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BLT BLOG 44 - July 2011
We have lots of news to share with you...
Let's start with Little Learners:
The 'Little Learners' who meet at the Hope Centre, Johnson Fold every Tuesday during termtime recently enjoyed a wonderful morning in the sunshine at Moss Bank Park. A group of over thirty mums, dads, carers, toddlers, babies and grandparents took part in a Pirate Picnic. Everyone enjoyed listening to 'The Night Pirates', a story of a group of girl pirates and their adventures, by Peter Harris and Deborah Allwright. We all sang pirate songs wearing our pirate hats and eye patches we'd made the week before and Oliver won the treasure hunt (he won a bucket and spade to dig for his own treasure)! The picnic ended with ball games and bean bags - lots of fun was had by all!
Click HERE to view some lovely photos.
The 'Little Learners' sessions re-start on Tuesday 13 September, 9.45 - 11.30 am - if you have a pre-school child and live in Johnson Fold, do come and join us for lots of fun activities, stories and games to help your child to learn.
Question...Why are pirates called pirates?
Answer...Because they "Argh!"
BLT BLOG 43 - March 2011
Greetings one and all!
What a busy week it's been here at BLT. Team members and volunteers have been working hard on a range of projects. Here's a taste of our week...
Mums and tots worked on making their own special story-sacks at the Johnson Fold Tuesday morning drop-in session - view a photo of this in action by clicking here
Mums at St Peter's Smithills Dean completed their Share Family Learning Course. One parent commented on how much she appreciated some of the ideas she had explored with the BLT tutor. Who would have thought that an Oscar box (a cardboard box decorated to look like a monster into which mum secretly puts a message e.g. "Please put you pyjamas away!" or "Fill me with things that are blue!") could improve family relations so much in just a week.
Community members have been improving their English language during ESOL at 2 classes in Rumworth and 3 at Great Lever Family Learning Centre.
The community cohesion project came to an end. This project involved BLT working in schools in Great Lever delivering workshops that explored discrimination and culminated in poetry writing. Some fabulous poetry was produced and a commemorative booklet created which has been delivered into the schools involved. Here's an example poem from the booklet:
Equality
E veryone be kind.
Q uality friends don't discriminate,
U nderstand people the way they are.
A ccept other people no matter what differences they have.
L ike and care for others,
I nside is what matters.
T reat people the same;
Y ou should respect everyone.
By Class 5K at Lever Edge Primary School
A staff member did some reading activities with children at St Ethelbert's Primary school. What a lovely class they have been. It brought some funny moments too. "Do you know what somersault means" my colleague asked the children. Independently, five out of six children replied along the lines of, "it's for when you have a picnic in the summertime and your food needs salt."
Parents at High Lawn School joined in with a healthy families course learning about keeping families safe, fit and healthy.
Parents at St Simon and St Jude School joined in with a parenting class - exploring strategies for this very difficult job!
Volunteers facilitated IT classes and drop-ins, knitting sessions and reading circles on the Trust's behalf - have you see, by the way, all the "knitting the royal wedding" that are going on at the moment? Google it! There are some funny examples!
Good news...BLT has been commissioned to work in primary schools in Great Lever again over the next couple of terms. Look out for us delivering courses such as crafts, ESOL, IT, Reading and lots more from May onwards. Thank you to Bolton Council's Every Child Matters partnership for selecting our project amongst those chosen for this area.
Website recommendation for this week: Help For Me - a directory of services in Bolton.
BLT BLOG 42 - March 2011
Well, another half term is over and here we are in the run up to Easter with plenty of things going on for our local community.
Good news...We've finished our community mural and it's up on the wall - check out the picture here and thank you so much to all the community members who contributed.
Fancy a spot of painting? Why not come along to our workshop pn Monday afternoon (7th March) where we will have glass or fabric painting on offer - all for free with a free item to take home at the end of the session. If you fancy it, it's on from 1 until 2pm on Monday.
