Update and opportunities for groups from the Talking Together Team

Invitation to Quote: Professional Storytellers

Talking Together in Cambridgeshire’s Festival of Stories 2025 will run from Wednesday, 19 February to Wednesday, 26 February.  The focus of this festival will be everyday stories, and they will be shining a light on the fantastic, free, or low-cost activities which can be found on their 50 Things to Do Before You’re 5 App.

Their Festival of Stories events empowers parents and carers to bring a sparkle of magic to the everyday by sharing stories and books with their young children, and in doing so help boost the communication, language and literacy levels of children from birth to 5 years old.

They offer professional storytellers the opportunity to apply for a grant award to run interactive, verbal storytelling sessions for families of children aged from birth to five, at venues to be decided, across Cambridgeshire (not including Peterborough) over the festival period. More details can be found on their website.

They strongly advise those interested in applying to attend one of their pre-application online Storyteller Information Sessions which will be held on the following dates:

Date

Time

To book a place

Thursday 1 August

6pm to 6.45pm

https://forms.office.com/e/cJa6QePZSZ

Monday 5 August

6pm to 6.45pm

Tuesday 6 August

9am to 9.45am

Quotations must be submitted via email and received by Talking Together in Cambridgeshire by midday on Monday, 12 August 2024.

Should you wish to speak with someone about this grant award process, please contact helen.wootton@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

Community Funding Programme – closes in one week!

In 2024 – 2025, Talking Together in Cambridgeshire is also offering five community groups the opportunity to apply for funding to run four events for families which will help parents and carers learn more about how to support their young children (aged two to five) communication, language and literacy development. The four sessions will run at least three weeks apart between November 2024 and March 2025.

The Funding Application Guidance, including the Stage One e-application form, can be found on our website. All e-application forms should be received by midday on Friday 26 July 2024.

If you would like to speak with someone about the funding process, please contact Helen Wootton at helen.wootton@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

An Introduction to Making It REAL training – funded places!

They are also excited to let you know that they will be rolling out the new one-day Introduction to Making It REAL course from September 2024. Places are limited, so please book soon!

The Making It REAL approach is based on the Opportunities, Recognition, Interaction and Modelling (ORIM) 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

They will be working closely with Cambridgeshire Skills who will be offering funding to cover course costs for those who meet the eligibility criteria. More details about the course including the dates, eligibility criteria and how to book a place can be found on their website: Making it REAL (cambslearntogether.co.uk).

Get Activated this summer

Families across Cambridgeshire are in for a treat this summer. Local organisations are teaming up to offer free and low-cost activities all over the county. Look out for #GetActivated for fun and healthy activities run by the county council, district councils and their partners. There will be many options for play, cycling, walking, sports, crafts and other activities to keep families busy and having fun over the summer. They will be adding some Get Activated posts to our Facebook page over the summer, so do look out for those and feel free to share them.

For more information about the hundreds of activities on offer, please see https://shorturl.at/rtdGt

If you’d like to know more about their work, please do contact us via helen.wootton@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

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