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Children's Centre wins prize for commitment to language and literacy
13 May 2009
13 May 2009
As the 1000th early years setting to join the Early Reading Connects initiative, Bayswater Children’s Centre has won £250-worth of free reading materials.
Early Reading Connects is a campaign funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families and delivered by the National Literacy Trust. It helps pre-schools, childminders and other early years settings to raise the profile of language and early reading, and to develop a reading culture. It does this by bringing together easy-to-access resources and great ideas from a wide range of early years organisations, settings and professionals.
Bayswater Children’s Centre is joining Early Reading Connects in response to requests from the community to focus on language issues such as raising children in dual-language homes.
Sally Rivlin, Bayswater Children’s Centre manager says:
“We are hoping to put more of an emphasis on reading and language development; being part of Early Reading Connects is a great way for us to achieve this and to raise the profile of language and early reading to help develop a strong reading culture within the community.
“We are really excited about starting to put into practice some of the great tips that the project suggests, as well as learning from the other 999 settings across the UK!”
Early Reading Connects was launched in October 2008 by the National Literacy Trust and already has over 1,000 members. The project, which is free to join, supports those people working with children from birth to five years old in developing a reading culture and promoting language development. Early Reading Connects provides a huge range of resources, advice and support, while the website also provides members with a one-stop shop linking them to the wide range of organisations that can provide ideas and resources to support them in their work.
Rebecca Green, Project manager, Early Reading Connects says:
“It’s great to see Early Reading Connects continue to grow from strength-to- strength. To be able to reward our 1000th member with a prize to help them continue their brilliant work is such a pleasure. I can’t wait to see what they do with the prize money and hear their plans for the future.”
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 Edward Mather, communications manager at the National Literacy Trust on 020 7820 6254 or email edward.mather@literacytrust.org.uk
Notes to editors
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
About the National Literacy Trust
The National Literacy Trust is an independent charity that changes lives through literacy. It links home, school and the wider community to inspire learners and create opportunities for everyone. See www.literacytrust.org.uk
The National Literacy Trust is a registered charity in England and Wales, no. 1116260, and a company limited by guarantee, no. 5836486, Registered office: 68 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1RL.
