Tag Archives: Family learning

Family Learning during Adult Learning Week 2020⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

by Susan Doherty

A brief history of Family Learning and how it links to Adult Learning in Scotland…

Family Learning encourages family members to learn together as and within a family, with a focus on intergenerational learning. Family learning activities can also be specifically designed to enable parents to learn how to support their children’s learning.

‘Family learning is a powerful method of engagement and learning which can foster positive attitudes towards life-long learning, promote socio-economic resilience and challenge educational disadvantage’ (Family Learning Network, 2016).

To highlight the amazing work in family learning during Adult Learning Week I thought it would be good to reflect on where we have come from and all of the hard work that practitioners have done to get us to where we are today…

In 2016 we worked with practitioners, researchers, policy colleagues and stakeholder/partner agencies to write the Review of Family learning in Scotland. This document set out to capture what practice, research, policy and strategy looked like at that time and set out some key recommendations to take forward. These recommendations formed the building blocks of what family learning looks like in Scotland today.

At its core family learning is an approach to engaging families in learning outcomes that have an impact on the whole family. It can support improved attainment, attitudes towards lifelong learning, health and wellbeing, confidence etc. which leads to positive outcomes for both adults and children. Family learning is a negotiated process born out of the needs of families and the individuals within them. It builds the capacity from where people are and celebrates in their successes. Although universal, family learning can be used as an early intervention and prevention approach which reaches the most disadvantaged communities and can help close the attainment gap through breaking the inter-generational cycles of deprivation and low attainment. For adults this can be the first step to re-engage with their own learning and help them to support their child’s.

Since 2016 we have developed the Family Learning Framework  and informed the Engaging parents and families – A toolkit for practitioners. Family learning is also present in the ELC Realising the Ambition, CLD Adult Learning Statement of Ambition, and HIGIOS 4 and HGIOELC documents. This highlights the breadth of where family learning can and does have an impact – from early learning to adult learning. Practitioners have shaped all of these documents and their voices can be heard throughout.

Engaging families in a family learning programme can have an impact on their immediate identified need however through research we also know it can extend beyond the duration of the intervention and provide lasting impacts and improved outcomes.​

In practice family learning can take many forms which is driven by the needs of the families. Family learning practitioners are creative, nurturing and responsive to the needs of their families and understand their communities and the challenges that they face. They almost always work in partnership which supports robust services that have strong referral pathways for further learning as appropriate. Practice has shown us that practitioners value the time families spend together over a coffee to chat and build relationships and fun is the magic ingredient that keeps them coming back.

We have many wonderful case studies that we can share with you from across Scotland and we would encourage you to look for more on the National Improvement Hub. Here are just some that you may find interesting:

For more information on Family Learning, Parental Involvement/Engagement and Learning at Home, or to share your practice, please contact: susan.doherty@educationscotland.gov.scot and/or beverley.ferguson@educationscotland.gov.scot

 

Adult Learners Week 2020⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

This week is Adult Learners Week 2020 in Scotland. We want to highlight all of the fantastic work that Community Learning and Development (CLD) do to deliver high quality adult learning opportunities across a wider variety of areas. These include social isolation, health and wellbeing, digital inclusion, English as a Second Language (ESOL) , literacies, numeracy/maths, family learning, community inclusion, progression pathways, financial inclusion, personal development and active citizenship. 

  The thing that surprises most people about CLD is the variety of roles and diversity of learning that is covered. People who work in CLD often have a variety of disciplines to cover and ensure they are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to provide these. The CLD Standards Council is the professional body for people who work or volunteer in CLD. 

 Adult Literacy & Numeracy in Scotland follows a social practice model. It looks at the skills, knowledge and understanding that a learner has to build on and relates learning to a context within personal, family, working or community life. Provision is offered in a learner centred way and can use real life resources such as bills, letters, newspapers or other household resources to support learning to have a real life context. 

Community based ESOL is delivered by CLD teams across Scotland. Scotland has supported the Syrian Resettlement Scheme in recent years which also links to ESOL provision and wider CLD activity in communities although this can look different in different local authorities.  ESOL learners can come from any country in the world and groups can be made up of a variety of languages and cultures. 

 Community based adult learning in CLD can cover a wide variety of learning opportunities that are intended to be informal, relaxed, friendly opportunities that aim to break down barriers for learners who are hardest to reach. These can be adults with multiple barriers such as mental health, physical health, learning difficulties, alcohol and drug addictions, long term unemployment and social isolation among others. 

CLD Adult Learning covers a variety of areas such as confidence building, health issues, bereavement, life changes (such as divorce, redundancy) focussing on areas of high deprivation where poverty impacts on households and families. 

 CLD is a value-based practice and CLD professionals have committed themselves to the values of self-determination, inclusion, empowerment, working collaboratively and the promotion of adult learning as a lifelong activity. Programmes and activities are developed in dialogue with communities and participants, working particularly with those excluded from participation in the decisions and processes that shape their lives. 

 The focus of CLD in all areas of adult learning are improved life chances for people of all ages, through learning, personal development and active citizenship resulting in  stronger, more resilient, supportive, influential and inclusive communities. 

