We are pleased to announce that our Creative English Family Learning programme, currently running in Dagenham, has been shortlisted for a British Council ELTons 2016 award for local innovation. This marks the second time that our innovative methods of help local families learn English has been recognised by the British Council in as many years!
The ELTons, short for English Language Teaching, are sponsored by Cambridge English and are the only international awards that recognise and celebrate innovation in this field. The Creative English Family Learning programme supports families to overcome the significant barrier that many participants — particularly women — face when needing to access English language provision.
The creator of the programme, FaithAction’s Dr Anne Smith, found that learning everyday English through fun play-based activities involving the whole family in a safe environment quickly builds trust and community between parents, children and the facilitators. Each session strengthens the relationship between parent and child through craft, role-play, story-telling and games that they partake in together. By focusing participants who would not normally engage with a child-centred activity, it creates a strong foundation in preparation for beginning school.
Dr Anne Smith said,
I really want to thank the ELTons for recognising this programme — it’s great to see adults and children growing in language confidence together on this course. We all benefit from learning through playing! It lays a great foundation for the families and their future schools too. Every Creative English programme is built on an ethos of making people feel included and having fun while learning, and Creative English Family Learning really does that.
Daniel Singleton, National Executive Director of FaithAction said,
We’re really pleased that Family Learning has been shortlisted. Learning the language is fundamental to everything in life — from achieving in school, to accessing local services such as GPs, or simply being able to ask for what you want in a shop! This course teaches language and skills that parents can use once their child goes to school and beyond.
The results of the awards will be announced in June.
For more information on the Family Learning programme, be sure to check out the Evaluation Report of a pilot scheme run by 5 organisations across the country in 2015.
