Every education district in the country holds a free English Story Telling competition. A child stands up, alone, and tells a story in English for five minutes. Tens of thousands enter. The winners get a certificate and a medal, and that is all there has ever been.
Thai teachers have organized and judged it, unpaid, for seventy-four editions. We pay the prize money. That is all we do — that, and putting back the national final that has not been held since 2565.
Clips received for the April 15, 2027 final: 0 · deadline March 31, 2027 (31 มีนาคม 2570)
The final: April 15, 2027, Chiang Mai · the banquet room at Chiangmai Highlands Golf and Spa Resort
District offices taking part: Rattanaburi, Surin (said yes, November 4, 2026) · more announced here as each confirms
สำหรับผู้ปกครอง · FOR PARENTS
โรงเรียนเป็นผู้ส่งลูกของคุณเข้าแข่งขันเล่านิทานภาษาอังกฤษ (Story Telling) ที่เขตพื้นที่การศึกษา — ฟรี ไม่มีค่าสมัคร · เด็กที่ได้เหรียญทองส่งคลิปมาให้เรา (ฟรี หมดเขต 31 มีนาคม 2570) · 10 คนที่ดีที่สุด มาแข่งสดที่เชียงใหม่ 15 เมษายน 2570 — เราจ่ายค่าเดินทาง ที่พัก และเงินรางวัล หน้าสำหรับผู้ปกครอง (ภาษาไทย) → · วิธีบอกคุณครู →
The first stage is not ours and never will be. It belongs to the Thai school system, it is free, and it is already excellent. We are not building a competing competition — we are adding the two things the existing one has never had: money, and somewhere for a district winner to go next.
August 2026 to March 2027. Run by your สำนักงานเขตพื้นที่การศึกษา as part of งานศิลปหัตถกรรมนักเรียน, free, on a school day, usually in a district hall, judged by Thai teachers. Your school enters you; there is no form a parent can fill in. Four age bands, five minutes on stage, no notes and no props.
Open to ป.4–6 gold medalists only: any child who took a gold medal in Story Telling, ป.4–6, at their district may send us a video of the same story they told at the district round, five to six minutes plus thirty seconds' grace. One take, no editing, by email or LINE — we send the LINE link by email. No travel, no fee, and from the school only two things: the medal confirmed and the coaching teacher named. This stage exists so that getting to Chiang Mai never depends on what a family can afford.
Ten finalists on one stage, in the school holiday so that nobody misses a lesson. For April 15, 2027 we are funding ten finalists, each with one family member and their coaching teacher — return travel, two nights' hotel and meals. The teacher gets a cash prize of their own, because a child who can tell a story in English in front of three hundred people did not get there alone.
There is no single national calendar anymore. Each of the 78 education districts in Isan announces its own dates, on its own website, usually four to six weeks ahead. We check them and publish what we find. If your district is not here, it has almost certainly not announced yet — not that it is not running.
4 rounds held so far → districts.html has the full table. We list only dates we have read on an official district announcement ourselves, with the date we checked. All of them, and how to find yours →
On November 18, 2010, at Ban Han Hee School in Rattanaburi district, Surin, a girl called Ploypailin Moonsri took the gold medal in Story Telling at งานศิลปหัตถกรรมนักเรียน. She is now a Thai teacher in the village schools around Rattanaburi, and she is the reason there is prize money.
She got a certificate. There was no prize money, there was nowhere to go next, and there is still nowhere to go next — no regional or national round has been held since ครั้งที่ 70 in 2565 — OBEC has written to schools each year since telling them the competition ends at the district. Every district champion in Isan since then has been the champion of nothing further.
That is the gap. It does not need a new competition built on top of it. It needs somebody to show up at the end of the existing one with a bus ticket, a hotel room and an envelope.
We have found no evidence that winning a competition makes a child better at English, so we do not claim it — what we do not know, and what we built instead →
Written for a Thai classroom, in English and Thai, from choosing a story to standing still on stage. Free, no sign-up, print them or use them on a screen. There is a judges' score sheet too, the same one we will use in Chiang Mai.
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