 The Education Scotland CLD Team works to support the CLD sector in delivering high quality learning opportunities relevant to the communities that are in need. The team supports professional learning across different areas of adult learning in CLD and supports the creation of new policies and strategies. They are keen to share and promote interesting practice that is of interest delivered by CLD workers who work tirelessly to improve the communities and individuals they work with.   

Follow @edscotcld for more information

CLD Response to Covid-19: South Lanarkshire Council⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

Community Learning and Development (CLD) response during COVID -19 lockdown

We have been absolutely blown away by the amazing response of the community learning and development (CLD) sector to the Covid-19 crisis. Whilst the lockdown led to the abrupt suspension of most face to face CLD activities, from the start we’ve heard examples of how community workers, youth workers, adult educators and family learning workers in both the public and third sectors have continued to support learners and communities with dedication, creativity and kindness. Across Scotland, CLD practitioners have been supporting community initiatives to deliver food, medicine or provide vital social contact to vulnerable families and isolated people. They have been engaging with young people through imaginative digital youth work; adapting learning activities to be accessible online, by phone or through resources to use at home; and helping to extend the reach of school and community hubs for children of key workers and vulnerable families. Many CLD providers are now playing a key role in helping to develop local and national recovery plans.

We have collected some case studies from the West region that we are going to highlight over the next couple of weeks.

Education Scotland is aware that there is more amazing work out across Scotland. We plan to capture more so that we can keep sharing the fantastic work that CLD has delivered and continues to deliver in the recovery phase and into the future.

South Lanarkshire Council – CLD – Youth, Family and Community Learning Service  Activity Packs

Across South Lanarkshire, Youth, Family and Community Learning Teams have been busy creating activity packs to support children, families and young people of all ages, including ASN, during the period of lockdown. These packs are designed to engage with new learners and to maintain well established relationships with our communities. They can help alleviate boredom and improve the mental health of young people by giving them activities that they can carry out on their own and with their families.

The packs are bespoke, learner centred, and are prioritised for young people and families who have limited access to technology or printing facilities. Packs are delivered directly to the homes of young people and families. This allows invaluable face-to-face contact (from a 2m distance) with the community and the opportunity for staff to offer support if required. Over 1000 packs have been delivered to households since the end of March. The activity packs have a diverse content and include resources to enable young people and families to carry out the activities. Themes for packs have included: Health and Wellbeing; STEM; Family Learning; Cooking on a Budget; Music activity; Baking; Gardening and many other fun and educational activities for people of all ages.

Examples of 2 activity pack initiatives below:

After School Club Busy Bag

The After-School Club Busy Bag was developed as a way of engaging remotely with the vulnerable families and young people who would normally access the clubs each week within Glenlee Primary and Loch Primary. The bags are made up weekly by CLD staff and delivered to young people on their doorstep.

The Busy Bags began as large activity packs which included colouring-in sheets, pens, paper and skipping ropes, and have been followed by weekly themed top-ups. These top-ups have included “Make your own Crispy-cakes” and “Grow your own Sunflower” kits. All of the resources and ingredients required to complete the activities are contained within each pack, to ensure there is no additional cost to families.

3 of the After-School Club volunteers have also been a fantastic help developing and researching resources for our packs. One of the volunteers has piloted her first Busy Bag unboxing video this week. This has allowed her to engage remotely with the After-School Club young people and has also given her tasks to complete whilst she is self-isolating due to her being a young carer.

Quotes from Learners:

“ My son is really enjoying the Busy Bags, it’s keeping him off the ipad and Playstation and it’s giving us time to sit together. There is a wide variety of activities for him to pick and instead of playing Fortnite on the computer, he loved filling out the Fortnite word search and activity sheets” –Mum of P5 St Cuthbert’s pupil

“Due to the Busy Bags, my daughter now has something to look forward to each week, she looks out for staff arriving every Thursday. Thank you so much” –Mum of Loch Primary pupil

 “I loved making the crispy cakes, please can we have more baking busy bags it’s so much fun!” –P5 Glenlee Primary pupil

Cambuslang Universal Connections (UC) CLD Family Activity Packs

Cambuslang UC CLD have been maintaining links with the families they work with on their family learning programme through the delivery of over 60 Family Learning Packs to these families during the lockdown period.

The packs contain a range of fun activities for families to complete together and links directly to a weekly family craft activity that is uploaded to Facebook (the resources for undertaking this activity are contained in the pack)!

Parents have indicated that using the packs has been fun, has allowed families to do things together, has reduced boredom and that they have enjoyed participating on the linked the activities on Cambuslang UC Facebook!

Some quotes from Learners:

‘The packs are excellent, a good time filler and a good mixture for the different age groups. We are enjoying doing the activities together as a family, my daughter really liked the Covid 19 time capsule booklet.’

 ‘The packs are amazing. I feel very happy watching my son enjoy using the pack. I also enjoyed getting involved in the rainbow scavenger hunt.’

