Raising Early Achievement in Literacy (REAL) Practitioner Case Study
· The TicTots Manager signed up to REAL Programme and offered all staff the opportunity to attend.
· Lucy is the nursery’s ‘opportunities and experiences champion’ and REAL sounded like something that would enhance her role.
· Lucy attended the 2-day REAL training.
· She met lots of professionals on the training that had lots of experience of home visits.
· Lucy felt less experienced in the world of home visits as she had never done them.
· Lucy said, “It felt like walking in blind”.
· Lucy completed the practitioner confidence questionnaire. She was still “not confident” about home visits.
· After the training, Lucy met with their manager and wondered, “where do we start?”
· They used the REAL paperwork and flowcharts.
· Lucy researched home visits, watched videos, and found out how other people do them.
· They identified bilingual and SEND children to visit to model strategies used at nursery.
· 1st visit was the hardest, even though Lucy knew the families very well.
· Lucy went on to complete 4 home visits for 3 children.
· She used the last hour of her working day to complete home visits.
· Lucy saw the children in the home environment doing things she had never seen them do in nursery.
· Lucy left resources with the families which they really liked.
· After the visits Lucy spoke to the children’s Keyperson to share her observations. They looked at intent, implementation, and impact of the home visits, and used this to plan children’s next steps.
· Two families who had received home visits attended the Community REAL Fun Day at the library.
· Lucy now feels “Very Confident” to deliver home visits. She is now the Nursery SENCO and plans to continue to use home visits to support early literacy.
Final words from Lucy: “The REAL training is a great opportunity for anybody working with children in the early years sector”