What is Tales Toolkit?
Award winning Tales Toolkit provides interactive, child led resources aimed at early years, combined with online training for teachers. Tales Toolkit harnesses the power of story to engage in quality interactions with children that lead to real progress across EYFS objectives.
Founded by an ex-teacher and supported by educational experts, Tales Toolkit understands the passion for teaching and the pressures to meet objectives. That's why Tales Toolkit is Low-to-No Planning and supports evidencing, rather than adding to admin.
Tales Toolkit uses easy to remember symbols representing story structure. Tales Toolkit's innovative resources give children independence to create and write stories around interests using anything to hand! Resources are provided with online training and support to ensure maximum impact is made across many areas of learning. Tales Toolkit is proven to impact language, literacy, creativity, social skills, problem solving and close the gender gap in Literacy, all with little or no planning involved for the teacher!
Recommended Usage
Educational Impact
Additional evidence
Smithy Bridge Primary School, UK
View case study
 Company | Business Name: Tales Toolkit HQ Location: United Kingdom Founded: 2015 |
| Age Range | 0-4, 5-7 |
 Features | Teacher TrainingTeaching Resources |
 Languages | English, Danish, Russian |
 Accessibility | Moderate features |
 Policies |  Terms of ServicePrivacy Policy |
 Requirements | Internet - Low BandwidthInternet - High Bandwidth Whiteboard and access to the internet to play staff meeting films. May need the IT support to help with firewalls initially. Set up. We send login details via email. Staff individually sign up and we approve them. |
 Set Up | After the first training session (50 mins), you can get going in the classroom immediately. And with our Tales Toolkit Big Bags, you don't even need to plan! |
 Training | WebinarsVideos Settings have access to online training videos throughout membership to train an unlimited number of staff how to use the kit most effectively. Added value also comes in the form of regular webinars from websites that members have access to indefinitely. |
 Support | EmailFAQs/Forum Our Community Forum is available for any paying or prospective members to ask questions of the Tales Toolkit team or each other, to share ideas and problem solve. |
| Home Learning | School must create the account. Parent Training is in development. |
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Tales Toolkit PricingPricing Plans Paid Subscription Tales Toolkit pricing starts from £7 / per-pupil Membership for a setting is £800 for the first year and £200 for each subsequent year. For the average setting, this works out to £7 per child for the first year and £1.70 for each following year. Funding options are available. Get in touch for details.  Optimised for a quick response | |
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Tales Toolkit Reviews
from 7 Verified Reviews
User rating
Country
Helen Grimsditch
Lead Early Years Consultant
Used Tales Toolkit occasionally for 5 years+
Jan 2023
This is because of the flexible, open-ended and creative approach of Tales Toolkit and how it supports high quality practice in the early years. The online training supports both existing educators and new educators in developing their own knowledge and understanding linked securely to the principles of the EYFS Framework. The four picture symbols that embody the programme and help to support young children’s early language development and enjoyment and confidence in telling their own stories. The approach is free or low cost to deliver in settings/classrooms above the cost of the initial and annual registration fee. Tales Toolkit is innovative and simple to deliver and educators and the children love it!
Helen Grimsditch found Tales Toolkit:
- Significantly improves teacher knowledge“Tales Toolkit is built on a fundamental understanding of the principles and pedagogy of early childhood education. It fully compliments the EYFS curriculum and supports an inclusive and balanced to approach to planning for all children’s learning and development. It supports an understanding of effective early years teaching through high quality interactions and also an understanding of how to support young children's early Communication, Language and Literacy development through narrative and storytelling. This gives educators key skills and confidence and the enjoyment and levels of engagement of the children show they love it too!”
- Significantly improves attainment“In 2018 we analysed the Literacy outcomes for the children in the schools using the programme. There was a clear correlation to improved outcomes, particularly for boys. Increased engagement and being led by the children's ideas and imagination increased attainment in Communication and Language sills at age 5. Children's understanding of story structure also impacts on Key Stage 1 attainment in the examples of the stories written by the children.”
