| Newsletter for Bookstart scheme coordinators June 2008 | Download pdf 460Kb |  |
News from Bookstart
Developing an authority-wide strategy for reading
Booktrust is working with two local authorities on a pilot study to develop a strategy for reading.
As part of our contribution to the National Year of Reading Booktrust will be working with Wigan MBC and Suffolk CC on the 12-month pilot, which will explore reading promotion, including literacy, in each of the authorities.
The pilot will help to raise awareness of current good practice and provide the local authorities with the confidence and pride in how reading is promoted and provided by public services, voluntary organisations and other local partners.
Find out more…
Bookstart in Scotland Day 2008
On Thursday 15th May 2008 more than 12,000 babies, toddlers and their parents joined in with Scotland’s Biggest Bookstart Rhymetime to celebrate Bookstart in Scotland Day 2008.
Children and parents gathered at free Bookstart Rhymetimes sessions held across the country, from Orkney to the Scottish Borders, to sing exactly the same songs and read exactly the same book at exactly the same time.
Find out more…
Scotland's favourite nursery rhyme
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star has come top in a poll to find Scotland's favourite nursery rhyme.
6,000 parents and children in Scotland were asked to name their personal favourite, with the traditional classic beating Humpty Dumpty and Baa Baa Black Sheep to second and third spot.
Caroline McLeod, Bookstart National Development Manager for Scotland, said:
“It’s wonderful to see the enduring popularity of these traditional rhymes which are passed down through generation after generation."
The survey was conducted by Bookstart in Scotland to promote their Rhymetimes pilot project currently running in several local authorities throughout the country.
For the full list and more information see the press release...
National Bookstart Day 2008
Update on National Bookstart Day on Friday 10 October.
Promotional materials will be sent out in August: A4 posters, A3 event posters, stickers, bookmarks and Rhymetime sheets plus quantities of the free book Pirates Ahoy!
Downloadable resources including colouring and activity sheets will also be available on the website from August.
The press launch will be held at the National Maritime Museum where we will be linking in with the Greenwich scheme event on 10 October.
Research and evaluation
Bookstart Impact Evaluation
The two phases of parent interviews of the Impact Evaluation in Wales have now been completed. 150 parents were interviewed in January shortly after they received a Bookstart pack, and a follow-up interview of the same parents took place in April. Results are currently being analysed and will be published in July.
A similar Impact Evaluation is currently underway in England, with 600 parents across the country being interviewed.
Both evaluations aim to identify and measure the impact of the Bookstart packs on attitudes and reading practices between parents and young children and also engagement with libraries.
Online Audit
All schemes have now submitted their audit form. Many thanks to everyone for participating.
The Booktrust Research and Development Manager, Roland Marden, is now collating and analysing the data. Results will be circulated shortly.
Who’s that bear?
We are looking for ways to make the Bookstart Bear more recognisable at events.
You can’t miss him, but can you name him? Our big blue bear often makes an appearance at local and national events to promote Bookstart and is always incredibly popular. But it seems that the general public don’t actually recognise who he is and what he’s supporting!
We’re looking for suggestions on how to make the Bear more instantly recognisable as a brand. What about a T-shirt, hat, or perhaps he could carry a Bookstart bag.
Please visit the discussion board and let us know what you think.
www.bookstart.org.uk/discussion
News from Booktrust
The Roald Dahl Funny Prize 2008
Booktrust has launched a new children’s book prize to celebrate the funniest books for children.
The Roald Dahl Funny Prize will honour those books that make us laugh and be split into two categories – the funniest book for children aged six and under, and for children aged seven to fourteen.
This new award was dreamt up by Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen who explains:
'Children love funny books but when adults draw up lists of the best books they nearly always leave the funny ones out. When I became the Children’s Laureate, I said that my job should be as an ambassador for fun.’
The shortlisted authors will be revealed on September 13, to tie in with the third annual Roald Dahl Day, with the winners being announced at an awards ceremony in London in November.
For more information go to http://www.booktrust.org.uk/show/feature/Home/Funny-Prize
Rough Guide to Picture Books
Booktrust has teamed up with Rough Guides to produce a guide to 35 of the very best children's picture books.
As part of The Big Picture Campaign, The Rough Guide to Picture Books has highlighted 35 of the very best titles in order to celebrate the talented illustrators and authors who produce them.
The Rough Guide to Picture Books will be distributed free of charge through Waterstone's in April and May, and through Tesco throughout October. Look out for copies in stores near you.
Book-gifting schemes
This year’s Booked up and Booktime programmes will be unveiled together on Saturday June 7, with brand new websites to support their launch.
Booked up
Booked up aims to give a free book to every Year 7 pupil in the country from a list of 12 specially selected titles. Last year the programme sent out around 637,000 books, with nearly 5,400 secondary schools taking part and they are hoping to build on that success in 2008.
The new Booked up website will include downloadable resources for coordinators, book reviews and recommendations on the website written by Year 7s for Year 7s, plus lots, lots more. See www.bookedup.org.uk
Booktime
Booktime gives the gift of a free book pack to every reception child (aged 4-5 years) in England when they first start primary school and has gifted 1 million books since its launch in 2006.
