Early Words success

We have been delivering the Early Words together pilot project in Lichfield and Burntwood since January 2014.  It is a superb new initiative from the National Literacy Trust to help families develop their skills in order to help their children at home. Studies have shown that parents are a huge influence on children's educational success, so if they can help from very early on, it will have a knock one effect to school progress and beyond. The NLT call it the 'home learning environment' or HLE.

The 6 week programme looks at the importance of sharing books, how nursery rhymes are  still important, mark making, choosing stories and also includes a visit from the library staff.

We took baselines at the start, although we found they were not too accurate as parents often said what they though we wanted to hear and the real answers didn't emerge until they trusted us! We re-assessed the situation at the end. 

We have had some great results. To me, the biggest successes were the confidence they reported (and showed) to read and play with their children and 98% of the parents who attended were reading bedtime stories by the end of the 6 weeks! The membership of the library went up from 2% to 48%. If there have been similar successes in the national pilot, it will be rolled out across the country.

Been busy

We've not posted in a while as we've been so busy this month that we haven't had time to write about it! What have we been doing? Well........

• Weekly Targeted sessions in nurseries and children's centres in Stafford, South Staffs, Lichfield, Burntwood, East Staffs and Tamworth areas
• Universal sessions in Children's Centres in Lichfield, Burntwood, East Staffs and Tamworth including Chatter Tots, Stories and Songs and Baby Talkers
• Bookstart in Stafford for families of toddlers 12m to 3 years
• Early Words Together in South Staffs, Lichfield and Burntwood. This is a new project from the National Literacy Trust for families of children aged 2 -5 years
• The Transition project in Tamworth: a really exciting initiative to help children and families plus network with nurseries and schools
• Various specialist assessments and reports for second opinions and tribunals
• Assessing children for a new channel 4 programme by Maverick TV called 'Born this way?'
• Specialist assessment and therapy in a secure mental health unit
• Individual and group therapy sessions in schools, children's homes and nurseries
• Therapy sessions for the LEA
• Training including Elklan 'working with under 3s' ideal for think two staff. It's accredited at level 2 or 3. We've also been running signing workshops and practical sessions on developing language through play in local nurseries.
• Plus taken on 20 new referrals in March

Erm... I think that's all!

Thank you very much to the team for all their hard work and dedication

We'll update progress on each shortly!

Early Words Together:coming together nicely

The Early Words together project is in full swing at the Lichfield and South Staffs Children's Centres now. It is a superb new initiative from the National Literacy Trust to help families develop their skills in order to help their children at home. Studies have shown that parents are a huge influence on children's educational success, so if they can help from very early on, it will have a knock one effect to school progress and beyond. The NLT call it the 'home learning environment' or HLE.

The 6 week programme looks at the importance of sharing books, how nursery rhymes are  still important, mark making, choosing stories and also includes a visit from the library staff.

Many people think that libraries are quiet places where children should be seen and not heard but in fact, they actively encourage families. The library staff use puppets to show children the positives of joining the library so they can have access to new books every week.

The feedback from the families so far has been very positive, 'I think its really useful to know about these things,' said Anne-Marie, mum of 2 pre-schoolers. The sessions will be fully evaluated both internally and externally as part of a pilot project running until next March. If successful, it will be run nationwide.

Early Words Together: can you help me please? I need volunteers for this great project.

We are looking for volunteers to help with this very worthwhile initiative. No experience necessary as all training given. You would only be required to pass a safeguarding check, as I'm sure you'd understand is essential for anyone working with children.

https://audioboo.fm/boos/1736197-early-words-together

Please ring Kerry on 01543 421830   or Becky 01922 415632

Or email info@smalltalk-ltd.co.uk or LibbyHill1@aol.com

Come and join us on the Early Words programme in Lichfield and South Staffs

The National Literacy trust is  working with 12 Local Authorities to trial a package of support that will help children’s centres to identify families in need of support around early home learning. Small Talk is delighted to be co-ordinating this is the Lichfield and South Staffordshire areas. The families we aim to work with do not currently attend or access children’s centre services beyond universal services such as health checks.

The identified families will be supported to improve their home learning by working with trained community volunteers. The families will also take part in a book choice session and will be able to choose up to 3 books. In focussing on improving and increasing early home learning we are supporting families to increase their child’s school readiness and future attainment.

By March 2015 we will have contributed to the development of a package that can be adopted by other Authorities and that will include:

• Training for staff from a variety of referral agencies (health visitors, housing officers etc) to embed a set of home learning indicators into data they already collect (but not creating new bureaucratic systems!)
• Stakeholder mapping support and new partners for children’s centres
• Training for children’s centre staff to use early home learning indicators (EHLIs) and referral information to successfully attract identified families to their services
• Training for children’s centre staff to coordinate our community volunteering
programme and run book choice / book gifting sessions
• Promotion of referrals from the beneficiary parents
The success of the identification framework is very much reliant on positive and
open local partnerships – between Local Authority frameworks and with the
families. What is effectively a process of identifying and supporting certain families
to provide quality home learning environments for their children obviously requires
a high level of sensitivity and should be a positive rather than negative experience
for the families.

The aim is that home visiting professionals and others understand more about the
home learning environment, why it is important to their own work and to wider local
outcomes and how they can talk and work with families in a positive way that leads 44
families to access appropriate and meaningful support. At the same time, we will
be providing children’s centres with skills and knowledge that will help them to attract new, relevant families to their services.


What Small Talk will be doing:
Recruiting and training volunteers, then matching them with the families and overseeing the 6 week support programme. We will also run the book choice /book gifting session (funded by Benoy Foundation). At the end of the 6 week programme the families will be supported to refer others into the programme and encourage them to attend the children’s centre.

What we need you to do:
Attend the training sessions
Support the families over the 6 week period

We'd love you to be  apart of this exciting project. Please email us for an application form on info@smalltalk-ltd.co.uk if you are interested