Dr. Maria Danos (Lecturer in Early Childhood Education and Care) and Dr. Naomi Flynn (Associate Professor of Primary English Education) were recently interviewed by BBC Radio Berkshire about their upcoming events as part the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Festival of Social Science.
Dr. Danos’s event, titled ‘Working with parents: A holistic approach to fostering partnerships’, is due to take place on Tuesday 6th November (9:00-10:00 and 13:00-14:00). This invitation-only event will be co-led by Professor Carol Fuller.
When asked by the radio host what this event set out to achieve, Dr. Danos said: “What we’re really hoping to do is to share some of the learning we have gained from previous projects we have worked on [the 4Ps project and the Marvellous Mums project]. I have been working on the latter project with another colleague from the University of Reading, Professor Carol Fuller, and our work has been really focusing on finding out the more effective ways to work in partnership with parents specifically supporting them to develop their confidence and self-efficacy. What we want to do through this event is to share this knowledge and learning with other professionals who are working with parents, but also to learn from the as well. We are also hoping to get some of the mums that participated in our programme to share their own their own experiences, their own challenges and benefits from taking part in this project.”
Dr. Flynn’s event, titled ‘Multilingual Storytime’, is also due to take place on Tuesday 6th November (10:00-14:00) at Reading Central Library. The event will be co-led by Dr. Holly Joseph (Institute of Education) and Dr. Anna Wolleb (Bilingualism Matters).
Dr. Flynn said “Within Reading, we’ve got around 150 languages or so spoken, many of our school children in Reading are multilingual; this is why we’re putting on this wonderful event, ‘Multilingual Storytime’. It’s about making sure that those children who are multilingual get the opportunity to hear stories told in their own languages in their local library. We’re really excited about it!”
In this event, multilingual parents and students will read stories and lead fun story-based activities for young children in community languages. The event is open to multilingual and monolingual families and is a celebration of both the diversity of languages in Reading and the great research that goes on at The University of Reading. There will be drinks and refreshments for everyone and an opportunity to ask questions of experts from the University of Reading about how you can best support your child to speak and read in your home language.