Early Years

Communication and language

Photograph of a boy holding a book bag (containing books for taking home).

Book bags promote home/nursery/school links

Maryhill Park Nursery School worked with parents to develop early literacy and a love of books.

Thumbnail image of paper fairy

Using Storyline for early literacy

Find out how the Storyline approach can be used to develop language and literacy skills in context.

Photo of boy holding up conkers

A wonderful welly walk in the woods

Glen Family Centre went on a wet weather walk and produced a group poem about the experience.

Photograph of hands on a computer keyboard

Creating a talking book

Using a digital camera and PowerPoint to promote early literacy skills.

Photograph of a baby leaning on picture books

Managing a story sack library

Cath Webster involved parents in creating a story sack library to motivate and inspire children.

Boy in parka jacket

Supporting bilingual children

Using ICT to promote early literacy skills and improve communication with multilingual families.

Sign for Glasgow Transport Museum

Using movies to talk about past experiences

Video helped to prompt children's memories and supported discussion about a recent excursion.

Girl with serious expression

Welcoming bilingual children

ICT can be used to ease the transition from home to nursery for children whose first language is not English.

Smiling boy

Developing language through play

Victoria Primary/Nursery Class used play to develop language skills in children whose first language was not English.

Photograph of a girl playing a game in which she pretends to eat a meal

A Basque model of learning through play

St Timothy's Primary used the Amara Berri methodology to deliver the curriculum in P1.

Thumbnail photo of Margaret Layden, project co-ordinator of Playbusters

Learning modern languages in the community

How the Playbusters project in Glasgow has helped parents and young children to learn Spanish together.

Thumbnail photo of French words on cards

Modern foreign languages in the early years

Local authority approaches to developing and encouraging language-learning in the early years.

A thumbnail image of a boy posting a letter

A nursery-P1 shared focus on literacy through play

Aberdeenshire's 'Literacy through play' project involved creating contexts for learning through role-play, conversation and discussions.

Photo of girl dancing in playground

Soundmoves - developing language through music and movement

Dalcroze specialist Sian Davies presented in-service courses for early years staff across North Ayrshire, incorporating music and movement.