The notes provided in this presentation are intended to provide clarity to the information on the slides. The notes and the slides are by no means prescriptive and can be adapted as you wish.

Read, Write, Count a campaign to provide advice and materials to families to help raise attainment for all and to close the attainment gap www.readwritecount.scot Read, Write, Count is a campaign by the Scottish Government, supported by Scottish Book Trust and Education Scotland. It focuses on the importance of families, parents and carers in children’s education and aims to give advice and materials to help families get involved in their children’s learning. Research tells us that if parents are involved in their child’s learning, their child does better in school. That applies to all parents – it doesn’t matter who they are or where they are from. Read, Write, Count aims to contribute to two high-priority aims for education: raising attainment for all and closing the attainment gap.

Parental involvement matters “A rich home learning environment can improve cognitive development for all children, regardless of their socio-economic background” Tackling Inequalities in the Early Years: Key messages from 10 years of the Growing Up in Scotland study (2015) “Parental involvement has a positive effect on children’s achievement even when the influence of background factors such as social class and family size have been taken into account.” UK Department for Children, Schools and Families (2008) “Family engagement in school has a bigger influence on a pupil’s achievement than socio-economic background, parents’ education level, family structure and ethnicity.” Engaging with Families, review of research www.engagingwithfamilies.co.uk The gap is well-evidenced. But we also know how important parents are. There are many sources of evidence which tell us that parental involvement in learning has the potential to have a big impact on children’s learning. That evidence also tells us that effective parental involvement matters more than who those parents are or where they are from.

Read, Write, Count background RWC builds on similar programmes in the Early Years, such as Bookbug and PlayTalkRead Research shows the attainment gap can be narrowed by supporting parental engagement in learning, across all socio-economic groups The focus is on family engagement – outwith formal schooling Build a stronger bridge between home and school Read, Write, Count takes all that evidence into account and is designed specifically to help parents to get involved in their child’s learning. There are other programmes which have similar aims, such as Bookbug and PlayTalkRead, so we have strong foundations to build on. Read, Write, Count focuses on helping parents to support their children’s learning in fun and everyday ways and therefore to help build bridges between home and school.

Read, Write, Count aims to Help parents and carers to be confident enough to be involved in their child’s learning Help parents and carers to understand why they are important in their child’s learning and how to get involved Increase people’s use of their local library Help to close the attainment gap between the most and least advantaged children in Scotland Everyone wants the best for their children but sometimes they don’t know how to get involved, or worry that they’ll do harm if they get involved. Read, Write, Count aims to build parents’ confidence, showing them they do have a role to play and giving them the tools they need to get involved. We also want people to make use of their local libraries, where there are lots of books and other resources which parents and children can use together.

Read, Write, Count elements (1) Social marketing – website, advertising, social media, PR, working with partners (public / private / third sector) Focuses on giving advice on little ways to include learning in everyday life, for example, counting out money at the shops, reading bedtime stories and writing shopping lists Emphasis is on idea that small things make a big difference Libraries – promoting libraries as a space for family learning and encouraging membership Read, Write, Count is a big campaign. It has a number of different elements. The first is social marketing – this includes a website, outdoor advertising, TV advertising, articles in newspapers and social media. These are all about reaching parents and showing them the little things they can do every day to help their child to learn. The focus is on the idea that small things make a big difference – it’s not suggesting parents should be teachers. You might have seen TV adverts in January and February 2016, or adverts at ASDA supermarkets. The second element is libraries – Read, Write, Count wants to promote libraries as a space for family learning and encourages library membership. In Feburary 2016, “Read, Write, Count in Libraries” launched with all libraries being sent resource packs and some libraries receiving funds for books for the P1 – P3 age range.

Read, Write, Count elements (2) Gifting – free bag of books and materials to P1, P2 and P3 children P1 bag builds on Bookbug P1 Family Bag P2 and P3 bags are brand-new RWC bags Focus on supporting parents to use the bags to get involved with their child’s learning The third element is gifting. This is where schools play their role in Read, Write, Count. All P1, P2 and P3 children will receive free gift bags. The P1 bag has been running for a while (as Bookbug). That will continue, but there are additional items added to the bags to help support reading and writing. P2 and P3 bags are brand new, specifically produced for the Read, Write, Count campaign.

Read, Write, Count gift bags Free gift bags to all Primary 1, 2 and 3 children in Scotland Delivered to schools in Sept/Oct/Nov 2016 Containing books and materials for writing and counting With information for parents and carers on how to use the bags with their children Resources and activities designed to be age- and stage-appropriate and fun The bags will be delivered to schools, who have the responsibility of gifting them to children, as is currently done with the P1 bag. The deliveries will be made in September, October and November 2017. The bags will contain books and materials for writing and counting, as well as information for parents on how to use the bags with their children. The bags and their contents have been specially designed to make sure they are appropriate for the children they are being gifted to and tie in with the learning children of these ages are undertaking in school. But, the focus is on parents and children using the bags together at home. The activities are designed to be fun and easy for parents to facilitate.

