In 2024 - 2025, Talking Together in Cambridgeshire is 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 purpose of funding this work
Children growing up now have had different experiences from other cohorts of children. Our current cohorts were born in a pandemic. Children have wider access to technology, with over 78% of three-year-olds having access to a tablet for at least three hours a day. We know from looking at our data that in some areas of Cambridgeshire some children aged five need additional support with word reading and writing.
We know from research that a wide vocabulary and a range of rich early experiences support children’s early word reading and by continuing to support early communication and language skills we are supporting their early literacy skills. We now need to also focus on helping families learn more about how to support their children to develop the skills which strengthen communication and therefore underpin word reading and writing.
Last year we piloted a new way of working with our community groups. We awarded funding to cover the costs of sessions for families, with the sessions focusing on the skills mentioned above. To support our groups with this work, we offered each group two free places on our 'Making it REAL' training course and contributed towards staffing costs, so two people from each group could attend the training. The training proved invaluable, and our partners have shared what they learned with many families across Cambridgeshire.
We now wish to offer other community groups the chance to join the one-day Introduction to Making it REAL training programme. The training is key and therefore it is mandatory for all those wishing to apply for a grant award. This training will help our community groups understand the latest evidence-based messaging on how to support young children’s early communication, language, and literacy skills so they can also share this with parents.
Funded session aims
The funded sessions will cover the four stands of literacy; environmental print, oral language, early writing, and books. Each of these strands is covered in the Introduction to Making it REAL training. We will provide a storyteller to support the session on oral language, and Cambridgeshire Skills Family Learning Team will run a Story Sacks activity to support the session on books.
Further information
The online stage one application must be completed by midday on Friday, 26 July 2024.
Further information about our funding process can be found in the guidance notes below. These notes offer important information on:
- Geographical reach area
- Co-production of the offer
- Amounts available
- Eligibility criteria for organisations wishing to bid
- Links to the stage one application form.
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