Every year, the Childcare & Education Expo is packed with unique early education ideas, designed to spark creativity and inspire meaningful conversations between early years professionals, and the children they look after too. One highlight from this year’s event was a closing seminar delivered by beloved author and poet Michael Rosen, who explored the power of storytelling in early years education.
Today, we’re going to be sharing a few insights and reflections from his session, offering a small teaser of the wisdom available both through attending our CPD seminars, but also the value of walking around the show floor, finding new inspiration and early education ideas to take back to your setting.
From storytelling techniques and nurturing language and empathy to practical ways to bring stories to life in your setting, these insights remind us why the power of storytelling and investing in professional learning can have such a lasting impact on children.
A Discussion on the Power of Storytelling
Michael Rosen is one of Britain’s best loved writers and performance poets for children and adults, with titles like ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ and ‘Little Rabbit Foo Foo’. His first degree was from Wadham College, Oxford and additionally, he went on to study for an MA and a PhD. He is currently Professor of Children’s Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London where he co-devised and teaches an MA in Children’s Literature.
At the most recent Childcare & Education Expo Midlands, we were very excited to welcome him back for a popular session on The Power of Story: Nurturing a Love of Books from Day One. During this session, Rosen shared valuable insights with attendees on storytelling and emotional engagement in early childhood, with a focus on how storytelling shapes language, creativity, and emotional development in young children.
One of the core concepts he explored was how stories with questions, riddles, puzzles, and emotional nuance create strong hooks that nurture children’s love of books and support cognitive growth. Within the wider context of early education ideas to take back to your settings, this highlights the power of storytelling, particularly surrounding children’s interactions with stories, and how early years professionals should nurture this love for stories and storytelling.
What We Learnt from Michael Rosen
At its core, storytelling is such a simple, yet extremely powerful tool. But one step further than that, the most powerful children’s stories use mystery, ambiguity, and repetition to engage young minds. In Michael Rosen’s seminar, he uses the book ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ as a key example to show how ambiguous elements invite children to question and imagine beyond the text.
He noted that emotional contrasts, like Max’s loneliness despite wild adventures, provide depth that resonates with children’s feelings and experiences. Repetition of phrases and rhythmic language, such as “roared their terrible roars,” enhances memorability and engagement, and ambiguous endings or unresolved emotions, like Max’s return to a still-hot supper but no hug, invite children to fill gaps with their imagination and feelings.
So how can early years professionals and practitioners utilise these ideas within their own settings? By encouraging creative, interactive storytelling, this deepens engagement and supports language development, using techniques such as:
- Turning story themes into call-and-response songs or poems aids memory and participation
- Using familiar story structures as templates, educators can co-create new stories with children, enhancing creativity and ownership
- Treating stories as living, evolving experiences rather than fixed texts.
Speaker Insights and the Value of Attending Seminars
As an attendee, why does investing in seminars matter? We ensure that there are so many accessible content streams in and around the Expo, from our hands-on, interactive workshops, to sharing peer-to-peer insights at the Share & Support Hub.
But if you’re looking to go one step further with your event experience, our speaker insights can provide real value to take with you back to your settings.
These seminars, and wider CPD programme, are your opportunity to discover more early education ideas and hear directly from leading experts, influencing real-world strategies, expert inspiration, and continuing professional development.
How to Keep the Story Going
One of the key messages to takeaway regarding early education ideas, and inspiration for settings, is that professional growth comes from learning, sharing, and staying inspired. At the Childcare & Education Expo, we’re proud to provide a platform for speakers, exhibitors, and visitors alike, to do that.
So, if you’re ready to keep the story going, make sure you’ve registered your interest in our future events, by joining our 2026 waitlist.
And as a final sign off, in the words of Michael Rosen:
“Change the story. Make them bigger. Make them funnier. Work them. And that way, we show children that the stories around us can be alive. Just as the stories in the books are.”