Sam
Pre-school Manager, SENCo & DSL
Used Tales Toolkit weekly for 1-2 years
Jan 2023
It has helped with building confidence both for the children but also the staff team and being confident running a small group. It has helped with development of listening skills, sharing ideas and understanding that we all have different opinions (how a story may pan out, and taking that understanding into other real life situations). Thinking about a problem and finding a solution strategy - again life skills for children but also encouraging staff to listen to all the children's version of 'the problem' (normally a sharing issue) and finding age appropriate strategies to find a solution. Built speech and language skills too!
Sam found Tales Toolkit:
- Significantly improves teacher knowledge“Enabled the team to use it with problem solving using the problem and solution strategy. Helping the children to work through a problem helping to gain independence and confidence to have their own voice in tricky situations.”
- Slightly improves attainment“We offer a range of small groups which the children move around each term. I am not sure offering any of the small groups impacts attainment - have to think that through.”
Oct 2021
Its simply brilliant, it can be anything and everything, it can also be quite telling as to what is happening for a child at that particular time. It's both joyful and deeply impactful.
Steph Dorling found Tales Toolkit:
- Significantly improves teacher knowledge“Childs interests - developed imaginations”
- Moderately improves attainment“An interest in books and story telling”
Feb 2021
I would recommend this tool for telling and teaching young children to listen to and retell stories in an easily accessible, interactive and fun way. I like the resources available to teach adults how to use the TTK and the discussion opportunities they create when learning together as a team. The resources are simple and easy for children to use and to remember the elements of story telling.
Julia Neal found Tales Toolkit:
- Significantly improves attainment“We have seen an increase in confidence particularly in our quieter less confident/shyer children. These children want to join in, choosing resources and items to use to tell their stories. Children who struggle to sit and concentrate at an activity will readily join in with a TTK story. Children's increased knowledge of how stories are structured as well as an increase in vocabulary as well as an increase in conversations and talk generally.”
- Significantly improves teacher knowledge and skills“TTK enables children's knowledge and learning to be more transparent which in turn informs us of a child's next steps in their learning and feeds into our planning of their individual education plans.”
Feb 2021
Cholsey Pre-School loves tales toolkit, it has sparked a massive love for reading and story telling which has increased children in all areas of development. The one thing that has been truly lovely is with the current world state we are in, tales toolkit has given us peace, love and happiness with creating and talking with each other, at a time when children need you, emotionally we could support our children through stories. Thank you from everyone at Cholsey Pre-School.
Rebecca Heal found Tales Toolkit:
- Significantly improves attainment“All I can say is wow, attainment in our setting using tales toolkit has been amazing, speech and language and vocabulary increasing, children at the age of 3 telling stories, social and emotionally at a time when emotions are all over the place tales toolkit has been a lovely way to support emotions, with more children openly talking about or expressing how they feel through storytelling. Storytelling has supported the childrens own small world development also.”
- Significantly improves teacher knowledge and skills“It's firstly been inspiring for practitioners and giving them knowledge of really understanding the creativeness of really telling a story to engage and spark a fascinations for stories to children.”
Paula Lochrie
Early Years Lead Officer for vulnerable learners and school readiness
Used Tales Toolkit for 6 months
Sep 2019
After trialling Tales Toolkit in the last academic year we have found it to be an excellent resource and would like to embed excellent practice through ‘Tales Toolkit’ to help vulnerable children express themselves and learn problem-solving skills.
Paula Lochrie found Tales Toolkit:
- Significantly improves attainment“A childminder has reported that childrens confidence has increased, and have become more confident and articulate in voicing preferences”
- Significantly improves teacher knowledge and skills“One setting reported that there has been an increase in interactions between staff and children, particularly in using open ended questioning. ”
Jul 2019
It has transformed the way we work! We talk about characters, settings, problems and solutions as part of our day- to- day interactions in so many aspects of the children's experiences- not just creating stories! As no forward planning is required for story- telling sessions (other than collecting resources) it helps to maintain a successful work- life balance too!
Liz found Tales Toolkit:
- Significantly improves attainment“EAL learners: speaking, attention and listening, being imaginative. Boys: speaking, being imaginative, writing All: exploring and using media and materials, writing, speaking and listening, making relationships, reading.”
- Significantly improves teacher knowledge and skills“An understanding that the sky is the limit! Children don't need over planned opportunities- they can be creative with the simplest open-ended materials!”