Scroll down the page to see SmithMartin News We are pleased to offer our visitors a children focused newsfeed - with thanks to the BBC. . SmithMartin News Update June 2008 Partnership launches space rocket... Our partnership has sponsored the delivery of seven SPACE DAYS for children from local schools in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. Continuing our support of the community project ImagineNewmarket, partners provided resources and personnel to help nearly 500 children across seven days of activity to better understand our solar system, the galaxies and how rockets work. The children made their own rocket, launched it and did a number of activities to develop their understanding of our solar system, Our partnership created a  number of audio visual presentations and films for the children to enjoy and as a backdrop for the days events. You can see an early event report and the material produced on the ImagineNewmarket web site at www.imaginenewmarket.org.uk Not only did we support learning, but everyone had great fun. Some of the comments from children and young people were energising and intriguing.   On Venus '...it's so hot you sizzle like a sausage'. On Neptune ...'Why is it blue? - it's a mystery!'  All our partners and the Space Day team had a great time too. Scenes from a Space Day event... SmithMartin News Update April 2008 Partnership plans to roll-out literacy project... Following the successful delivery of our Leyton Stories project, we are now negotiating to extend the event to other settings in the borough of Waltham Forest, Leyton Stories was delivered at The Epicentre in Leytonstone, East London. We were able to bring together over 100 children, parents, carers and teachers to enjoy a day of workshops with a variety of children's authors, artists and story-tellers. We were able to give the children nearly £2,500 of books to take home with them as a record of the event. You can see more on the Leyton Stories web site....www.leytonstories.org.uk The partnership plans to develop the delivery of this concept in a number of further urban areas outside London. Targets at the moment inlcude settings in East Anglia, the North West and Galway in Ireland. Our City Stories banner will see the delivery of further literacy, reading and book events . The project  fits well with supporting the literacy aims of communities and our follow up activity includes working with communities to create Children's Book Groups, where none had existed before. Helping to make durable the legacy of the Year of Reading. Watch this space for more details of the City Stories web site and project bookings. (...and thanks to Radha Clelland for another great logo to enhance the project concept). SmithMartin News Update January 2008 An exciting new venture into reading and literacy support for children... We have been commissioned by EduAction of the London Borough of Waltham Forest to develop the Leyton Stories concept. This is planned as a series of book events for children, where the project will introduce them to authors and illustrators - stimulate imaginations and help children, often from the least consulted families in a borough, to develop a love of books that will last them a lifetime. Sue Martin says '...we hope to move away from 'the text' and return to the whole story idea, using the project as a way to not only give books to children to help start their own library, but to offer excitement and engagement with writers and illustrators to bring the ideas of children to life'. Our brief as a partnership is to create everything from the project logo - as above - to engaging writers and artists, recruiting schools and community groups and delivering the events. Partners are supporting the work by offering the project team web design, web hosting, email and a collaborative workspace from Thirdsectorweb.  The books for the children, the author signing and displays, as well as the workshops at events will be managed and supplied by Dolphinbooksellers, the children's book arm of our partnership. The planned legacy of the Leyton Stories activity is to have created children's book groups, managed by parents and carers, that will continue to engage children and young people with books in the future. Leyton Stories logo by Radha Clelland Read more... SmithMartin News Update December 2007 Partnership welcomes Radha Clelland to the team... We are delighted to announce that the partnership has further extended its skills by bringing Radha Clelland into our team. Radha is a graphic designer with a wealth of  experience, who will offer existing and new clients access to a range of design services that can compliment their projects. Radha is expert in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Quark Xpress, with an extensive and diverse professional history, including design agency work with blue-chip clients, producing leading scientific and financial publications for large and small publishing houses, and cartography for a variety of clients such as the BBC. With a B.A., M.A. and postgraduate diploma in printing and publishing, Radha can offer partnership clients cutting edge design support, utilising our partnership infrastructure to deliver creative input to projects. Whether developing a consistent corporate identity, creating new logotypes or branding a project across a range of media Radha can help compliment and deliver your vision. Tim Smith of SmithMartin said '...we are profoundly happy that Radha has found a professional home with our partnership. As a family friendly, ethical practice delivering consultancy, web design and hosting through Thirdsectorweb our community web service, resources for schools thorough Dolphinbookbox or children's books to young people, families and carers with Dolphinbooksellers - we are confident that Radha will be a busy member of the partnership team - improving both client projects and our own house style'. Welcome Radha, from all of us here at SMP.  (You can contact Radha here...off...@smithmartinpartnership.com ) SmithMartin News Update November 2007 Partnership delivers Community Engagement Model in Bracknell Forest... We were delighted to be invited to attend the Extended Schools Conference in the Borough of Bracknell Forest during November 2007. The event was held at the Kerith Centre, adjacent to the borough offices. This well attended conference of professionals in the borough - from education, community development, children's services and health amongst many others - saw lively debate about engagement and the development of extended schools in the area. We were able to deliver a workshop which launched the model, a copy of which can be found on our archive page. Partners also attended a range of workshops themselves, including presentations on demographic change in the borough,  planning extended services and the role of the voluntary sector in the process. SmithMartin News Update September 2007 Partners supporting the work of ImagineNewmarket... SmithMartin were delighted to be able to offer help and support to ImagineNewmarket, working with children from six local schools, for the delivery of the projects's Sustainable Buildings Day on the 27th September.  ImagineNewmarket is a regional project to build an Imagination Centre in the East of England. The children were able to work with the project team on the day - thinking about renewable energy resources and different building materials and techniques. The high point of the day was the group activity -  where nearly sixty children attending were given the opportunity to build their own shelters in the workspace, using their ideas from the days activities. Materials being used ranged from shopping baskets donated by a local supermarket, to hazel withies and copious amounts of string. All used by the children to good effect.  You can see the ImagineNewmarket project at www.imaginenewmarket.org.uk SmithMartin partners and associates donate time and resources to ImagineNewmarket. Our web arm, www.thirdsectorweb.co.uk, is proud to provide the project with a donated web presence and email facilities. SmithMartin News Update July 2007 Partners and associates welcome Parveen to our network... SmithMartin are delighted that Parveen Hussain, a children's services practitioner of great experience is joining our partnership network.  Partners and associates recognise that Parveen's knowledge and understanding of settings and the policy context of our work will be an invaluable resource in developing the work of all our partners. We hope that Parveen will benefit from our partnership resources and networks in order to develop her practice and that our future partnership meetings and information days are useful. Tim Smith of SmithMartin said today '...Parveen has a great knowledge of the children's sector and we hope that her work will find a perfect compliment in the other strands of  activity that we undertake around sustainable community business, governance development and operational funding.  We hope that, as independent practitioners, our partnership support mechanisms both formal and informal can help everyone not only win new contracts, but deliver them more effectively'. SmithMartin News Update June 2007 Project managing the development of a Children's Centre in Waltham Forest Sue Martin, second from the left, is seen at the new Wellington and College Gardens Children's Centre.  Sue is working on project management of the new site, which will offer a 60 place nursery, as well as meeting rooms, toddler and parent groups, daycare and ICT provision as part of the service mix. Funding for this project is provided by the London Borough of Waltham Forest. Sue says '...we are delighted to be involved in the development of the Children's Centre at Wellington and College Gardens. The project fits with our other recent strategic work for clients in the borough and builds upon our mix of expertise in both capital provision and operational delivery in the children's services arena'. Photograph courtesy of the Waltham Forest Independent. SmithMartin News Update March 2007 SmithMartin/Dolphin Booksellers at International Women's Day Event We were delighted to attend as Dolphin Booksellers at the Epicentre in Leyton on March 6th 2007. We were able to offer all the mums and children visiting during the day a wide range of very high quality children's books at great prices. We distributed a wealth of literacy promotional material and a lot of Dolphin Book Bags. We sold some books too! Our lifesize Dolphin logo board was very popular with the children attending the event. You can order individual children's books directly from our website - www.dolphinbooksellers.co.uk We also distributed to the children's service providers present details of our Dolphin Book Box bulk sales service for schools and childcare settings. You can see details of this business to business service at Dolphinbookbox.co.uk If you would like a literacy or book event at your next event, do let us know - we would be happy to arrange author or book events tailored to suit your organisation. Partners continue their development work in Western Ireland We have been pleased to continue to develop our interests in Ireland.  Working with a client we have been developing business models and plans for the opening of childcare settings in Western Ireland.   