Bookstart Dads

Supporting resources

---

Videos & CDs

Some bookstart colleagues have produced videos and CDs in partnership with Sure Start in order to enable children and their families to enjoy the songs and rhymes at home with other members of their family including dads. For more information or to receive a copy at a nominal cost please see contact details below:

• Milton Keynes Bookstart have been involved in producing a CD called Songtime and a DVD called Stories, Songs and Rhymes, extracts of which are featured on this website. Contact Michelle.Herriman@milton-keynes.gov.uk
• Sheffield Tinsley Sure Start and Sharrow Sure Start have produced a dual language CD featuring rhymes in Urdu and English. The CD draws on the Talk to Your Baby campaign and to encourage parent child interaction and to help the development of language skills. Contact deeba.akram@nhs.net. Listen to an extract: Hisham's story | Old MacDonald

Organisations, websites

The National Literacy Trust

http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/

The National Literacy Trust is a charity dedicated to ensuring everyone has the reading, writing, speaking and listening skills they need. The National Literacy Trust projects reach some of the most disadvantaged communities, where the need is greatest.

The website is an excellent resource, providing information about campaigns, national and local initiatives, good practice and summaries of policy and research. All of these promote literacy and demonstrate how improved literacy enables people to achieve their full potential and changes lives. View a summary entitled 'Targeting dads and Male Carers'

In May The National Literacy trust devoted its newsletter to work with dads and boys. The following publications and initiatives were featured:

Dads Reading with Kids

Getting the Blokes on Board: involving fathers and male carers in reading with their children

This new NLT magazine, aimed at professionals who work with parents, contains lots of ideas for getting fathers and male carers reading with their children. If you've never worked with dads before, or would just like a few extra ideas, Getting the Blokes on Board is for you. It is free on request. To get a hard copy email rodie.akerman@literacytrust.org.uk

The magazine is also available to download as a pdf

Reading Champions films

To support schools in encouraging boys to read more, Reading Champions has produced two short films demonstrating how the winning Reading Champion schools of 2006 have motivated the boys in their school to read more. To access these inspiring films,visit www.readingchampions.org.uk and click on the 'resources' section.

Black Boys Can Association and RIF, UK

Reading Is Fundamental, UK (RIF) will be working with Black Boys Can this year. Four of the Black Boys Can community franchisees are involved in the pilot programme, which will reach over 80 boys. Each boy will receive three free books of his choice over the period of the pilot and the community groups will provide a forum for their reading acheivements to be recognised. More about RIF

Kick into Reading film

Reading The Game (RTG) has produced a short film of its programme Kick into Reading. Produced as an evaluation tool, it features some of the football clubs, libraries, children and storytellers that have been part of the programme so far. RTG hopes that the film will motivate other libraries and football clubs to get involved by demonstrating the inspirational stories and messages of the programme. It will be available soon through the Kick into Reading pages of the RTG website.

School Reading Champions prize draw

To celebrate Reading Champions reaching 1,000 member schools we are holding a School Reading Champions prize draw. After the summer half-term holidays, Reading Champions will award three schools which have nominated Champions with book prizes worth £300. If your school has nominated boys in the past or will be nominating before 4 June you will be automatically entered into the prize draw. Nominate Champions

Reading Connects school of the year competition

Reading Connects is looking for the primary and secondary school which has developed its whole-school reading culture most effectively through using the Reading Connects approach during the academic year 2006/2007. The entry form for this year's school of the year competition is now online. The closing date for entries is 13 July 2007. Download an entry form

Football poster - Free posters available now

We are delighted to let you know that thanks to the support of Renaissance Learning, there are still a limited number of our hugely popular football posters available free of charge. The posters come in sets of four, featuring David James, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand and Alan Smith. Get your orders in fast. To order your set of posters visit www.renaissance-learning.co.uk/nlt_posters

Every Parent Matters: a summary

Every Parent Matters is a document from the Department for Children, Schools and Families which combines findings from research and practice about work with parents and the effects these have on children's outcomes. Read the summary

Family Reading Campaign principles for engaging families with reading

The Family Reading Campaign has produced key principles to guide work engaging families with reading in the home. The principles have an accompanying selection of case studies illustrating how to promote and implement them using a coordinated local approach. More

Reading Connects member organisation of the month

May's member organisation of the month is Every Child a Reader. More

Fathers Direct

www.fathersdirect.com

Fathers Direct work in partnership with agencies throughout the social care sector to help them develop effective approaches to support children’s relationships with their fathers and other male carers. Their publication ‘Working with Fathers, a guide for Everyone Working with Families’ has been developed to enable all workers engaging directly with families to provide more effective support to fathers' relationships with their children and can be purchased from Fathers Direct. The Fathers Direct website gives details of their helpline for workers and managers trying to engage with fathers, or attempting to make their organisation and service father-inclusive. Call 0845 634 1328 or email: workershelpline@fathersdirect.com

ContinYou

www.continyou.org.uk

ContinYou aims to open up opportunities for learning that will help people to change their lives, improving the well-being of individuals, families and communities. This organisation has produced a toolkit on working with young fathers and draws on the learning of five pilot projects across the country who took part in a two-year project coordinated by the Trust for the Study of Adolescence.

See also The Trust for the Study of Adolescence Micro Site

Working with Men

Working With Men (WWM) is a charity which implements and supports work that benefits the development of men and boys and seeks to raise awareness of issues impacting upon them. This is done through projects, training, consultancy, research and the development of resources and publications
http://www.workingwithmen.org/youngfathers/

Sure Start

http://www.surestart.gov.uk/

The Department for Children Families and Schools

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/

Every Child Matters

http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/

Bookstart

http://www.bookstart.org.uk/