Service development news:
Working with Schools
As part of our work at SmithMartin Partnership LLP we have expertise in primary schools, enabling a forward thinking management process in these challenging times, engaging with the delivery of creative projects in literacy, and in the extension of early years as a part of the schools education priority to give all children the best start in life.
We continue to support schools in the UK as education consultants in areas of the curriculum for KS1 and KS 2 and the Foundation Stage.
We specialise in children’s literacy programmes and deliver creative and imaginative programmes to inspire and engage children in reading and writing and exploration of books and online programmes.
Sue Martin
Children’s Literacy
Our partnership has a strong focus on the importance of children’s literacy. Through some very innovative programmes we have developed our own ‘in house’ delivery and style.
We enhance and encourage literacy through communication and language development, early reading skills, love of reading, creativity and increasingly the relationship between development of individuals and reading abilities.
Some recent projects are:
- Books Go Walkabout is a fully-fledged and sustainable programme. It is part of our drive to use the potential of IT to enable people in developing countries and cultures to engage with literature and reading.
It is a global project to unite children with authors and illustrators across the world.
It brings an inspirational dimension to reading, literacy and cultural exchange. Children talk with authors across the world.
We distribute the books and create an international book purchase and exchange mechanism in the project.
- The Book Monitor and Dolphin Books, we provide book reviews for newly published books and up to date events. We work with award winning publishers who produce high quality books not easily available in major outlets.
- @booksgowalkabout is our Twitter feed, giving regular updates on new books and new literacy projects.
- Author events into schools, centres and organisations either in person or via a digital platform. Our authors who are well known to us write wonderful books and delight in working in schools. Authors from across the world include Candy Gourlay, Ken Wilson Max, Leigh Hobbs, Lily Wilkinson, Ifeoma Onyefulu, Joanna Grochowicz and Jackie Morris.
- Global dimension, we work in the UK, our base, plus Australia and Hong Kong.
Things we do together as a team
Project management | Research | Education and Literacy support | Children’s Book Reviews | Book sellers and buyers | Children’s Centre development | Early Years Education & Childcare | Community Business growth and formation | Consultancy and training | Working towards good governance practice with clients | Ethical Company formation | Business planning | Web hosting | Web design | Publishing a variety of on-line journals | All our content creation is appropriate, licensed and inclusively in context…
Innovations – Ideas – Communities
Partnership services and the virus situation…a statement
We have been in the remote working, web based business since the beginning of the internet and our project teams, and Partnership engagements, have always been remotely serviced.
Client Note: We have just relocated our business premises to a small market town in Norfolk, UK. Check out our location page for more information.
We will continue this mode of operation. (Last review: January 2023).
Where we work directly with Partnership clients we will conform to the latest NHS England advice and undertake isolation from premises, or meet on-line, to prolong our client support and/or engagement for as long as necessary.
SocEntEastMIds clients can expect their web services, business advice and business development infrastructure donated by the Partnership to continue as normal.
Our web business, Thirdsectorweb, has all the durablility and resilience employed from many years of experience. Our server network, suppliers and support teams all report no lag to service provision during the current crisis. We foresee no change in this provision as long as the national infrastructure does not stutter.
Our book business, booksgowalkabout, is the most affected by the current crisis. We will continue to publish all our current information and review sites, as well as maintain our remote support and contacts with schools, communities and publishers etc., for as long as is needed.
However, our extensive programme of book events, author travel and workshops, both in the UK and overseas, are all subject to postponement. As are the major international book fairs, from which we traditionally draw new contacts and project ideas, to foster the international part of our Partnership activity.
Again, we will use our web connections to maintain contact and support to colleagues in other countries and communities in the UK.
Keep safe and we wish only the best for all family and friends around the globe.
The Partners at SmithMartin LLP
This book will bring alive Mandela’s legacy for a new generation of children and is published by Lincoln Children’s Books, who are renowned for quality, information books in a highly accessible format.
DolphinBooks is our review centre for younger children’s books, a part of our Books go Walkabout initiative.
You can read about great literature for children, as well as Partnership activity across the globe to support our project aims.
This is some of our planned project delivery workflow…in 2024/25
Continuing to develop Social Enterprise East Midlands,-SocEntEastMids, as a six county-wide community of interest | To add a rural community support dimension to SocEntEastMids by developing Muntjac Management – a new rural Community Wealth Building initiative | Expand and consolidate our Partnership consultancy services into enterprise governance and charity support | Develop and expand our web brands across the regions of the UK, particularly in web services for charities and social enterprise | Progressively develop our international author and illustrator representation and booking services | Journal publishing in specialist community development, enterprise and educational areas | Book sales and eBook publication | Expand our portfolio literacy projects across the world with authors, illustrators, children and schools | Expand our UK local and regional author visits and workshops | We will be re-building and refreshing all our book based web sites, expanding our e-commerce offer with new technology as we roll it out |…as well as finding time to contribute to a range of pro-bono projects in governance and social enterprise formation, as much as our Partnership capacity permits.
A deeper look at SmithMartin LLP:
‘Our Books go Walkabout project team have returned from their week long series of latest events in Hong Kong. Welcome back!
Our authors were fantastic. So were the children they worked with across two campuses in the city, the teaching staff and volunteers’.
This Adobe Spark presentation gives you a flavour of the events…
If you, as an author, would like to be part of an international author/illustrator tour to diverse schools and education settings let us know. Happy to donate time and resources to talk about projects any time.
www.booksgowalkabout.com – part of SmithMartin LLP
Some of our digital assets
If a picture can paint a thousand words, then a website can save the printing of a thousand social business portfolios…
Our social business treasury and ideas hub, where we plan and manage our development aims and project detail. Find us here…
We are a diverse, remote and connected group of long time associates in our sectors – with strong contact books across the piece, with repeat business from our clients sustaining our social aims and outputs.
Our development and archive resource for our community enterprise energy. Processes and information to help with your funding, business planning, governance and more.
In 2018 we plan to launch a range of social enterprise, community business training and development initiatives across communities using this site as one of our focus ‘brands’ for that activity…
‘The web is not my cup of tea at all…’.
Well don’t worry. We offer a fully managed web solution. From hosting, design and build, images and content creation, webmail services and e-commerce ‘buy with a click’.
Ideal for social enterprises, community groups, education and early years settings, project shop windows and ethical SME’s of all kinds.
Social Enterprise East Midlands (SocEntEast Mids)
The companion site to our Enterprising Communities journal. The SocEntEastMids journal, Mining the Seem, is a news and information resource for social enterprises in a localised, six counties, enterprise environment.
But it is also the navigation helm and treasury for a developing range of services and events to add value to the very first principles of social business and a testament to the work of Muhammad Yunus.
Philosophy, sentiment and ethical business combined.
Our international book project, creating opportunities for authors on one side of the globe to talk and interact with children and teachers on the other. We use new technology and real time high speed internet connections to build bridges between very different communities.
Books go Walkabout is also now our registered UK publisher brand with a range of new titles, paper and e-Book, always in development.
Our retail children’s book business, the power of the imagination made manifest.
Great books for younger readers – buy on-line from The Dolphin with confidence.
We also wholesale books under the Dolphin brand to schools, children’s centres and community groups.
We have accounts with all the major publishers and wholesalers and use our procurement and literacy specialisms to provide installation and stock for community libraries too.
You can also find an archive of the best books for older children on The Book Monitor too.