The new website will have sections for families, teachers and librarians and include case studies and best practice models, downloadable activities and podcasts.
Go to www.booktime.org.uk from June 7.
The lists of books being gifted via these programmes will be announced at the launch.
Letterbox 2008 update
The Letterbox Club is a scheme focused on children between the ages of 7 and 11 who are in care. Children receive a Letterbox Club parcel once a month from May to October addressed to them personally at ‘home’. This parcel contains a selection of books, number games and stationery items along with a personally addressed letter.
We currently have 53 local authorities participating in Letterbox and many others on the waiting list for 2009.
An official Letterbox Club launch is planned for September 2008, when the evaluation results of the Letterbox Club 2007 pilot will be published and disseminated.
Role reshuffle and new appointments
Rosemary Clarke, Head of Bookstart, has been appointed as Head of all of Booktrust’s book-gifting programmes including Bookstart, Booktime, Booked Up and the Letterbox Club. Claire Boulton, Hannah Rutland and Marian Keen Downs are the respective programme managers.
In addition, a number of other roles have changed to work across Booktrust: Dr Roland Marden becomes Research and Development Manager, Louise Chadwick becomes Inclusion and Family Learning Manager and Elaine Bielby becomes Health Partnerships Manager. We also welcome Sue Evans as Booktrust's new Head of Development and Fundraising.
Congratulations to all concerned.
Bookstart programme vacancies
Following our recent advertisements, we were inundated by a huge number of excellent applications for the posts of National BDM Northern Ireland, National BDM Wales and two vacancies for BDMs in England. The quality of CV and letters were quite exceptionally high.
We will update you on appointments in the next newsletter.
Bookstars
News from Bookstart schemes around the country.
Twinkle Twinkle no 1 in North Lanarkshire
North Lanarkshire's Hamish joins children from Airdrie Library's Bookstart Rhymetime group to celebrate their favourite nursery rhyme.
North Lanarkshire echoed the rest of Scotland in voting Twinkle Twinkle Little Star the number one nursery rhyme. Hamish the Bookstart Bear visited Airdrie Library and its beautiful observatory to look at the stars through their huge telescope.
Celebration of future funding
South Glasgow has celebrated the announcement of five years’ future funding for Bookstart.
On the 10 March 2008 to celebrate receiving £355,000 from The Big Lottery Fund to run Bookstart for five years in South Glasgow, we held a large family event in Langside Halls, Shawlands.
The day started with a puppet show, after which the families were encouraged to stay and enjoy a healthy snack and visit the animal man who had a variety of animals for the children to look at and touch. Fuzzy the clown joined us to show his balloon making skills. We also had arts and crafts where the children could make Easter cards. A number of community-based organisations such as Working for Families, Reed in Partnership, Out of School Care and many more were available to speak to parents about their services.
The day was a great success with 123 children and their families attending, each child receiving a Bookstart bear and story book.
Linda Muirhead
Bookstart Coordinator
Home-Start and Bookstart
Bookstart is working with Home-Start to offer training to their staff on Bookstart packs and the importance of sharing books for pleasure.
Roadshows are taking place around the country with each Home-Start scheme being offered the opportunity to receive training as part of Home-Start's Enjoy and Achieve training. Thanks to Deborah Blewitt from Barnsley and also Sue Wink from North East Lincolnshire who have provided Bookstart training.
If you would like any more information about this please contact louise.chadwick@booktrust.org.uk
Bookstart at the Baby Show
Bookstart exhibited at the Baby Show in Birmingham in May.
25,000 people flocked to the NEC in May to visit this year’s Baby Show and Bookstart was there to promote the programme.
We had a great large stand with space to run Rhymetime sessions twice a day, with bean bags scattered around for parents and their children to rest on, look at the books and find out about Bookstart.
The Bookstart Bear made regular appearances and we gave out Rhymetime sheets, Busy Bear books and height charts as well as goody bags to those who attended the Rhymetimes.
A big thank you to Lesley Williamson from Dudley and Sandra Williamson from Wolverhampton (unrelated!) for running fantastic Rhymetime sessions and for their help on the stand.
Bookstart Bear in Plymouth
Bookstart Bear was a star attraction at our National Year of Reading Launch at the Drake Circus Shopping Mall in Plymouth, on 31st March.
He participated in a very noisy Rhymetime session, met the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress and gifted Bookstart packs to our youngest readers, joining many to the library on the day. 
We also launched our fabulous new rhymetimes rock bookmarks, with Simon James. He gave us permission to use his Baby Brains character and we borrowed the wording from the Bookstart new baby cards as we thought it was just perfect!
We held a fun morning with a large group of parents with babies. Simon told us that he didn't usually work with children quite so young, but he entered into the spirit of things, presenting his books to the parents, despite babies crawling up his legs occasionally! All the parents enjoyed a Starbucks coffee and every child also went home with a free Simon James book.
Farewell to Lesley
Lesley Simons, who has been the Bookstart Manager for Cheshire for several years, is stepping aside as Cheshire have appointed an individual to head up all the book-gifting initiatives so that Lesley can concentrate on her other responsibilities. May we wish a fond farewell and a big thank you for all her hard work and commitment to Bookstart over the years.