It's been World Book Day this week - have you marked the occassion? My son went off to school today looking dashing dressed as Prince Charming from Cinderella! There was a strict 'Fairy Tale or Legend' character rule to stamp out the Power Rangers and Hannah Montannah's that have populated this special day in recent years in an attempt to try to keep book day as book day and mark special stories rather than TV characters who have evolved into books. What's your opinion of this? I'm sure I spotted a Spiderman sneeking into year 1 this morning?!
What about this weekend's Million Book giveaway that's on TV this weekend. Click HERE for more details. It looks good for any book lover - maybe you could pick up a recommendation. If any title grabs your attention, we may even have it for sale in our Amazon shop - you could check that out by clicking here! If you could recommend only one book tomorrow, what would it be?
Have you heard about the 2011 Census? From this Friday, the UK Census will be available to fill in online for the very first time. Why not be one of the first to fill it in online! Click here!
Fancy trying your hand at writing a play? Why not check out the Bruntwood playwriting competition - click here for details.
Would you link with us on Facebook? If you're on Facebook, you can link with BLT by searching for Bolton LiteracyTrust and with GLUG by searching for Great-Lever-User-Group.
Bye for now!
BLT BLOG 41 - February 2011
If you have any children under 13, may we take this opportunity to point you towards radio 2's 500 word writing competition.
As part of the BBC Year of Books, the Chris Evans Breakfast Show wants to get the children of the UK firing up their imaginations and putting pen to paper, chisel to stone, quill to parchment, or just finger to keyboard.
For more details, click HERE
BLT BLOG 40 - January 2011
A belated Happy New Year to one and all!
It's been a busy start to the year here at Bolton Literacy Trust. We're working in schools, delivering at the Great Lever Family Learning Centre, keeping our eye on charitable funds available, working in health clinics and UCAN centres and all working very hard! Well done us! Sometimes, it's good to pat yourself on the back.
The community quiz that GLUG facilitated yesterday went very well. Congratulations to Marion (clever cloggs) McEwing who won! see photo by clicking this link .
Don't forget to check out our current classes by clicking here . We have a free level 2 food hygiene course on Monday 14th February if you're interested!
BLT BLOG 39 - December 2010
What a jam-packed term it's been here at Bolton Literacy Trust.
We finished the term with a community craft afternoon (hosted by Great Lever User Group) which resulted in a wonderful mosaic which will go on display in the Great Lever Family Learning Centre in the New Year. Click HERE to see some photos of the work in progress!
A special thank you to all our volunteers - Jane, Tina, Prem, Aysha, Saima, Pauline, Eileen, Vina and Fatima - we couldn't keep the term going without you.
Our sessions start again on Monday 10th January 2011 and the new timetable of activities and times of activities at the Great Lever Family Learning Centre can be found HERE!
To those who are celebrating, may we take this opportunity to wish you a very Happy Christmas! Be safe, have fun and look after each other. With the weather forecast, you never know, we might be in for a white one!
Website recommendation of the week - a fantastic site which enables you to create a super personalised video message from Santa for your children/loved ones/work colleagues! Portable North Pole
BLT BLOG 38 - December 2010
This week I would like to say a huge WELL DONE to all the ladies who have completed their basic IT course at Clarendon School. From learning about Google and emailing to learning why it is important to keep children safe online and learning how to make fancy-looking posters, the ladies have done superbly - some having never used a computer at all before!!! Check out a couple of photos here! We finished the course with a lovely celebration which included an ICT-based game, certificates and some yummy food the ladies had all prepared freshly. Thank you!
Sandra has been busy with all the other staff and volunteers at the Hope Centre in Johnson Fold. From nature walks to a visit from professional poet (and Literacy Trust patron - Terry Caffrey) to a visit from the owls from Smithills farm photo here! and a workshop with a professional puppeteer - it's been a hive of activity recently. This week, the parents made their own puppets using socks and wooden spoons! If you or someone you know has pre-school children and can get to Johnson Fold on a Tuesday morning from 10am, you will be made most welcome, meet lots of new friends and have bags of fun!
