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Susan Cupples, literacy coordinator
at West Acton Primary School, promotes the inclusion of all
parents in the school's family reading programme. Here she
describes their Reading and Writing at Home sessions, and
how they have provided for parents whose first language is
not English.
The sessions are designed for parents of reception
to year 2 children and have been a great success in raising
the profile of family reading among the school community.
Themes each week are based on reading and writing, as well
as play, phonics and emergent reader activities.
We talk to parents about the wide variety of
books that they can share with their children. Many of the
titles we suggest include dual language books such as Little
Red Hen and Billy Goats Gruff. By identifying resources that
EAL [English as an Additional Language] parents can understand,
it increases their confidence in being able to play a positive
role and support their children at home. Other strategies
that we implement allow parents to develop their skills in
how, as well as what, to read with children.
Firstly, as part of the programme we provide
lists of high frequency words translated into Japanese and
Arabic, our two biggest additional languages spoken. To support
the lists, parents are also shown how to use the 'word walls'
and how to make sentences in English and their mother tongue.
We also provide information about local libraries
to encourage families to integrate into their local community.
In addition to this, parents are encouraged to use the school
website, which itself has a family learning area. Parents
can read the 'Help your children to learn' strategies in several
languages, for literacy as well as mathematics.
Finally, we make sure that the school is as
welcoming as possible for parents whose mother tongue is not
English and who might find it quite a daunting prospect to
come in and attend these sessions. To make them feel more
at ease, many of our signs in school and letters sent home
are translated into different languages.
The programme has made a real difference in
our school. As a result of the workshops, parents have a better
understanding of the school's reading progression and are
actually engaging with their children about books. The programme's
wider impact can be seen when looking at our key stage 1 national
test results in reading for 2005-06. They have improved significantly
and will hopefully continue to do so in the years to come.
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