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Hertfordshire Family Literacy Project
Laptops Link-up with Family Literacy: The Hertfordshire Experience
Laptops have been used in a creative and contextual way in the Hertfordshire Family Literacy Project. The Family Literacy team have introduced laptops to a major language community in Watford, namely the Urdu/Pahari community.
The main aims of the laptop initiatives are:
 | to provide training for parents to access software for enhancing the learning of their children. |
| to provide basic skills in English and community languages (as relevant) for parents to enable them to support and enhance the learning of their children. |
At one school in Watford, Urdu-Pahari speaking mums were introduced to the laptops. At first they felt daunted by this technology. After spending three sessions on the actual handling of the laptop and familiarising them with the terminology, (keyboard, icons, opening the file), the mums went into a hands-on session and enjoyed it very much. Subsequently, they progressed to make some colourful Eid cards, using Clipart.
In the preliminary consultation with the Family Literacy teacher, these mums expressed the need to improve their basic skills in English. This programme has just begun and proves to be doing well.
Another school has been using the laptop with the Urdu package to help the mums to record their myths and folklore in their mother tongue. Some of these mums have chosen to write their experiences of migration into Britain and their adaptation to the British way of life. These stories and experiences will feature in dual language texts which will be used for the literacy hour. The books will also be displayed in the school library.
Laptops have been an enriching source of family learning in some Watford schools where the Family Literacy Project has been implemented. Plans are under way to introduce laptops to the North and West Areas in Hertfordshire, later this year.
Mehdi Rehmtulla
Family Literacy Project Leader
EMAG Hertfordshire
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