Bookbug Primary 1 Family Bag Still centres around Bookbug Picture Book Prize (was Scottish Children’s Book Awards) As normal but with RWC elements added to bags: Three picture books Voting slip Activity book Coloured pencils Whiteboard, magnetic numbers with dot patterns and whiteboard pen Delivered separately from P2 and P3 RWC bags The Primary 1 bags are still Bookbug bags, and they still focus on children voting for their favourite book from the bag. This used to be called the Scottish Children’s Book Awards but is now called the Bookbug Picture Book Prize. For more information about this, please visit Scottish Book Trust’s website (www.scottishbooktrust.com). The books in the P1 bag will be those shortlisted for the Prize and the focus is still for children to read the books and to vote for their favourite (using the voting slip provided), with the winners being announced in January. The P1 bags have been enhanced with extra items for RWC – so there will be a whiteboard, magnetic numbers with dot patterns and a whiteboard pen to help with writing and counting activities. The P1 bags in 2015/2016 contained a whiteboard and pens – and there has been lots of positive feedback about that. The P1 bags are delivered separately from the P2 and P3 bags.

Primary 2 Bag Two picture books Snakes and Ladders board game with Maths Maze on reverse Finger puppets Notebook and writing pencil Guide for parents The Primary 2 bag is slightly different from the Primary 1 bag. It doesn’t link to the Bookbug Picture Book Prize, but it still has two great picture books in it. Inside the Primary 2 bags, there are: Two picture books – these are books with lots of beautiful pictures for parents and children to enjoy reading together. A snakes and ladders board game (with maths maze on the back) – playing these games together will help children’s counting skills. The snakes and ladders can also be used as a number board. Finger puppets to be used for storytelling, half ruled and half blank notebook and writing pencil– these are all designed to give ideas for fun ways to help children develop their writing skills The parent guide – giving parents everything they need to use the bags

Primary 3 Bags Two picture books Tropical Triumph card game with Dominoes on reverse Storytelling cubes Notebook and writing pencil Guide for parents The Primary 3 bag is slightly different from the Primary 1 bag. It doesn’t link to the Scottish Children’s Book Awards, but it still has two great picture books in it. Inside the Primary 3 bags, there are: Two picture books – these are books with lots of beautiful pictures for parents and children to enjoy reading together. Above and below is a non-fiction text. Tropical Triumph and dominoes card games – will help with comparisons, multiplication, subtraction, weight and measurement skills Three storytelling cubes, Half ruled, half blank notebook with writing pencil - these are all designed to give parents ideas for fun ways to help children develop their writing skills The parent guide – giving parents everything they need to use the bags

Read, Write, Count Resources Advice and support for teachers (presentations, template letters and gifting advice) Resources for teachers to use to support engagement throughout the year and make bag contents accessible for families P2 and P3 resource packs include: Guide to the bag contents with classroom and home learning activities Supporting activity templates Activity card for each item in the bags ‘If You Only Do One Thing’ activity suggestions for parents www.scottishbooktrust.com/readwritecount Read, Write, Count bags are supported by advice, support and resources for teachers. These include: Information about the contents of each bag Adaptable presentations to use with staff and parents to explain the campaign Template letters which can be adapted and sent home to inform parents Advice on gifting Read, Write, Count bags with a case study from a Fife primary school A bespoke resource pack for each of the P2 and P3 bags Designed to support teachers in engaging with the contents of the Read, Write, Count bags in the classroom and through home-school learning opportunities throughout the year; knowing that every child has access to these fantastic resources makes a big difference. There is a teacher’s guide to the contents of each bag with suggestions for using the resources as a context for learning in the classroom, including fun home-learning activity ideas with supporting templates. Some teachers may want to gift the items in the bags separately in order to make them more accessible to families. To support this, there is an activity card for each item, along with an “If You Only Do One Thing’ suggestion for families to engage with.

Gifting Read, Write, Count Bags Children are entitled to their Read, Write, Count Bags Focus is on parental engagement Bags should be gifted during Book Week Scotland in November (the same as P1) There are some excellent case studies on how to do this in class, as a whole school or local authority approach on our website www.scottishbooktrust.com/readwritecount A key message is that children are entitled to their gift bags. For Read, Write, Count, the focus is on parental engagement – how schools gift the bags and how they support parents to get involved is crucial. As with P1, it is recommended that the bags be gifted Book Week Scotland (21 – 27 November 2016). This is a great week of events, giving a great opportunity to make gifting special.

Discussion What can you do in your school/local authority to help Read, Write, Count achieve its aims? How can you use the bags to engage with parents? How will you gift the bags to children and parents? Schools play a hugely important role in Read, Write, Count. They are responsible for ensuring children receive their bags and can have a big impact on how successfully those bags are used at home to support children’s learning. These discussion questions will help you work out how you could use the bags in work you are already undertaking around parental engagement or how you could use them as an opportunity to do more. Answering these questions will give you what you need to make sure Read, Write, Count has the biggest impact possible. Thank you. For more information for teachers about Read, Write, Count bags, visit www.scottishbooktrust.com/readwritecount.

Thank you www.scottishbooktrust.com/readwritecount readwritecount@scottishbooktrust.com Thank you for helping to deliver Read, Write, Count. For more information about Read, Write, Count bags, visit www.scottishbooktrust.com/readwritecount or email us at readwritecount@scottishbooktrust.com.