Marshwood Primary school’s Lamberts class had last dibs on TBODAN storymaking workshops for this academic year, and they had a tough act to follow after Pilsdon Class’s buzzing effort.

Our last two primary storymaking workshops of this academic year were spent at Marshwood School. Our morning with Pilsdon Pen class was just one aspect of a fortnight of creative and active enrichment for the 10-11 year-olds, all laid on by this delightful school.

We were asked to get involved with Woodroffe School’s Big Write, an annual event for the whole of Year 8 - 150+ pupils. We went straight for the serious stuff and asked Clive Stafford-Smith, founder and director of human rights law charity 3DC, to kick off the day with a talk to the entire cohort.

Appropriately titled Fire vs Water, Bridport Primary School’s other Year 5 storymaking session involved developing the elements as character, with Ember the firefox and Ocean the water fox having fallen out many years prior.

We worked with Bridport Primary School’s Year 5 classes to create more weird and wonderful stories. We were fortunate to run both sessions at Bridport’s Lyric Theatre, a wonderful venue with creativity in its very fabric.

Our workshop with Kingfisher class saw pupils name the main character after TBODAN’s very own Nick. Zombie Nick had a tricky task in facing the Eyeball, who taunted Nick with lemonade - every zombie’s biggest fear, it appears.

What a month! The Bank of Dreams & Nightmares’ collaboration with Stuff and Nonsense theatre company was something of a meeting of crazy minds, and SERIOUSLY fun! We jointly facilitated a series of workshops - three sessions each with three schools from Bridport, Poole, and Plymouth.

Chesil Class completed our Climate Change project at Parrett & Axe Primary school, with a complex tale starring Alex the Monkey. It featured crown theft, a stretch in boarding school, and a bullying snow wolf (out of its natural habitat due to climate change).

Our first ever KS1 storymaking workshop was with Reception and Year 1 class at Parrett & Axe, also marking the penultimate session in our Climate Change project with the whole school.

Kimmeridge, Lulworth, and Durdle Door classes at Parrett & Axe Primary put their creativity into turbo mode for our Climate Change storymaking workshops.

In our month-long Climate Change storymaking project at Parrett & Axe Primary school, we worked with KS1 pupils and talked about alternative sources of protein. A timely conversation, given the recent news that some primary schools in Wales are trialing the use of insect protein in their school dinners.

We spent a fantastic few weeks working with Parrett & Axe Primary to build a collection of stories around their whole-school topic of Climate Change. In KS2 classes we talked about electricity, how we use it, and how we might find alternative sources in the future.

TBODAN has embarked on a super exciting project with Bridport-based theatre company Stuff and Nonsense. We’ve joined forces with creative drama dynamos Niki McCretton and Jenny Harrold, to enlist the help of Year 4 children to build a brand new theatre production of the Three Little Pigs, which will premier at Poole’s Lighthouse Theatre late in 2023.

The Platinum Jubilee was a one-in-a-lifetime moment, and we had a wonderful time celebrating 70 years of Queen Elizabeth II’s rein with two royal-themed storymaking workshops at Burton Bradstock.

Our final meteorology poetry morning at Salway Ash Primary School saw Years 5 & 6 tackle two forms. We started with Odes, and Keats’ famous Ode to Autumn was the perfect example to explain this form of poetry in praise of something.

Our pool of fabulous volunteers continues to grow, providing invaluable small-group mentoring for young writers both in and out of schools. We offer a relaxed and informative induction session to all new volunteers, to introduce The Bank of Dreams & Nightmares and go through a few elements of our workshops; these take place in the lovely vaulted indoor courtyard at the Bridport LSi. Tea, coffee, and cake are a given of course.

Our series of meteorology-themed poetry workshops continued at Salway Ash Primary, with Year 3/4. The session coincided with Crazy Clothing Day in school, so it was a mad dash for us to gather some suitable attire to join in the fun - class teacher Miss Cole stayed in her dressing gown for the day and pyjamas was definitely a popular choice all round.

Our first storymaking workshop at Sticklands CE Primary School was a great success. Raven Class created a a multi-layered tale of a character called Charlie, who was reluctant to speak in school. Charlie encountered a mouse and a pig en route to discovering their destiny, all under the nose of the strict headteacher.