Talking Together in Cambridgeshire Update and Opportunities for groups
Here’s the latest update from the Talking Together in Cambridgeshire team, which is part of the Early Year Childcare and School Readiness Service in Cambridgeshire County Council.
Festival of Stories 2025
Talking Together in Cambridgeshire’s Festival of Stories 2025, for families of children from birth to five, will run from Wednesday, 19th February to Wednesday, 26th February. The focus of this festival is stories that reflect children’s everyday experiences – so that they can see that the things that are important to them, are taken seriously, showing that we value their experiences. The festival will also highlight how the 50 Things to Do Before You’re Five app can be used to create new stories based on everyday activities to help build memories and bring families together.
If you would like to get involved with our festival in some way, please do contact helen.wootton@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
Festival of Stories 2025 – Storytellers for community groups
As part of the festival, we are offering six open-access community groups across Cambridgeshire (not including Peterborough) the opportunity to host a funded professional storytelling session for children under five with their parents/carers. These sessions will run over the period 19th to 21st February 2025. As hosts receiving the funded storyteller, we will expect community groups to ensure that the venue is suitable, advertise the event, and support with other areas of the event, as required. Feedback forms will need to be collected from parents and staff, and shared with Talking Together in Cambridgeshire, upon completion of the event. If you would like to host a funded storyteller as part of the Festival of Stories, the closing date for applications to be received is Monday, 2nd December 2024. Applicants will be advised whether their application has been successful by Monday 16th December 2024. More information about this exciting offer can be found on our website: https://bit.ly/Festivalofstories
Introduction to Making It REAL training – funded places!
We are also excited to let you know that we have started delivering the new one-day Introduction to Making It REAL course. The Making It REAL approach is based on the Opportunities, Recognition, Interaction and Modelling framework, which highlights four approaches parents can take to create a home learning environment that supports children’s early literacy development. Participants will learn how to support parents to:
· Create opportunities for children’s literacy development in the home environment
· Recognise and encourage children’s literacy milestones
· Interact with children positively and support real-life literacy tasks and
· Act as models of literacy users, so children see parents use literacy in everyday life
We are working closely with Cambridgeshire Skills who are offering funding to cover course costs for those who meet the eligibility criteria. The eligibility criteria that learners need to meet for course cost funding for this academic year are as follows:
· Any learner enrolling on the course will need to be 19 years or older on Saturday, 31st August 2024.
· Learners will also need to have been a resident in the UK, EU or EEA for the last three years. There are some exemptions if a learner answers ‘No’ to this question.
To meet the eligibility criteria for the staff costs bursary of £70 delegates must be eligible for course costs funding and live in Cambridgeshire (up to 2 people per organisation for bursary).
More details about the course including the dates and how to book a place can be found on our new website. Places are limited, so please book soonest!
Other Communication, Language and Literacy-focused courses
We have attached flyers for our other courses that we have coming up in the next few months including:
· How to Support Families of Young Children Who Are Learning to Speak More Than One Language
· Speech and Language UK’s Supporting Communication and Language
· Hanen’s Teacher Talk Module 1: Encouraging Language Development in Early Childhood Settings
You can find more information about these courses in the Communication and Language section of our Professional Development Programme. Again, places are limited, so please book soonest!