Ever fancied a spot of handicraft? Well our knitting circle is still running and ever popular. The group meets on a Thursday morning at the Nightingale Centre (off Rishton Lane, Great Lever). You can learn to knit, get ideas for patterns, help others and meet new friends. The ladies have recently begun to sell some of their wares and made £100 at a recent sale of work at the Castle Hill Centre - well done ladies!
If knitting's not your thing, what about sewing? Our super facilitator can help you alter clothes, jazz up old ones, make new items, hand sew and use a machine. It's a session not to be missed. It takes place on a Thursday at the Great Lever Family Learning Centre.
The Great Lever User Group (GLUG) met at St Simon & Jude's new community room on Monday (29th November). It's a lovely new space for community groups and parents to meet. GLUG is always looking for new members who would like to help to get Great Lever ideas and projects off the ground. GLUG is currently providing IT, ESOL, sewing, reading and craft workshops in the local area with funding from NLDC. Call Jen on 01204 332760 if you are interested in joining us.
Interested in local history? Website recommendation of the week: Great Lever and Morris Green Local History Group - click to view the site.
BLT BLOG 37 - November 2010
In this blog I will take the opportunity to say a huge thank you to the BIG LOTTERY. Over the past three years, BLT has received funding from the Big Lottery to run a 'family learning' project. This money has enabled us to do the following and much more.
Parent and toddler activities:
- Little Learners
- Words and Pictures
- ESOL for families
- Museum family learning
Whole families activities
- Fun in the Park
- Join Us (funded trips)
- Family holiday activities
- Book festivals
- Story-telling
Older children with parents/carers
- Teach IT me
- Share
- Healthy Families
- Holding Hands (ESOL project)
Babies and carers
- Books 4 Babies
- Tickle and Bounce
We have worked in a range of venues over the past three years including across Bolton and with a range of partners - making lots of great friends, practitioners and contacts along the way.
The essence of this particular project has been that parents/carers have worked with their child/children. Bonds have been made / reinforced, role modelling has taken place and communication and self-esteem have had the opportunity to improve.
It is sad that this project has had to come to an end but we are celebrating by evaluating our project as wholly successful! We have seen some superb outcomes in terms of the numbers of families we have engaged over the term of the project (over 600) but, moreover, we have witnessed real changes taking place in the families with whom we have worked: self-confidence increasing, a love of literacy developing and communication between parents and their children improving just for starters.
To celebrate the project, a short video of a selection of photos from some of this year's family learning activities has been uploaded to You Tube. Do click here if you are interested in viewing it.
Website recommendation for the week: BIG LOTTERY FUND
BLT BLOG 36 - November 2010
Learning never stops. We had a lady of almost 90 years old in our centre participating in a sewing session this week. She could teach us a thing or two - I have no doubt about that! But how wonderful that she still wants to learn in her golden years - I do hope I feel the same at her age - if I get there!!
I feel a bit of a reflection coming on, do join me...
What did you learn this week?
I learned how to use a sewing machine. I made my son an apron to use when he's baking and impressed myself. Of course, this was in no small part down to the fact that I had a super tutor and was also helped by a brilliant volunteer but, nevertheless, I learned how to use the foot pedal, raise and lower the needle, back-stick and more!
So I ask again, what did you learn this week?
Who did you help this week?
I helped parents at Clarendon Primary school to learn about internet safety - from secure online payments to keeping children safe online and protecting personal details - they all told me they'd learned something.
How about you, who did you help this week?
Who helped you this week?
BLT was fortunate enough to have a great young lady - Anna - on work experience at our centre in Great Lever this week. Anna helped me to get a few jobs done that otherwise would have been pushed into next week. A whizz on a computer, she created a flyer for an upcoming course and a booklet for some story-sacks - thanks Anna.
Who's helped you?
What was your favourite part of this week?
I watched my son in his school assembly and brimmed with pride. He delivered his lines with such gusto, remembering each word! He sang the songs characteristically loudly along with his classmates and beamed at me the whole way through it.
Over to you...what was your favourite moment this week?
