24/10/2025
What if Friday became Story Day? 📚✨
Wild idea incoming: what if we reduced the school week to 4 days and made the 5th day entirely about storytelling?
Not reading practice or literacy worksheets. Actual storytelling.
We’ve made reading the foundation of primary education, but it should be stories at the centre. Reading is just ONE way to access stories - and it’s not even the oldest way.
When we lead with reading, we make stories feel like work, and exclude kids who are dyslexic or neurodiverse. We kill joy.
On Story Day, children might:
• Listen to audiobooks at whatever speed works for their brain
• Act out historical expeditions
• Create small world play narratives
• Make graphic novels or compose story-music
• Record family stories from grandparents
• Use text-to-speech or kids’ Kindles
The goal isn’t to avoid reading. It’s to remove pressure and expand possibilities. To help children fall in love with STORIES first.
Everyone worries that children aren’t reading anymore. But they’re consuming MORE stories than any generation in history - through podcasts, gaming, streaming, YouTube. Why aren’t we meeting them where they are?
Children need reading skills. But they also need empathy, confidence, storytelling ability, human connection. Things AI can’t replace.
It’s a radical idea. But what if it could work?
What would YOU do with a Story Day?
Link in bio for the full piece on Substack.
