plot, language, and character dynamics. For instance, while enacting a tale like The Colour Monster, children could explore the spectrum of emotions represented in the story, learning to identify and articulate feelings such as happiness, anger, and sadness.
Summer brought energy and expertise to the sessions. Her guidance ensured that each child felt included, engaged, and valued throughout the process.
What I loved about the sessions was that they were very inclusive, and each group of 13 children included children with a range of abilities and varying needs. The use of props and movement allowed it to be a multisensory and fully interactive experience.
The sessions were fun, and the children were excited to be part of the storytelling process!
By bringing these stories to life, I believe she supported the children’s communication development and enhanced their emotional literacy.
Embedding Storytelling into Emotional Learning
For practitioners, it was an opportunity to observe how the children in their group responded to the session.
They liked seeing how Summer used resources that we have readily available to bring the story to life…
Staff try to add elements of drama into storytelling with familiar traditional stories, but are less confident with other stories, so it was good to see how props could bring these less familiar stories to life.
Practitioners will be able to bring elements of these sessions into their own sessions in the future.
The sessions fitted in well with our PSED curriculum and the work we do around emotional resilience and regulation.
It gave us a great starting point to further explore the complicated emotions that our children face when transitioning from our nursery school to their reception classes in other settings.
What the Children Thought
What a fantastic experience this was for our children!
When revisiting these stories after the workshops, the children often recalled Summer’s sessions:
“I loved the colour monster”
“It was fun – I liked it when the granny came in”
“The unicorn was best”
“Dinosaur roarrr, it was funny”
Sparking Imaginations
“As a practitioner, I always look forward to this project in the hope that it will spark the imaginations of the youngest learners, delve into the world of storytelling, and see many children participate in their first drama session! ”
Do you want an opportunity to have The Rep in your setting?
If you’re interested in having The Rep visit your setting, please contact us to discuss availability.
