July 2009 | Edition ????

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Creativity in the Early Years conference

More than 80 practitioners from a variety of schools and settings converged on CLPE on Friday 12th June to take part in the ‘Creativity in the early years’ conference.

Professor Tina Bruce launched the day with a keynote speech that demonstrated that all children can be creative and that the role of adults is to provide circumstances that are nurturing rather than ‘driving (children) into the commonplace and depriving them of doing things which are beautiful and original.’ She encouraged teachers to learn from the children and to let them lead in their learning.

A choice of practical workshops demonstrated what this might look like in practice. These sessions focussed on a child-led project to transform play outdoors, the work of the Southwark PPEL project with parents, an exploration of ways to make the environment more creatively enabling, and practical examples of creative problem-solving within Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy in the Foundation Stage.

The conference closed with a final presentation from Linda Sullivan, Headteacher of the Dale Community School, Derby, and Pat Geary, Headteacher of Stonehill Nursery School, Derby. In their inspiring presentation they showed the ways in which they were translating the ‘slow pedagogy’ of the Italian nursery schools of Pistoia into the practice of their own schools and in doing so, transforming learning.

As one participant commented: ‘I have loved today. I feel really inspired again.’

Jane Bunting

Empowering Parents

Throughout this year, CLPE have been working with parents on an exciting project to develop children’s early language. Now, with four separate courses coming to an end, we are thrilled at the positive impact they have had.

I feel like the clock hands have turned back for me and my children... This is like a reawakening for me, of what being a child should be like.

Faith, a parent on a PPEL course.

Funded by Southwark LA as part of the Parents as Partners in Early Learning (PPEL) programme, the ten week courses are designed for bilingual families where the parents are at an early stage of language acquisition. During each session parents meet together, are introduced to a wonderful range of children’s books and begin to share activities to encourage and support interaction with their children. Meanwhile, the children are cared for in a crèche.

Each course has boosted confidence, helped to form friendships and developed family interactions. Responses from parents include Fahia who says, The course has given me the confidence to talk to other parents in the library. It has helped me to speak English and make new friends. While Faith adds, Here you are encouraged to be who you are and I feel happy inside now that we doing things together.

These comments show the importance of these first interactions with other parents, especially for those who may previously have had very little opportunity to meet others. As the course progresses, the activities themselves assume greater significance. Parents attending love what they learn and, in particular, they enjoy taking their learning home and sharing it with their families sometimes even using it as a way of getting dads involved in reading. It has given me lots of ideas to try at home, said Rozina. We learn them in English here and I translate them at home into my language. If I didn’t have this course I wouldn’t know what to do.

So why has it been so successful? Key ingredients include: an active recruitment drive by a dedicated outreach worker who helps parents with the crucial first step of meeting other parents; an attractive course centre; excellent resources for the courses and the peace of mind of knowing children are well-looked after in a crèche.

With this supportive background in place, success come also from the high quality of the sessions which, while being enjoyable, creative and interactive, also give parents the skills to try out ideas for themselves in ways that make it easy for them to take them home and try them with their children, in their own language and in their own time.

The result is a course that is empowering for parents and their families.

Lauren Price, CLPE

Power of Reading Research Conference

Research findings from the CLPE Power of Reading Project 2005-09 were presented to a CLPE conference by Olivia O’Sullivan and Sue McGonigle on 22 April 2009. The research is based on interviews, case studies and data collection from the first four years of the project which now involves nearly 900 teachers, 650 schools and over 23,000 children.

Inclusion for all children – together with raised expectations from teachers - is a theme arising from the research. Kathy Maclean, Head of Minority Achievement for Wandsworth Local Authority stressed the key role of the Power of Reading for raising achievement within the LA which has significant proportions of children with EAL. Joan Stark, Senior School Improvement Officer (English) for Cumbria LA, praised the inspirational effect of the POR project on teaching and learning, as well as the effect on standards, particularly in areas of social need. Cumbria is now beginning its fourth year of involvement in the project. Rebecca Lerman, Year 6 teacher from Crampton Primary School, Southwark showed some of the amazing work done by her class based on POR texts such as Wolf Brother (Michelle Paver).

Olivia O’Sullivan

Schools and Local Authorities are currently signing up for 2009-10.

For further information click here.

To download the research summary click here.

Green shoots nurtured by families at CLPE

Our 'How Does Your Garden Grow?' event on 29th May was considered a fabulous learning day by everyone - from babies to teenagers and adults. The activities demonstrated how easy it is to grow food and have fun in the garden without spending a fortune. They included planting a potato in a plastic carrier bag, growing a packed lunch, painting with fruit and vegetables, decorating pebbles, looking at insects and making a sand garden.

Kalid commented, I learned a lot about potatoes and how to grow cress. You have been a great help to me.

Rosie said, Absolutely fantastic. I think ur ideas are brill. Well done.

And Jordan went off the scale: U R the best. It is impossible to get any better.

The feedback was so good that we have decided to run the whole day again on Thursday 23rd July, so that we can give even more families the chance to have fun and learn together. To find out more, please get in touch with Clio Whittaker, Family Learning Coordinator, clio@clpe.co.uk

Tel: 07918759 788 or 020 7902 2297.

Poetry Right Now! Project with Michael Rosen

Poetry is part of what we do

In the Poetry Right Now! end of year presentations teachers shared the poetry journeys they had taken with their classes over the year with Michael Rosen. Freedom was a leitmotif which ran through all the contributions: the new found freedom of teachers who now feel sufficiently confident to make independent choices in how they teach poetry and freedom for children, especially the less experienced readers and writers, to find their poetic voices.

Teachers said: My opinion of teaching poetry has been drastically transformed. I have regained the passion I had for poetry and am more able to take risks in my teaching.

I feel excited, energised and much more willing to experiment.

Jenny Vernon

The project will be running again next year at CLPE with Michael Rosen. For more information click here.

CLPE’s Multicultural Book Fair 2009

For teachers, early years practitioners, parents, librarians and students

Wednesday 30th September 2009

Noon – 6.30pm

Guest author: Malorie Blackman

Stalls and displays by booksellers and publishers

Events and authors

Programme includes: Creating an audio story CD, demonstration of TalkingPEN (Mantra Lingua), Hill Mead Primary School gospel choir, Malorie Blackman talk and book signing.

For more information click here

Siobhan Dowd

Siobhan Dowd was posthumously awarded the CILIP Carnegie Medal for Bog Child at a ceremony last month. Siobhan Dowd is also the author of The London Eye, one of the books featured in the Power of Reading project, which has been especially enjoyed by St George’s School, Wandsworth.

Listings

CLPE courses 2009-10

CLPE is running a full programme of courses for 2009-10 to meet the professional development needs of teachers, teaching assistants and schools. These include:

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