| Newsletter for Bookstart scheme coordinators April 2008 | Download pdf 350Kb |  |
News from Bookstart
Bookstart in Scotland Day 2008
Scotland's biggest Bookstart Rhymetime takes place on Bookstart in Scotland Day, 15 May!
Fun, fabulous and FREE, this special day will bring 0-4s and their parents together to sing exactly the same songs and read exactly the same book at exactly the same time all across Scotland.
For new rhyme sheets and more information please go to:
www.bookstart.co.uk/Bookstart-Day-in-Scotland-2008
National Bookstart Day is happening on 10 October and, as you all will know, the theme is Pirates.
We will be producing a free book called Pirates Ahoy by Debbie Harter and Oscar Seaworthy (Barefoot Books). Debbie will also be producing the artwork for point-of-sale materials and rhymetime sheets.
We are currently looking into possible venues for the main promotional event – more information will follow soon …
New Book Crawl posters
Every scheme has been sent new Book Crawl posters as well as the wonderful new ten National Year of Reading Book Crawl certificates.
Please use the old certificates after you run out of the new ones. The accompanying new Book Crawl poster is also only available until March 2009.
ALL certificates count towards the ten needed for a Golden Certificate. Please bear with us in receiving the Golden Certificate as it won't be available for a few months.
We will of course let you know when it's available to order.
Annual Report and Online Audit
The Bookstart Online Audit for 2007-08 is now live and available for submission of information on your scheme.
Please follow the links below to access the relevant audit form:
Northern Ireland
www.bookstartaudit.co.uk/survey/northern_ireland/
England
www.bookstartaudit.co.uk/survey/england/
Scotland
www.bookstartaudit.co.uk/survey/scotland/
Please note, the deadline for completion of the Online Audit is May 9.
Guidance notes for completing your Annual Report are also now available.
We encourage coordinators to complete their scheme's Annual Report soon after submitting their Online Audit.
The key performance data you submit in the audit will also be useful to writing your report on the progress of the scheme over the last financial year.
Click here for more information…
Parents newsletter
All parents and carers who have signed up to join the Parents forum are receiving our bi-monthly e-newsletter Magic Times. The fourth edition was sent out earlier this month to nearly 5,000 Bookstart supporters.
You can join the mailing list by adding your name and email address to the Parents Forum at www.bookstart.co.uk/parents-forum.
Please go to www.bookstart.org.uk/newsletters to see the latest issue.
Favourite children’s books
An online poll to find Bookstart website readers’ favourite books.
In conjunction with the Booktrust poll to find the best children’s book of all time, we ran our own online poll on the website to ask parents and carers what their personal favourites were and why.
We had a very good response, with shouts for books from Roald Dahl to Enid Blyton.
You can read some of the replies here...
www.bookstart.co.uk/favouritebooks
News from Booktrust
Best new illustrators
The UK's ten best new illustrators were revealed earlier this month by Children's Laureate Michael Rosen.
The final ten represent the best rising talent in the field of illustration today, who demonstrate remarkable creative flair, artistic skill and boundless imagination in their work.
The list forms part of the Big Picture Campaign, which was launched in 2007 aimed at promoting picture books and illustrators. Led by Booktrust in partnership with Bookstart, and supported by a range of children’s publishers, the campaign aims to stimulate confidence in the market for picture books.
It is wonderful to see Polly Dunbar and Emily Gravett awarded as last year they produced beautiful Bookstart Book Crawl certificates for us! Oliver Jeffers, who also made the shortlist, is also a big supporter of Bookstart and designed one of our fantastic birth congratulations cards. Well done to all.
For more information go to the Big Picture website:
Bookstars
News from Bookstart schemes around the country.
Treasure Chests in Northern Ireland
The launch of Bookstart Treasure Chests in Northern Ireland was celebrated at a special event at Omagh Library in January.
It was very well attended by supporters of Bookstart from across the province, including Paul Sweeney, Private Secretary to Edwin Pookes, Culture Minister for Department Culture Arts and Leisure.
The event was heralded by a band noisy of swarthy cut throats (under 6 years old), led by a mean-looking pirate on stilts. All was well when they eventually found their hidden loot of My Bookstart Treasure Chests!
The celebration day was an ideal chance to capture the attention of the minister, other members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) and of civil servants.
The five Northern Ireland library authorities had worked together to create an event which captured the imagination of children and adults. It was also an opportunity to celebrate the key partnerships involved and speakers from education and health partners reinforced the need for partnership to achieve the goal of ‘literate children in a literate society’.
Almost 8,000 children have received the gift after one year of delivery – that is almost 40% of the target audience for this gifting programme and a great start for Northern Ireland Libraries.
For a full account click here…
www.bookstart.org.uk/documents/NIre-conference08.doc
'Books Start the Fun' conference – Northamptonshire
The ‘Books Start the Fun’ conference took place in Kettering on 14 March. This was an extremely informative day with the opportunity to meet and talk about Bookstart.
Speakers included Rosemary Clarke, author Julia Jarman and Liz Attenborough from Talk to Your Baby.
The day was opened by the Chief Executive from Northamptonshire Katherine Kerswell and ended with an entertaining look at how Bookstart fits into Local Area Agreements by Kate Yates, Children and Young Peoples Commissioner. Closing remarks were from Head of Library Service, Grace Kempster.
During the day there were two opportunities to attend workshops and learn about how professionals across a wide range of disciplines were working with Bookstart. Attendees were from Northamptonshire as well as Bookstart Coordinators from across the regions.
Many thanks to Linda Holvey for organising such an interesting day.
Lancashire Bookstart and Parents as Partners in Early Learning
As part of the Parents as Partners in Early Learning project (PPEL) in Lancashire, Lancashire Library and Information Service was invited to build on the Bookstart scheme by holding courses for parents to encourage them to share rhymes and books with their children.
Three sessions were held in twelve Children Centres. Rhyme Time was the first of the three sessions, encouraging parents to use rhymes and rhyming books, Book Time session focused on different types of book for young children and activities which could be done around books and the last session was well-being, which covered our popular Little Issues booklet, which describes books for special situations and also dealt with healthy eating.
We were inundated at the first session with 17 adults attending with 30 children, after which were successfully bid for additional funding to pay for crèches. Over 100 parents took part in the course throughout the county, and around 60 adults and children joined the library. Existing members taking part in the course were given a “clean slate”.
We also gave a gift of a good quality book at each session, including the Bookstart Rhymetime book and CD which proved to be very popular. We received very positive comments following the courses and have already started planning on extending them to traveller families.
Sheila Woodburn
Lancashire Bookstart coordinator
A visit to San Diego
Anne Mason Bookstart Coordinator from Nottingham City visited San Diego’s Central Library to see what their Children’s Library was like.
Anne met several of the Children’s Team staff and accompanied a class visit’s guided tour of the library. She talked about the Bookstart scheme to one of the staff and gave them a set of the Bookstart packs. In return she received a box for parents that is distributed by library, health and dental workers to families in California, USA.
This free ‘kit’ contains, amongst other things, a DVD with wide ranging advice concerning a child’s welfare, a practical First Aid book entitled What to do when your child gets sick, a guide on children’s development stage by stage and a touchy-feely book.