Partners are currently working on the development of a number of settings, involving the purchase of properties, the fitting out of the settings and the recruitment and training of staff. These complex projects call for a range of business and consultancy skills and provide an interesting contrast to the delivery of childcare in the UK market. Our partners would be very happy to talk to any Irish based childcare provider who would like help with business development, professional practice, staff recruitment, quality assurance or service user relations. If you think our expertise could help - use our contact us page - we are happy to talk without obligation. SmithMartin News Update November 2006 SmithMartin at the Daycare Trust Annual Conference 2006 Following a busy year partners took time out to attend the latest annual conference of the Daycare Trust. Campaigning for universally accessible childcare, this organisation has been at the forefront of change and improvement in the UK childcare sector for over twenty five years. SmithMartin are proud to be members of the Daycare Trust. One highlight of the conference was the publication of Childcare Today - A Progress Report on the Government's Ten-year Childcare Strategy. Thi s important stage review looked again at the progress of the strategy and delivered a series of recommendations for policy makers and practicioners to reflect upon. The extension of free early years places Subsidy for out of school clubs Subsidy for places for disabled children Continuation of the Transformation Fund Reform of childcare tax credits Extension of parental leave Ever forward thinking, the document maps a  way ahead in a telling manner...read more Harker Report on Child Poverty published: Another key document published to coincide with the conference was the Harker Report on Child Poverty - Delivering on Child Poverty: What would it take?   This report for the Department of Work and Pensions by Lisa Harker focuses on the government's commendable progress towards the target set to reduce child poverty, but concludes the target has been missed to date. You can download a full copy the report on our filestore page or ...read more. Partners undertake project in Ireland One recent development for partners was their engagement with a UK childcare provider to work in partnership to undertake an assessment of developing settings within the Irish market. Childcare provision in Ireland is undergoing rapid change, with both legislation under way, quality assurance processes and demand for services all growing. SmithMartin have the right mix of skills to help develop a service in the country - delivering project management, business planning and professional childcare development consultancy to ensure that the contracts are sucessfully bid for and that the resulting service is to the highest standards. Read more about developments in Ireland ....here.   Read more about our UK partner ...here. News Update October 2006 SmithMartin Partnership website revisions complete Following our news item in May 2006, we have completed our website re-formats. The designs are intended to help create a distinct and branded business footprint for the three elements to our partnership activity. Have a look and see. We'd be happy to hear from you if we get something wrong or if you can see improvements. SmithMartin Partnership - the site you are currently viewing. This has been redesigned into a single column frame layout, with a news and update sidebar. It will load more quickly and the image sizes have been reduced to help this. Page layout and content is always a work in progress, but we hope that our message is now clearer. Dolphinbooksellers - our literacy and book sales arm. This site has undergone substantial revision. Although the basic page layout has stayed the same the format has changed to allow additional news and information columns to be added. Our 'quick-books' feature has been retained. We now have regular rotating news for our visitors, with feature pages by publisher and theme.  Barefoot Books are a particular favourite of ours this autumn. Have a look and see - buying individual titles from Amazon as usual, we have introduced our 'Book Box' service to deliver themed collections direct to schools and childcare settings. Thirdsectorweb - our community ICT arm. We can design and install a site on our secure servers, whilst using our sector knowledge and experience to make sure that the site offers everything a professional childcare setting needs to tell it's users, parents and carers. Thirdsector also has a new on line shop. A great source of laptops, accessories and even a range of books on web design. Check out our dark blue sales pages. News Update June 2006 Daycare Childcare Champion Awards at No 11 Downing St No. 11 provided a great venue for the presentation of the Daycare Trust Childcare Champion Awards. Not only did it show the value that the government gives to childcare but  the climbing frame in the garden gave a clue that children and families really are 'at the heart' of those who live at Downing St. From a huge number of entries the four people chosen showed a real sense of commitment, professionalism and enjoyment of working with children.  The 2006 winners were:- Carol Fairburn, a local childminder Debbie Irving, leader of Kool Kidz parent and toddler group Karina Choat, founder of Special Kids in the UK Special Matters, a group of parents of children with special needs Ed Balls, Treasury minister presented the awards and congratulated Daycare Trust on the success of the organisation and the campaigning work which continues to put children and families at the fore front of the governments agenda. Rita Stringfellow, Chair of Daycare Trust, announced some of the latest work to be commissioned, RAMPS: a framework for listening to children. Real value given to listening to children and being able to react to their needs  is shown to be highly effective in delivering successful services. The newly appointed Chief Executives, Emma Knights and Alison Garnham were introduced, a joint appointment for a top position, showing that Daycare Trust believes in flexible working and can make it happen. Daycare Trust is now set for the future, with key staff a brilliant team behind them and a programme of work to make sure that the campaigning goes on to deliver best provision for children, young people and families. Architecture Week 2006 saw partners at SmithMartin volunteering time, audio-visual equipment and displays to support the ImagineNewmarket community project. We had a real community development hands on day.  