REAL: Raising Early Achievement in Literacy
The original REAL project was developed by Dr Cathy Nutbrown, who later worked with the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) to develop the Making it REAL programme to support families of children, aged two to five years, with Peter Hannon's ORIM framework.
- It is an evidence-based and award-winning programme that boosts children's communication, language and early literacy development
- The approach increases practitioners (including childminders, setting practitioners, Child and Family Centre staff, Reception-class staff and representatives of community groups) knowledge, skills, and confidence, helping to support families to create a positive early home learning environment
- The approach increases parental knowledge and confidence in supporting their children's development at home - the home learning environment is strengthened
- It focuses on meaningful communication and literacy, that children can make sense of and enjoy as part of their everyday lives
- It is a fun, engaging, inclusive and accessible programme for all - most importantly, it is a low or no-cost approach to embed.
Vision for Cambridgeshire
We aim to deliver a county-wide rollout of an 'Introduction to Making it REAL', as part of the Council’s primary approach to supporting children’s early communication, language, and literacy skills, by supporting their home learning environment.
Our ambition is to support all those who interact with children (birth to five years) across Cambridgeshire to give them the knowledge, skills and confidence to create a positive home learning environment using the REAL project's strands of literacy, and the ORIM framework as part of the Introduction to Making it REAL course.
Follow the links below to find out more.
The four Strands of Literacy and the ORIM framework are part of the REAL programme, where practitioners and parents work together to support children’s early literacy and create a positive early home learning environment. The Four Strands and ORIM are copyrights of the University of Sheffield and are used with kind permission in the NCB’s Making it REAL training.
