Media centre
Innovative support for parents recognised by National Literacy Trust
13 Nov 2009
Coleridge Children’s Centre in Rotherham has been awarded the prestigious title of the ‘Early Reading Connects Setting of the Year 2009’ by the National Literacy Trust for their ongoing commitment to motivating local children and families to love language, stories and reading.
Focus Nursery School in Dorset has been named as runner up in the competition, due to their approach ensuring everyone is involved in increasing children’s enjoyment and family involvement in literacy.
Rebecca Green, Project Manager, Early Reading Connects says:
“We have a network of 2,500 early year’s settings, from childminders to children’s centres spanning the length and breadth of the country. We received many brilliant entries into the competition but these two entries were exceptional, and are worthy winners. Their work reaching out to local families is invaluable, and it ensures those families are becoming more aware of the importance of language and literacy. As part of the governments’ Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum and requirements, early year’s settings are required to develop children’s literacy skills. Early Reading Connects is a supportive community which encourages the learning and sharing of inspirational ideas with other practitioners.”
The winning setting will receive £500 worth of reading materials and the runner up will receive £200, to help them continue their excellent work.
Kay Parry, Lead Teacher at Coleridge Children’s Centre, says:
“We are delighted to receive the Setting of the Year award. Being part of the Early Reading Connects network has really helped us to learn new ideas and find out about useful resources. Practitioners at our centre continually strive to raise the profile of language and literacy and we are already seeing the positive impact of this on the children and families we support.“
Coleridge Children’s Centre is supporting children in a variety of ways. Outreach workers help teenage mums to interact with their babies and to access story groups. Centre staff act as informal role models to parents who are not always aware of the need to share stories with their children. The centre also has a story sack library.
Kay continues:
“The story sacks, containing a book and supporting materials, are a great resource for parents to take home. They have proved very popular with both children and adults and with the money we have won from the National Literacy Trust we hope to add more items to the sacks.”
Linda Burgess, Literacy Coordinator, at Focus Nursery School explains how the nursery has taken a remarkable whole-setting approach to involving parents and making language and literacy fun for children.
“We are very keen to include parents in their child’s learning and one way we do this is through questionnaires. A ‘how can we help at home’ booklet has been produced in response to various suggestions and requests that the parents made in these questionnaires. The parents wanted advice on how to help their child at home and support the work we do at the nursery. Within the booklet is a section explaining how to support the children’s communication, language and literacy.”
Early Reading Connects is a network funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families and delivered by the National Literacy Trust. It helps early years settings to raise the profile of language and early reading. It does this by bringing together easy-to-access resources and great ideas from a wide range of early years organisations, settings and professionals. The network, which is free to join, was launched in October 2008 by the National Literacy Trust and over 2,500 settings are members.
Pre-schools, nurseries, childminders and other early years settings can join Early Reading Connects for free by visiting www.earlyreadingconnects.org.uk
Ends.
For more information please contact Anna Lindsay, Public Relations Officer at the National Literacy Trust on 020 7820 6256 or email Anna.Lindsay@literacytrust.org.uk
A full case study, images and interviews with either Kay Parry, Linda Burgess or Rebecca Green are available on request.
Notes to Editors
1. About Early Reading Connects
Based around the four guiding themes of the Early Years Foundation Stage, Early Reading Connects brings together easy-to-access resources and great ideas from a wide range of early years organisations, settings and practitioners to help practitioners to:
• encourage a love of language, stories and reading with the babies, toddlers or young children in their care
• engage and involve the children’s families in this process
• share good practice and resources and build their confidence in supporting the children and their families
Joining Early Reading Connects is FREE. Practitioners are given a copy of the Early Reading Connects family involvement toolkit and membership of a network of practitioners from the full range of settings to help them share ideas and solve problems.
For more information and to sign up visit www.earlyreadingconnects.org.uk or email rebecca.green@literacytrust.org.uk
2. About the National Literacy Trust
The National Literacy Trust is an independent charity that changes lives through literacy. We believe that society will only be fair when everyone has the literacy skills they need to communicate, to fulfil their potential and to contribute more to society. We campaign to improve public understanding of the vital importance of literacy, as well as delivering projects and working in partnership to reach those most in need of support.
To help us change lives through literacy, you can make a donation. To find out how visit http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/About/donate.html
National Literacy Trust is a registered charity no. 1116260, and a company limited by guarantee, no. 5836486. Registered in England and Wales. Registered address: 68 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1RL. Tel: 020 7587 1842.
