Open the Book

Open the Book (OtB) is part of the Bible Society. Open the Book (OtB) is an exciting storytelling project where Bible stories are shared with children in a way that is fun, interactive and memorable. As invited guests in school, storytelling teams use the Open the Book storytelling programme to prepare and present a 10–15-minute scripted Bible story to a school assembly, involving the children as much as possible. They are great fun to watch and to be part of.

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Storytelling teams are made up of trained and safely recruited volunteers from local churches and organisations, who sign up as members and follow the Open the Book Code of Practice.

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Find out more about Open the Book on their website.

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Fiona is still working for Bible Society as their Yorkshire Open the Book Training and Development Officer (September 2025 onwards). You can contact her to book an Open the Book training session at fiona.walton@biblesociety.org.uk.

 

Watch Fiona give a brief overview of Open the Book in the video below.

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Fiona has trained with Open the Book and CaSS has run two hour starter sessions in Deepcar, Mosborough, Grenoside, Beauchief, Woodseats, Crosspool, Ecclesall, Bents Green and Porter Croft leading to groups starting in schools in most of those places as well as in Oughtibridge, Lodge Moor and Totley. 17 Sheffield schools have experienced Open the Book groups as a result of CaSS training. Groups have been formed by parents, prayer groups, single/groups of churches and involve everyone from youth workers to grandparents.

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Open the Book have video assemblies for teachers wanting to use ready made assemblies, or for OtB teams to keep in touch with schools. A document with links to all of the videos can be viewed or downloaded here. Most of the videos feature Bob Hartman, author of The Lion Storyteller Bible, telling the story part of a session but there are also two OtB teams re-telling a story on a video call.

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Fiona has written a prayer for you to use to pray for your OtB school: