Ambitious home literacy project in Doncaster aims to boost reading and writing learning for families

An early years practitioner from Atlas is working alongside eight families in their homes to give support with reading and writing.

During the home visits, children and their parents take part in every-day family literacy activities such as writing shopping lists and making a scrapbook to document their work.

Parents are engaging with this also, helping the children write about what they had done the previous day, which is also improving their reading.

A key part of the home visits is sharing books with the family, so they can read together in their own time.

The stories are brought to life by using hand puppets to act out scenes from the books and singing nursery rhymes together.

Nicola, the practitioner, has noted that parents have started striking up conversations with her about the reading material, talking about the storylines and characters and asking for more books.

At Intake, their early years practitioner is working with eight families.

Their focus has been on reading as a group, modelling how to read with the child so families can do story time.

Kristan, the practitioner, has spent a lot of time modelling games and activities that families can play with the resource material, such as ‘what happens next’ or roleplaying what is happening in the story.

Research shows that working with families in their homes has many positive effects.

It raises children's attainment; increases parents’ knowledge about learning and literacy; and strengthens home-to-school relationships.

The project, created by a teacher within the Astrea Trust, and courtesy of a £100,000 grant from SHINE, aims to increase the children’s enjoyment of books and engagement in writing, leading to higher literacy skills when they start Reception next year.

Over the next three years the programme will be rolled out to a further ten Astrea primary schools.

Dr Helen Rafferty, Interim CEO, SHINE, said: “SHINE are delighted to be supporting the development of this critically important work with children and families in South Yorkshire. Supporting families at home will benefit children’s literacy. We’re excited to see the benefits of this partnership over the next three years.”

Deb Shorthouse, Project Lead said: “Reading and enjoying books at home is so important to a child’s development, both now and in years to come.

"I believe that we can only raise the literacy levels of our pupils at Astrea if we work alongside families, in their homes.

“If we really want to support our children with literacy learning, then we have to look beyond the school gate.

"That is why I have designed this bespoke learning project. It has been heartening to see the families of our pupils share this idea, they have really taken this programme on and I have been delighted to see the progress that the pupils from Atlas and Intake have made.”

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