And finally, what might you have done better or differently this week?
I suppose this could be a little more private; involve a bit more soul searching perhaps? Personally, I could have kept in touch with people better - friends, sisters, brother, parents... things have been a little hectic this week and calls might not have been returned as they should have. The good thing about this kind of observation of my week is that I can certainly do something about it! So excuse me as I make a phone call and I'll catch up with you again soon.
Website recommendation of the week: Poppy appeal
BLT BLOG 35 - November 2010
Hello!
I have a host of celebrations to mention at this time of year. First of all, if you are celebrating bonfire night or Diwali, have a happy time and keep safe - especially with your fireworks. Why not reinforce the firework code with your children if you have any...
Firework code
1. Plan your firework display to make it safe and enjoyable.
2. Keep fireworks in a closed box and use them one at a time.
3. Read and follow the instructions on each firework using a torch if necessary.
4. Light the firework at arm's length with a taper and stand well back.
5. Keep naked flames, including cigarettes, away from fireworks.
6. Never return to a firework once it has been lit.
7. Don't put fireworks in pockets and never throw them.
8. Direct any rocket fireworks well away from spectators.
9. Never use paraffin or petrol on a bonfire.
10. Make sure that the fire is out and surroundings are made safe before leaving.
You could hold a family competition to see who can make the best firework safety poster...
For further information about Diwali, click this link: Diwali
If you or your children would like to find out more behind the history of Bonfire Night, why not try this link: Guy Fawkes
For those of you celebrating Eid on 16th and 17th November, we hope you have a peaceful and joyous time.
For those of you who would like to know more about Eid Al-Adha and what itmeans to Muslims, this site gives good information. Find out about Eid Al-Adha
Now that the days are drawing in and darkness is upon us before teatime, why don't you try a new indoor relaxing hobby? May I recommend sewing and embroidery? At the family learning centre, we are holding a taster workshop on Monday 8th November 2010 from 1pm until 2.30pm. You can make yourself or your loved something special - all equipment and materials will be provided and it's all FREE! If you enjoy yourself, you might like to try the weekly sessions on Thursday afternoons where sewing machines can be used and a range of projects can be worked on at your own pace.
How about making some treacle toffee this weekend?
Ingredients:
450g brown cane sugar
450g black treacle
25g butter
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Method:
Put the treacle into a saucepan with the sugar and butter, and heat gently until melted. Then bring to the boil and stir until it breaks crisp when tested in cold water. (drop a small piece into the water and if it holds its shape completely then it is ready).
Flavour with the vanilla, pour into a greased tin and break into pieces when cold.
And how about this...your own safe virtual firework display... click here . It's very cool!!
Enjoy!
BLT BLOG 34 - October 2010
I assume you are IT-literate if you're reading this BLOG. I guess you have access to a computer, you can get online and you can type. Maybe you use a computer every day during your work or you use one for your studies or maybe for your pleasure and hobbies at home - playing online games, social networking, researching family history, writing... Perhaps you use a computer to email family and friends, send digital photos of holidays or apply for jobs or competitions. You're lucky!
A lot of people are very worried about 'getting online' and have never used a computer. They maybe don't have a computer at home or are frightened of joining a beginners' class.
Will you be our ambassador? Next week is Get Online Week. The aim of the week across the country is to give novice computer users a taste of what a computer can be used for in an attempt to get them online - saving time, money and hassle. We have a few special times set out for this - Monday 18th October 1pm until 2.30pm at the Great Lever Family Learning Centre being our main event. However, we always have beginners IT classes running and, if they're full, we add people to a waiting list so they don't have too long to wait. Our IT sessions are free and our staff and volunteers are patient.
The BBC is also running a promotion 'First Click'. If you click on this link: First Click you can watch a short and interesting encouraging video.
Website recommendation for this week: Mood Boosting Books.
BLT BLOG 33 - October 2010
From fancying up frocks to hemming trousers at our sewing session; from platting Greek bread to savouring wonderful smells in cookery and learning new songs in our toddler group, this week has been a fascinating week at the Great Lever Family Learning Centre.
