The Limavady Good Network work collaboratively planning creative projects that promote positive home/school links, social inclusion and address issues of rurality. The partnership actively encourages parents to get involved in their child's learning. An innovative initiative to promote this is 'Storysacks'. The initiative was disseminated to the cluster through a training day, facilitated by Drumachose P.S in Limavady. The object of the sack is to allow opportunity for the child & parent to enjoy reading and take an active part in a reading activity. The sack contains tapes, puppets, games and books. All the sacks are created by co-ordinated by a teacher in each of the schools.

Do's & Don'ts

Do:

• Give parents very clear explanations & set realistic timescales for completion of sacks.
• Keep a record of books borrowed while the sack is being made.
• Find a secure place to store sacks.
• Show the children how to use the sack before they take it home.
• Hold an induction meeting for parents.
• Make copies of all stories as 'backups'.
• Celebrate success on a regular basis.
• Check the sacks & follow up any missing items.

Don'ts:

• Try to make too many sacks.
• Put too much in the sack.
• Use games with fiddly pieces.
• Have too many parents in the production team.
• Use the sacks for more than 6 weeks at a time.
• Expect all parents to look after the sacks as well as you would.
• Forget to tell parents what the rules are if a sack comes back in poor condition or with pieces lost.

The sack is given out on a Friday and returned to school the following Wednesday. Every Monday evening the child is asked to complete an activity related to their Storysack. The sacks are checked by a group of parents on a Thursday & ready for the next day.