Bilingual Beginnings: Empowering Communities to Run Bilingual Storytime

Bilingual Beginnings is a Multilingual Australia initiative designed to support communities in running successful bilingual storytime and rhymetime sessions. This project focuses on developing a Bilingual Storytime Guideline to help families, community schools, and libraries organise and deliver these sessions in more languages, promoting cultural and linguistic heritage across Western Australia.

Project Aims

Equip families, community schools, and libraries with practical resources to organise and sustain bilingual storytime sessions.
Address challenges such as resource gaps, access to spaces, and engagement strategies for multilingual storytelling.
Foster connections within communities, encouraging collaboration to support bilingual learning opportunities.
Promote the preservation of languages and cultural traditions through accessible and engaging activities.

Outcomes

By the end of the project, Multilingual Australia will deliver:

A Bilingual Storytime Guideline to assist individuals and organisations in running their own bilingual storytime and rhymetime sessions.
Insights into the needs and challenges faced by families, schools, and libraries through extensive community consultation.

Funding Partners

This project is proudly funded by the State Government, in collaboration with the State Library of Western Australia and the Better Beginnings Program. Their support enables us to create meaningful resources for communities across WA.

Project Updates

We are currently in the consultation phase of the project, developing surveys to gather insights from libraries, community schools, and families. These surveys aim to identify the specific needs, challenges, and opportunities in running bilingual storytime and rhymetime sessions.

What’s Next? The surveys will be launched by the end of January 2025, and we will be inviting key stakeholders to participate throughout February 2025. Your input will play a critical role in shaping the development of the Bilingual Storytime Guideline, which will provide practical guidance and resources for organising sessions in diverse languages.

Families

Help us understand your needs and experiences with bilingual storytime. Share your insights to ensure the Bilingual Storytime Guideline reflects what matters most to your family.
Link will be available soon.

Libraries

Identify your library's available spaces, resources, and opportunities to support bilingual storytime sessions. Your input will help us design tools tailored to library needs.
Link will be available soon.

Community Schools

Tell us about the challenges and resources needed to organise bilingual storytime sessions. Share your expertise to help us create practical solutions for schools.
Link will be available soon.