Pat Ryan visits Victoria College

On Wednesday 26th November the College hosted a visit from storyteller and teacher Dr Pat Ryan. Pat is now based in London although he grew up in Illinois in the USA, and attended the Universities of Illinois and Chicago. He taught primary school in the USA and Britain for ten years and in 2004 he completed his doctoral degree at the University of Glamorgan, where he is currently a research fellow at the George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling. Pat has worked as a teacher and professional storyteller for over thirty years. He regularly tours Britain, Europe and the US performing, lecturing and conducting a variety of workshops. Pat has also written for the BBC and has also actively participated in several major storytelling projects.

Pat came to the College specifically to work with our Year 13 AS English classes, delivering two workshops on the Shakespearian plays that they are currently studying – The Tempest and As You Like It. These were extremely useful to the pupils as Pat worked on the context and background of the two plays. As well as these, Pat also had time to deliver a storytelling session to three Year 8 and Year 9 English classes which were extremely enjoyable but also useful as some of the tales were related to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream which our Year 9 pupils study.