Tired at the end, but elated by the ideas of the young people. A one day event at Tattersalls of Newmarket, the world's leading bloodstock auctioneers, was delivered in partnership with ImagineNewmarket, the Johns Practice - Chartered Architects and Little Angels Day Nursery. SmithMartin were able to supply a  revolving slide show of images and designs for the young people to use for inspiration throughout the day. Sue Martin delivered a storytelling workshop to a variety of young people, teachers and carers - eliciting a very wide range of ideas and enthusiasm for the model building that was undertaken in the afternoon session. Partners were happy to donate their time to deliver real consultation and ideas generation with lively, interested and sympathetic young people. ImagineNewmarket aims to build an Imagination Centre in West Suffolk.   The project web and email presence is among a number of aspects of the project sponsored by SmithMartin. For details of the day and partner contributions see the ImagineNewmarket web site. News Update May 2006 Web Site revisions Smithmartin are currently undertaking a broad range of stylistic and content changes to our websites. We are updating this website, www.smithmartinpartnership.com, with new page design and typography. We are doing our best to keep our content pages and updates going for clients and other visitors during the changes. Our book sales pages at www.dolphinbooksellers.co.uk are also being revised. We are planning to move to direct web based sales for community groups and school bulk purchases, but to keep our Amazon based service integrated into the site for individual purchases. If you are a Dolphin user and find something isn't working properly, do let us know on bookservices@dolphinbooksellers.co.uk Our web service pages are also being revised. We are developing a new style for the pages, but also revising the number of packages for web page creation and storage. Our web email services are also undergoing change, with a new, more accessible and clear pricing structure. if you need a simple, clear web solution that is fully secure and developed by a partnership in sympathy with the culture and aims of your organisation see us at www.thirdsectorweb.co.uk Check back often for updates. News update April 2006 Management in a Childcare Setting Aims: To create a positive vision for the future To empower staff to deliver effective management of their childcare setting Our Partnership recently delivered training to a variety of setting staff in West London. If you attended our programme the narrative below is a reflection of the events which we hope you find useful. If you didn't we hope that it gives you an insight into both our philosophy and mix of activities. What people said... 'Working with children is my passion, It's what I do. I love my job'. 'Every day is different and you just know that you are going to have fun'. 'Watching then grow and develop, just the things they say, makes it worthwhile'. In delivering our recent training to a mix of childcare setting managers the emphasis was on helping to raise self esteem, build confidence and empower managers in their changing roles. The comments above were just a few which demonstrated a genuine joy of working with children and families and a commitment to meeting the needs of the community. We focused on... What it is that makes working with children special. Impact of recent changes. Creating the right team. Administration and finance. Working in a multi-agency partnership. The future. Although many of the managers had received some management training the complexities of managing in a childcare environment adds an extra layer to the demands of a manager. A balancing act to ensure that staff to child ratios are always correct and that the children's needs are at the forefront of all activity. Working in a changing and evolving childcare setting is also demanding and it means that the managers and leaders need to feel positive about their role and are enabled to deliver successful and well managed organisations. The programme delivered was a first step in that process. Networks were re-established and new contacts made. It's always good to know that you are not on your own. Really positive feedback means that we can work together to make things better for the future, by developing programmes specific to the needs for business and organisation skills and at the same time keep the child at the centre of our work. To everyone who attended thank you for your energy and contribution. If you would like us to support your organisation contact me at the SmithMartin Partnership...Sue Martin We are happy to help you change your community landscape. Partnership visits Federation of Children's Book Groups 2006 Conference At the end of February 2006 we attended the FCBG Conference in Birmingham. As well as being able to review with publishers some of the forthcoming titles for this year, ranging from early years to young adulthood, there were a number of workshops and seminars with a wide variety of authors. From the Children's Laureate Jacqueline Wilson to Valerie Mendes the contrasting styles and influences of the authors gave us much to think about. One particularly exciting seminar was delivered by the academic and author John Singleton. Writing for teenagers and discussing his influences and background the session was an exemplar of how good writing, good storytelling can affect expectations and change attitudes and visions for young people. Expect John Singleton's books to be available at Dolphin Booksellers soon. Although the weekend was about authors and publishers, for us, learning for the regeneration and development agenda was always present.