New resource for practitioners to encourage parents to read with their children

The aim of Sharing Stories is to demonstrate the many ways practitioners and parents can encourage children to pick up a book from an early age.

As part of the campaign, the centre has created a training pack, including a DVD and accompanying booklet, for practitioners to use with children in their setting and to promote the scheme to parents.

The DVD, filmed in libraries, community settings and homes, shows families enjoying book sharing and participating in book-based activities, while the booklet outlines the key principles of how to enjoy reading in five different languages.

Julia Eccleshare, the creator of Sharing Stories, talked to Nursery World about the project.

How did you come up with Sharing Stories, and why?

Everyone knows that book ownership matters in terms of giving children a good start in literacy. But at CLPE we have always believed that a book alone can’t do all the work. Our work with families across Southwark showed us that many parents need a lot of encouragement and support to feel confident about book sharing.

The idea behind Sharing Stories was twofold. The first was to give parents an easy way of discovering the pleasure of book sharing through the visuals of a DVD and a highly illustrated booklet. To do this we chose the best advocates we know – other parents and their babies – who we filmed in our weekly Bookstart Plus sessions and in their own homes talking about how and why they share stories. Watching other parents experience – especially about maintaining home languages and English – is the perfect way to build confidence.

The second was that we wanted there to be a great many more places where new parents could find out about books.