Family literacy in Rochdale goes back a long way. The Belfield Reading Project began in 1978 to increase parents' involvement in the teaching of reading. In 2001, there are many more family literacy programmes in the borough, with a team of multi-lingual family literacy workers/tutors in schools and nurseries, a curriculum coordinator and a family literacy adult tutor, supported by a range of funding.

Various artists have been involved in the creative family literacy programme and sessions are planned together with tutors and parents. A puppeteer and parents wrote a version of Heer Ranjha, a folk tale from Jhang, which is now part of Pakistan. Parents performed it as a play - it has a similar theme to Romeo and Juliet - with puppets they had made, to children from a group of schools.

Another group worked with a musician to animate rhymes with their children and to make their own music. One artist offered multi-media arts to develop the theme of "ourselves". After each two-hour session with parents, the children join them and the artist to create their own pieces, a caterpillar mobile, an articulated paper elephant or a flying frog, musical instruments or puppets.

The most popular art form has been working with an artist using wood to extend literacy activities around a favourite book. To illustrate The Hunter by Paul Geraghty, parents made a syncopated pull-along elephant and retold the story in Urdu and Bengali to a whole school assembly. This also led to much discussion about the ethics of hunting and research into the different breeds of elephants, through personal experiences, and through the school and central library. Oracy and literacy flowed naturally and enthusiastically from the art work.

At the end of each year there is a public performance of the work, exhibitions of photographs and artefacts, and workshops that represent the creative arts in Rochdale and the traditions of Pakistan and Bangladesh. Schools and parents join in and there is a chance to show the variety of other work of the Partnership Education Project so that more parents can become involved.

Accreditation and evaluation

All the family literacy programmes are accredited by the Open College of the North West under FAME (Foundation Accreditation in Maths and English). The learning that comes out of real situations of working with artists fits easily into the evidence by portfolio that is needed for the accreditation. Oracy comes naturally from discussions about design, comparisons, questions and mutual encouragement. Reading is necessary to follow instructions for making the toys, health and safety notes and from reading the stories, plays and rhymes. Writing is used for drafting the designs, keeping a creative diary of the process and for follow-up related research topics. All this is learning for a purpose and following parents' and children's own interests. The assessor from the OCNW praised the literacy work that came out of these sessions with artists.

An independent evaluation of the creative family literacy project with Cartwheel Community Arts found that the partnership has made a huge impact. The feedback from parents has been overwhelmingly positive. When parents are asked for termly evaluations they rate the sessions with artists the highest, and even quote the previous term's art sessions in their current evaluations. There is a great feeling of achievement in producing something unique, by overcoming apprehension and in learning new skills. The most successful artists and teachers inspire students and enable them to produce work that they are proud of. This kind of practical learning often overcomes the reticence that parents have about joining a literacy class that may feel like going back to school to read and write. With new confidence and skills, parents also feel that they have something to contribute to their children's learning.
 

Further reading K. Coates-Mohammed (December 2000) A discussion of the design and content of the family literacy curriculum devised by the Partnership Education Project. Unpublished, M.Ed. in Literacy, Sheffield University. A. Jackson and P. Hannon (1981) The Belfield Reading Project, Rochdale: Belfield Community Council. B. Raymond (2000) Creative Family Literacy: External Report, Cartwell Community Arts.

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