The course is written for mums along with their babies, who can be from particularly vulnerable groups, who are less likely to engage with services and support groups aimed at new parents, such as Children’s Centre activities, due to linguistic and cultural factors. As a result, parents from this particular demographic are in many cases unable to access vital information about parenting, health, and general child development. These mothers also have many barriers to overcome in order to attend standard English language courses such as lack of childcare, finance, and sometimes cultural expectations. At the same time they are expected to liaise with the wide range of contexts and settings associated with child rearing. They can also be vulnerable to social exclusion due to linguistic and financial barriers which can lead to a range of negative outcomes for the families. When the Project began there was no formal English language teaching provision available for this particular group and there was an urgent need to address this gap.
The pilot
The programme was piloted initially by staff in ten settings including school, community and cultural settings across Greater Manchester in Spring 2018. We are very grateful for the support of all the staff and volunteers in these settings for their feedback, enthusiasm and support.
The roll-out
The complete course is now available world-wide as a free download or to purchase as a beautiful hard copy ‘teach from the box’ pack.
The materials have been accessed by settings or areas more than two hundred times to date (November 2019).
Here is our map showing UK downloads and sales of hard copies June 2018 – November 2019.
Blue pins = free downloads | Purple pin = pilot settings |Orange pin = Purchases of hard copy packs
