How We Get Families Talking
Improving people’s lives through developing their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills.
Get Families Talking
Get Families Talking is an exciting new pilot project that empowers local Birmingham women, helping them find their voice and play an active role in their local communities.
Our Skills
The Our Skills course is delivered online and aims to strengthen relationships and the Home Learning Environment and build resilience.
Family SKILLS
The Family SKILLS programme focuses on parental engagement to improve the literacy skills of reception class pupils with EAL and their parents.
Amsty Gets Online
Amsty is a friendly, old computer who lives in a beautiful Victorian library, surrounded by all of his favourite books!
A beautifully written and illustrated child’s book supporting literacy, language and digital literacy development using storytelling.
#GetBalsallHeathReading
#GetBalsallHeathReading is a Nursery World Award winning project. A literacy campaign for isolated families aiming to improve parents’ skills in order to help them in turn support their children’s development, enhance their own social mobility and create a more integrated community.
English My Way
English My Way is a blended learning programme focused on supporting adults who have low English language skills, or none at all, to become a part of their local communities.
Get Families Talking Project
We are really pleased to announce the launch of our new Get Families Talking project!
Read the press release from Birmingham City Council here.
Get Families Talking is our pilot project empowering local Birmingham women to develop their English language skills. Delivered remotely, the project will allow space for both confidence and skills development in a holistic way helping women to find their voice and play an active role in their families and local communities and most importantly, for the conversations to continue after the sessions have concluded.
Our pilot is being launched on International Women’s Day. And like the theme of this years events, we hope we can all #ChooseToChallenge ourselves!
Read our poem to celebrate International Women’s Day.
Stay in touch by registering your details.
Themes: Early Years, Parental & Community Engagement, Language & literacy, Digital Skills
Our Skills
The new online Our Skills course is aimed at families needing additional help from a Social Worker.
Our Skills is developed to work with parents and carers of children in Reception and Year 1 to develop their skills, knowledge and confidence in supporting the child’s literacy; both at school and at home. The course includes;
- Tips on enjoying reading together
- Creating stories
- Playing games
- Having fun with sounds and words through songs, actions and rhymes
- Plus much more
Our Skills is delivered virtually making it easily accessible and safe for families to participate despite COVID restrictions.
Contact us for further details Click here
Themes: Early Years, Parental Engagement, Language & literacy, Digital Skills
Family SKILLS
Our Family SKILLS programme aims to improve the literacy and language skills of children learning English as an additional language (EAL).
Family SKILLS focuses on supporting parents of Reception-aged children (aged 4-5) and consists of 11 weekly sessions for parents. The programme delivered at the child’s school includes input just for parents, along with short joint parent/child activities as part of most sessions.
Sessions focus on the following topics;
- Making the most of bilingualism
- Oral traditions
- Home literacy practices
- Reading strategies
- Phonics
- Learning through play
- Primary education in England
You can read the Family SKILLS project evaluation.
Contact us for further details Click here
Themes: Early Years, Parental Engagement, Language & literacy
Amsty Gets Online
“A fun way to introduce families to digital technology.”
Councillor Ian Ward – Leader of Birmingham City Council
Amsty is a friendly, old computer who lives in a beautiful Victorian library, surrounded by all of his favourite books!
Kerry the librarian loves to look after him but Amsty really wishes he could make some more friends to go on adventures with. When the children come to the library though, they all want to use the shiny new laptops…Go on an exciting journey with Amsty as he explores the internet.
At Smartlyte, we are passionate about transforming people’s lives. Poor levels of literacy were hindering people’s progression in Balsall Heath where 1 in 3 adults had poor literacy levels compared to 1 in 6 nationally. Poor literacy impacts on people’s digital skills and their ability to access online services.
Welcome to Amsty! A beautifully written and illustrated children’s book that helps families understand the world of digital through a fun and engaging story. Our next book, Amsty meets Mr. Loan Shark will be available soon.
Amsty is available to buy as a full colour illustrated paperback through Amazon by clicking here.
Themes: Early Years, Parental Engagement, Language & literacy, Digital Skills, Children’s Books
#GetBalsallHeathReading
“An excellent initiative with life-enhancing skills gained.”
Nursery World Judge
Smartlyte were delighted when our project, #GetBalsallHeathReading, was selected as winners of the Nursery World Awards, 2018, for the category of Working with Parents.
The previous year we were runners up for the same award.
#GetBalsallHeathReading is a literacy campaign for isolated families aiming to improve parents’ skills in order to help them in turn support their children’s development, enhance their own social mobility and create a more integrated community.
Download the full article here
Read the article in Nursery World.
Read the write up in Asian Today newspaper
Themes: Early Years, Parental & Community Engagement, Language & literacy, Digital Skills
English My Way
English My Way is a blended learning programme focused on supporting adults who have low English language skills, or none at all, to become a part of their local communities.English My Way is delivered through a mix of tutor-led sessions, online learning and volunteer group activities.
The programme is designed to help learners develop skills and confidence in
- Reading
- Writing
- Listening
- Speaking English
Click here to read the impact of English My Way.
View the English My Way project infograph.
Read how English My Way supported our learner launch a career.
Read how English My Way strengthens our community work.
Themes: Early Years, Parental & Community Engagement, Language & literacy, Digital Skills
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