Charity, ESC offer literacy training jointly

Making it Real (Raising Early Achievement in Literacy) is a training programme developed by the National Children’s Bureau and aims to equip early years practitioners to build parents’ knowledge and confidence so that they can help children with reading and writing, and create a positive home-learning environment.

‘Making it Real is a brilliant programme steeped in esteemed academic research. This is a fantastic opportunity to skill up local practitioners and has proved to be extremely effective in eliciting long-term improvements with literacy,’ said Ruth Sharp, head of the States’ early years team.

‘We’re very proud to have helped facilitate the training and look forward to seeing its positive impact for years to come.’

Training is to be delivered to 40 practitioners from pre-schools, libraries and education settings and services. The participants will be split into two groups, one to receive training in-person and the other remotely.

The NCB derived the programme from The Real Project, research that was led by two Sheffield University professors. It uses a framework called Orim, which is based on the idea that there are four main ways in which parents can help their children’s literacy development – opportunities, recognition, interaction and model.

ECOF said it was excited about the programme and thanked corporate sponsors and Education, Sport & Culture, which it credited as a joint driving force behind the project.

‘Reading, writing and communication are fundamental skills that most children master without difficulty, but for those who struggle the effects can be far-reaching,’ said Andrew Bichard, manager of ECOF in Guernsey.

‘It’s our mission to close the education gap for those children, and we know to do that we have to work with primary care-givers and provide them with the tools, knowledge and confidence to support a child.’