“A community who live and learn together”

Created and funded by Department for Education 2015/16 VCS grant funding. This resource is available under Open

Government licence. ©Crown Copyright 2016

HELLOHelping Early Language & Literacy Outcomes

Case Study

“A community who live and learn together”

Our seven children’s centres work closely together,

and families living in the West Bradford area can

access services at any centre. The centres share a

central management team, who are based at St

Edmund’s Nursery School and Children’s Centre.

The team consists of 41 employees, each individual

serves a vital role, bringing their expertise to make

the future of the families we work with a brighter,

happier and successful one. The team includes

Family Support Workers, Early Years Practitioners,

Dads’ Workers and Community Engagement

Workers.

The staff teams have got to know each other and

have worked really hard to get all the centres up and

running for families to enjoy. We show lots of

dedication and commitment and we are always

here to lend a helping hand.

The West Bradford Children’s Centre Cluster is

made up of 7 children’s centres, all based in the west

of Bradford. We offer services for children aged 0 to

5 years and their families, including sessions for

families including stay and play, crèches and adult

training courses. Each centre works closely with

other organisations in the areas such as those

offering funded places for two year olds.

Our community is made up of Pakistani / Slovakian /

Czech / Polish and English speaking families

“A community who live and learn together”

Lead

Practitioners

Zakiyah AhmedEarly Years Practitioner

Qaiser HussainDads and male carers Practitioner.

We chose this project

as our champion role so

that we could emphasis

the importance of

language to parents and

carers cluster wide. We

are very passionate

about offering the best

support we can when it

comes to language

development.

“The ability to read is a powerful tool, but a passion for reading is an even more powerful quality”.

“A community who live and learn together”

How we put together the HELLO project with in the

cluster.

We would both attend regular meeting with everyone involved in the HELLO project and then we both came up with three actions of what we would like to achieve.

1. Prioritising the importance of language with children in

Bradford.

2. Ensuring practitioners are confident in using the tool and

reflecting on the work that they do.

3. Feeding back to the National Project via St Edmund’s

Teaching School

“A community who live and learn together”

Audit findings

Partnership with parents

What we do well What we are doing next

• We are very fortunate to be able to go into children's

homes and do an Early Language Development

Programme with them. Visits are done when a child

is 6 and 18 months.

• Delivering FRED (fathers reading everyday).

• Encourage parents to use their local library.

• Allocating some time during the session for

storytelling.

• Building up learning journeys and talking to parents

about the importance of language development.

• To set up a book/toy library in each of the centres.

• To role out the FRED programme in each setting.

• Getting parents to share their children's favourite

story and to share at story time.

• Begin to add video observations and reflect on our

own practice

Skilled practitioners

What we do well What we are doing next

• Following the Early Years Foundation Stage.

• Meeting with parents and discussing the child’s

progress.

• Parents having access to the Early Years Foundation

Stage.

• Practitioners to model language: expressions,

different tones, singing sharing stories.

• ELDP visits

• Discussing developments and concerns.

• Creative, imaginative story telling.

• Consistent singing sessions.

• On-going learning opportunities

• Further training

• Regular discussions with other practitioners.

• To do trackers on children who access the centre on

a long term basis.

• Put up a display about ages and stages for children.

• Set up library of books and cds for families to borrow.

• To hand out rhyme cards to parents so they can also

sing along at home with children

“A community who live and learn together”

Enabling Environment

What we do well What we are improving

• Frequent changes of displays and activities.

• Putting up child interest sheets.

• Notices about routines such as washing hands.

• Having set out lots of role play, phones, dressing up.

• Evaluating child’s interests.

• Variety of activities and resources.

• Use of clear effective language.

• Assessing individual’s needs and abilities.

• To have old keyboards, computers, phones and

cameras in the setting.

• Prioritise outdoor space.

• Get to know children’s interests at home. Integrate

them into sessions

• Evaluate sessions

• Craft shops so parents can take things to do at home.

• To have literacy and language in each area of the

room.

• Extend the technology with other equipment such as

telescopes.

“A community who live and learn together”

Challenges Faced and Solutions.

Challenges. Solutions.

• Consistency over the seven centres.

• Getting the staff to actually understand the tool.

• Time management

• Working closely alongside EYP’s and CEW’s• Doing a presentation for the cluster staff.• Getting another member on board.

“A community who live and learn together”

Trail Reading at Media Museum.

“A community who live and learn together”

FRED Programme(Fathers Reading Every Day)

“A community who live and learn together”

Those who read….Succeed.