Watch The Vital Link with Parents film
Read The Vital Link with Parents executive summary (pdf)
This project, carried out in early 2007, built on the Get On with Got kids? Get reading! pilot project reported on below. It was funded by the Skills for Life Strategy Unit in the Department for Education and Skills as part of The Vital Link reading and libraries campaign.
The project was aimed at parents and carers with skills gaps, encouraging them to read for pleasure with their children and in the process improve their own reading skills. It fuses the link between libraries, children’s centres and adult learning organisations in order to provide parents and carers with a clear route from informal to more formalised learning opportunities.
At the core of the project were two book collections: the highly popular Got kids? Get reading! list of specially chosen books for parents and children, supported by a range of promotional materials, including posters, banners, postcards and reading diaries; and the father/male focused collection, Five Minutes. The latter is a special promotion specifically aimed at fathers and male carers. Both collections include a mix of the Quick Reads and other titles specially produced for emergent readers by publishers such as New Island, Sandstone Press and Barrington Stoke along with adult and children’s books chosen according to the Vital Link stock selection criteria. These range from Jeremy Clarkson’s Planet Dagenham to Julia Donaldson’s The Gruffalo. The books were used to stimulate fun activities for the children around words and rhyme and discussion about reading preferences among the adults.
Ten geographically diverse authorities were selected to take part in the project out of nearly 40 applications. These were Bradford, Derby, Dudley, East Sussex, Essex, Hammersmith & Fulham, Northumberland, Swindon, Sutton and Warrington. Each authority was mapped to another regional authority who had been involved in the earlier project in 2005.
A snapshot of Vital Link with Parents activity in three locations – Swindon, Warrington and Basildon in Essex – has been captured on a film produced for the project. Involvement in the film depended on availability and session dates and times, so it only reflects a slice of the project rather than a précis. Warrington’s Real Men Read demonstrates the impact of quirky, structured and clearly branded promotions targeting fathers/male carers. Swindon’s Dads’ Group illustrates the importance of the social element of the family learning experience. In Essex, the DVD shows the mobilisation of a group of young mothers, their engagement in additional roles in the children’s centre and their commitment to further courses.
Please also see the executive summary [pdf]. If you would like any further information about The Vital Link with Parents project contact Genevieve Clarke, national coordinator, The Vital Link on 0871 750 2104 or genevieve.clarke@readingagency.org.uk
Final report (May 2005)
Executive summary
Get On with Got kids? Get reading! promoted creative reading activities in Children's Centres and encouraged adults
with literacy gaps to return to reading and learning. The pilot project, which ran from January 2005 to April 2005,
was funded by the DfES Skills for Life Strategy Unit and managed by The Reading Agency. Central to the project were
the Vital Link's
Got kids? Get reading! book collections. Library services worked in partnership
with family learning and skills for life practitioners running the project in Children's Centres and their neighbouring
libraries in the following eight English regions, plus one prison:
- Somerset
- Hull
- Southampton
- Leicestershire
- Stockport
- Newcastle upon Tyne
- Thurrock
- Solihull
- HMP Birmingham (Visitor's Centre)
- Collections were set up in one children's centre in each pilot authority and mirrored in the nearest local library.
- The book collections and starter packs were launched in each pilot centre in February 2005 and their use as well as the response and progress of individual learners were monitored. The pilot provided evidence-based guidance for using the Got kids? Get reading!collection for parents and professional staff to improve adults' and children's reading confidence.
- Centre staff and Family Learning Co-ordinators worked together to encourage parents to progress to other learning activities.
- Library staff are continuing to help centre staff to maintain and use the collections, and to encourage families to use the resources both at the centre and in the library.
Professionals' guidance (guidance materials for professionals working in family learning programmes, children's centres and libraries with strategies to support parents' and children's literacy development through reading for pleasure)
Parents' leaflet (advice to encourage parents to get into reading for themselves and their children and to take up learning)
These publications can also be ordered from the DfES publications centre call 0845 60 222 60, fax 0845 60 333 60 or email dfes@prolog.uk.com.
For further information contact Genevieve Clarke, Vital Link National Coordinator, on 0871 750 2104 or email genevieve.clarke@readingagency.org.uk.
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