Key takeaways:

- Hywel’s Background: Hywel, a Welsh educator, has taught in challenging secondary schools in West and South Yorkshire, worked in pupil referral units (PRUs), and now engages in primary and special education settings. He’s an author (notably *Oops* and *Uncharted Territories*), conference speaker, and advocate for child-centered, story-based learning, inspired by *Dead Poets Society* to prioritize literature and connection.

 - Creativity in Crisis: Creativity in education, revitalized briefly by Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk 13 years ago, is often squeezed by curriculum pressures, especially in England’s high-stakes system. Teachers are left to foster creativity independently, often relying on online resources like Tales Toolkit.

 - Stories as Tools: Stories are “psychologically privileged” (per cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham), embedding knowledge through emotional resonance. They bridge complex curriculum concepts, making them accessible and meaningful, especially for disengaged or disadvantaged students.

 - Professional Imagination and Warmth: Teachers must maintain “imagineering” (imagination + engineering) and “botheredness” (care for students’ learning). A warm, story-based curriculum builds empathy, intellectual engagement, and connection to the real world, countering the “cool” satnav approach of rushing through content.

- Story Structure: Hywel emphasizes stories as comprising people, places, problems, and possibilities (mirroring Tales Toolkit’s approach). This structure humanizes curricula (e.g., Romans, castles, Egyptians), fosters empathy, and makes learning relevant, avoiding dull, fact-heavy delivery.

- Classroom Stance and Agility: Effective teaching requires shifting from a rigid, front-of-class stance to a collaborative one, standing alongside children, fostering dialogue, and adapting to their responses. This agility, rooted in warmth, is natural in early years but often lost with older students.

 - Violence in Stories: When a child suggested guns in a story, Hywel redirected to school values (kindness), gently shaping the narrative. Tales Toolkit similarly accepts all contributions, exploring even violent ideas to foster creativity safely.

 - Difficult Headteachers: Navigating restrictive leadership is tough. Hywel suggests focusing on results from story-based methods, as supportive heads often invite such approaches. Teachers may need to quietly assert their pedagogy, leveraging professional wisdom.

- Hywel’s Future Work: He’s writing fiction for adult literacy learners in prisons, addressing literacy-crime links, and working on another educational book. He continues writing stories for TES and engaging schools with narrative-driven curricula.

- Closing: Kate and Hywel emphasize the power of stories to foster engagement, humor, and warmth. They thank attendees, noting the end-of-term context, and encourage relaxation. Hywel humorously mentions needing to tend to his cat, Basil, reinforcing the webinar’s warm tone.

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