Two St Albans staff members holding a certificate

Making it REAL

At St Albans, a number of families participated in the Making it REAL programme alongside our parent workshop series, “Seeing the REAL World Through the Eyes of a Child.”

The project focused on supporting children’s literacy development through meaningful experiences at home, helping parents recognise and build on the learning opportunities that already exist in everyday family life.

Young boy reading a book outdoors

Building Parent Confidence

Before taking part in the programme:

· 25% of parents reported feeling not confident at all in supporting their child’s literacy development.
· 75% reported feeling only a little confident.

Following the programme:

· 100% of parents reported feeling confident in supporting their child’s learning at home.
· 50% felt confident.
· 50% felt very confident.

This demonstrates the positive impact the project had on empowering parents to support their children’s learning through everyday experiences.

The pre and post data from this project demonstrated

Impact at a Glance

Language: Exceeding increased from 16.5% to 63%
Environmental Print: Expected or Above increased from 14% to 66%
Songs and Rhymes: Exceeding increased from 17% to 34%
Books: Exceeding increased from 10% to 70%
Early Writing: Exceeding increased from 2% to 36%

Overall Impact

The Making it REAL programme had a significant impact on children’s literacy development.

Key Achievements

• Significant reductions in the number of children assessed as Emerging
• Increases in the number of children achieving Expected and Exceeding outcomes

Outstanding progress in:

• Language (+46.5 percentage points at Exceeding)
• Books (+60 percentage points at Exceeding)
• Early Writing (+34 percentage points at Exceeding)

The majority of children were working at Expected or Exceeding levels by the end of the programme, demonstrating substantial gains in communication, literacy, and confidence.

Parent Workshops

The workshops provided a friendly and supportive space for parents to share ideas, learn together and celebrate their children’s development.

Topics explored included:

· Early literacy and everyday learning opportunities
· Creating a positive home learning environment
· Understanding child development and seeing the world from your child’s perspective