As well as in our centre in Great Lever, we've been out and about at this week at the new Breightmet UCAN centre (New Lane) delivering Online Basics as well as at Little Lever Children's centre delivering 'Books for Babies'. We can say with pride that we've met a great deal of interesting Boltonians.
Do you fancy gaining a qualification? We have begun to deliver AQAs at our centre in Great Lever. These are qualifications in a range of areas from manual handling to hair & beauty - all concluding in the achievement of a nationally recognised certificate - a great addition to any CV. Why not call us to find out more.
Website recommendation of this week: Best of Bolton
BLT BLOG 32 - September 2010
It has been a great week for BLT in our quest for enticing new volunteers to join us and we are delighted to welcome Saima, Fatima, Amy, Joe, Corrina and Jane to our team. From helping on the reception desk at our centre in Great Lever to offering baby-sitting services; from assisting in sewing classes to supporting our on-going book appeal, our new volunteers will make a world of difference to our charity by donating their time to us. Thank you!
Our sessions in the Great Lever community have begun in earnest this week with people enjoying IT, English, sewing, cookery and local history. We have a baby-sitting service available for students attending the Wednesday morning ESOL class from next week which will be great for all those parents who want to attend a class but have childcare to think about.
If you know any families with under-5s who are looking for activities to do on a Monday morning, why not point them towards our fun family session. It's always good for parents and children to get out, socialise and learn new skills. Our session includes music, craft, stories and a healthy snack. Click here for further information about our weekly timetable.
A really productive GLUG meeting took place at the Great Lever Family Learning Centre this week. Great Lever User Group are considering putting in a bid for funds to facilitate a local history project in the area. If you're interested in getting involved as an individual or an organisation, get in touch. Click here for contact details.
Next week we're starting an IT class at Breightmet UCAN. This will be mainly aimed at people new to the internet and everyone is welcome to attend.
Website recommendation for this week: www-time-to-read.co.uk
TTFN
BLT BLOG 31 - September 2010
I would like to begin this blog by welcoming Sam to our team. Sam will be the Trust's admin assistant and has already begun the crucial task of getting our office and paperwork into order. Sam has plenty of other skills and talents, however, so don't be surprised if you see her leading parent & toddler or IT sessions in our Great Lever centre and outreach venues.
The start of our term at the centre is Monday 20th September. We're excited about meeting new people and catching up with old friends. Our local history guru Bert has been out leafleting the local area so locals know what's on offer this term and already some have been in to sign up.
Are you ready for something new?
Why not try your hand at sewing - can you alter your own dresses or hem your trousers?
Can you cook Mediterranean foods? Why not come along to cookery to have a go and learn about which spices compliment different foods.
Can you send an email? Why not come along to a computer drop-in session and learn all about getting online?
From parent & toddler sessions to ESOL to local history, whatever your pleasure, why not come along to Great Lever Family Learning Centre and join us this Autumn? View the full timetable by clicking here
We've been on Bolton FM this week publicising our book appeal which is an on-going concern for BLT. If you have any books you no longer need, please think about donating them to us.
We've also worked in Heathfield primary school this week delivering workshops about combating discrimination - the children came up with some fantastic poetry and, to finish this week's blog, I'll leave you with a brilliant acrostic poem entitled 'Accept All' written by year three from the school.
Accept All
Are you someone who judges others?
Colours and clothes don't matter.
Can you be polite to all people?
Everyone is equal,
Peace in the world,
Think about others.
Always respect others,
Love everybody,
Learn to accept.
BLT BLOG 30 - September 2010
The Summer has passed qucikly and here we are in September once more.
What will this new academic year mean to you? Are your children starting nursery, school, college, uni? Are you making a new start with something - a community learning course, a degree, a new job, a new venture?
Whatever it is, good luck.
At Great Lever Family Learning Centre, we will commence courses on Friday 17th September. The timetable will be finalised next week and publicised on this website as well as locally in Great Lever, so, if you are interested, please keep an eye out.