Earlier this year, children in Primary 2 and Primary received their Read, Write, Count packs. The Read, Write, Count packs have been designed to promote enjoyment and family engagement through books and games.

The Scottish Book Trust are offering an online twilight session for Primary 2 and Primary 3 teachers on ‘Enhancing Family Engagement with Read, Write, Count’. This will take place on Thursday 14th March 2019, 3.45pm – 5pm.

This session will show you how you can build on the gifting of your Read, Write Count bags through fun, flexible workshops for families. The Scottish Book Trust will explore the role of Read, Write, Count in family engagement and overall school improvement, discuss how to organise workshops to best suit the families you work with and provide a range of activity suggestions and resources for you to use.

CLICK HERE to find out more and apply for a place

The Emerging Literacy Update from February 2019 includes information on:

• The February/ March 2019 Emerging Literacy Networks
• The content debrief at the January 2019 Emerging Literacy Buddy Network.

CLICK HERE – Emerging Literacy Update February 2019

Illustrator Sav Akyuz of ‘I Am Bear and Bear Moves’ will be on Authors Live on Thursday 21st February, 11am – 11.40am.

Authors Live sessions can be watched live, or can be accessed in the Watch on Demand section of the Scottish Book Trust website.

CLICK HERE – SIGN UP AUTHORS LIVE: SAV AKYUZ

Date: Tuesday 21st February 2019
Time: 11am – 11.40am
Target Audience: S1 – S6

Please note that the link to watch is emailed to you manually by one of the Scottish Book Trust team. As this is not an automatic process, please sign up to watch as soon as you can so that they can get your link to you in plenty of time.

Play Scotland has a number of Messy and Creative Play guides. There are some great suggestions on how adults and children can play and talk together to develop children’s language and motor development.

CLICK HERE – Play Scotland – Mess and Creative Play

Dyslexia Scotland are running the following event in Inverness on Monday 25th February 2019, 7pm-9pm in Kinmylies Primary School, Inverness.

Keep Scotland Beautiful have an exciting competition that could be developed as part of an interdisciplinary literacy and social studies context, whilst developing real purpose and audience through writing.

“We want to hear from you! Whether it’s through film, photography or writing, we want to hear and share with others, your voice about environmental and sustainability issues that affect you and your local community.”

The competition is running until the end of February.

CLICK HERE to find out more

Futurelearn offers a number of free online courses across a range of of subject areas.

This week they have started a short two week course on Teaching Phonics in Early Childhood that aims to explore the importance of phonological awareness and the early teaching of phonics. The courses are designed to promote reflection.

CLICK HERE to sign up and find out more

Scottish Book Trust’s new planning and evaluation toolkit, aligned with ‘How Good is Our School? 4‘, can help you evaluate the work you are already doing to build a reading culture in your school. If you haven’t yet registered for the First Minister’s Reading Challenge this year, sign up today for access this new resource (and many more).

The National Improvement Hub also contains further information for schools.

There are two surveys – one for teachers and one for families of P2 and P3 children that have received the Read, Write, Count packs earlier this session.

Teacher Survey: Fill in the survey to enter a prize draw. Teachers can win a fun Read Write Count SUPERBOX with games, books and resources. The deadline to complete this is Monday 4 March 2019.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/PNJHFJM

Family Survey: The prize draw for parents is a personal Read Write Count GOODIE BAG filled with books, games and activities for all the family to enjoy. The deadline to complete this is Monday 4 March 2019.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/PXCWGJ2

National Storytelling Week takes place between Saturday 26th of January 2019 and Saturday 2nd February 2019. However, the ‘coat tails’ which runs the four days previous and four days following the week amounts to over two weeks of storytelling.

The Society for Storytelling have a number of resources available for schools, youth groups and communities to get involved by telling stories.

CLICK HERE – Society for Storytelling