 ‘Thank you for the great packs we have received, loved the video

 ‘They were great, fantastic! The kids enjoyed doing the activities, particularly the dot to dot and the colouring. There was a good variety for different ages’.

 

‘The activity packs are fun and very good. They provide something different for the children to do other than school work. They are still learning and the variety of activities holds their interest longer. This gives us as parents a much needed time to relax and do other things. My child likes the dot to dots and colour by number using addition as this helps her number work.’

 

Regional Working and the CLD Team⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

Education Scotland has now moved to a regional delivery model and will support improvement and capacity building at local, regional and national level. CLD members are now part of Regional Teams. Each Regional team is headed up by a Senior Regional Advisor. There are six teams based on the geographies of the six Regional Collaboratives. The work of ES staff is not just limited to the RICs. All Regional teams except the Northern Team have a CLD presence. Team members will be in touch to make contact and find out about local developments.

Tayside Regional Improvement Team (Dundee, Perth and Kinross and Angus) Senior Regional Advisor (acting) –

CLD presence – Susan Epsworth, Development Officer, CLD Susan.Epsworth@educationscotland.gov.scot

South East Regional Improvement Team (Edinburgh City, Fife, Midlothian, East Lothian, Scottish Borders) Senior Regional Advisor – Alistair Brown

CLD presence – Chris Woodness, Education Officer, CLD (secondment) Vince Moore, Development Officer, CLD Vincent.Moore@educationscotland.gov.scot

South West Regional Improvement Team (Dumfries and Galloway, East Ayshire, South Ayrshire and North Ayshire) Senior Regional Advisor – Carol Copstick

CLD presence – Nicola Sykes, Senior Education Officer

Dehra Macdonald, Development Officer, CLD Dehra.Macdonald@educationscotland.gov.scot

Forth Valley and West Lothian Regional Improvement Team (Falkirk, Stirling, Clackmannanshire and West Lothian) Senior Regional Advisor – Jackie Halawi

CLD presence – Lindsay MacDonald, Education Officer, CLD Lindsay.MacDonald@educationscotland.gov.scot

Mandy Watts, Development Officer, CLD Mandy.Watts@educationscotland.gov.scot

West Regional Improvement Team (Glasgow City, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, South Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire) Senior Regional Advisor – Patricia Watson

CLD presence – John Galt, Education Officer, CLD mailto:John.Galt@educationscotland.gov.scot

Laura Mcintosh, Development Officer, CLD Laura.Mcintosh@educationscotland.gov.scot

Northern Regional Improvement Team (Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Moray, Argyll and Bute, Shetland Islands, Western Isles, Highland, Orkney) Senior Regional Advisor – David Gregory

Explorathon is coming!⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

Explorathon is a set of interactive ‘Meet the Researcher’ events happening all over Scotland on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th September. It’s part of a Europe-wide programme called European Researchers’ Night, there’s a particular emphasis on European funded research but any researchers can take part.
Check out the link below to see what is happening near you!
http://www.explorathon.co.uk/

Review of Learning at Home (2018)⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

This review provides clarity and the first Scottish national definition of learning at home which is vital to help practitioners take this agenda forward. Research shows that learning at home can have significant immediate and longer term impacts on children in different ways. These include a child’s early learning, later achievements, nurture, resilience, wellbeing, social mobility and skills for life.

Supporting parents to help them with their child’s learning at home is therefore ‘a vital part of improving outcomes for children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds’ (Hunt et al, 2011).

 

CLD at SLF 2018⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

If you are going to the Scottish Learning Festival, you might be interested in activities that involve the CLD sector.

The Parental Engagement and Families and Communities Team in Education Scotland will be delivering two workshops at SLF 2018:

Collaborating with Parents and Improvement Planning – Wednesday 3:15pm Dochart 2

Collaborating with partners on developing family learning approaches – Thursday 12:45 pm Dochart 2

Parental Engagement and Involvement will also have a partnership stall which will be located at D115. The stand is being delivered in partnership with the National Parent Forum for Scotland, Connect and the Scottish Government again this year, so there’s lots of expertise to choose from.

CLD and STEM

On Thursday 20th there is a focus on STEM and CLD are represented in five of the demonstration slots happening during the day.

 

 

Deputy First Minister’s Maths Challenge: GME Version⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

Tha Dùbhlan Matamataig an Leas Phrìomh Mhinisteir ri fhaighinn ann an Gàidhlig an seo:

http://gaelic.readwritecount.scot/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/148167_SCT1117349458-1_DFM_Maths_Challenge_A3_Gaelic-WEB22-1.pdf

Tha sinn an dòchas gun còrd e ruibh.

Deputy First Minister’s Maths Challenge is available through the medium of Gaelic:

http://gaelic.readwritecount.scot/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/148167_SCT1117349458-1_DFM_Maths_Challenge_A3_Gaelic-WEB22-1.pdf

Fun, festive activities to keep your child busy over the holidays!

Bookbug and Read, Write, Count in GME: Professional learning resource.⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

Please see this presentation which gives an overview of the Read, Write, Count initiative.  It explores the potential of Read, Write, Count as a parental engagement tool and discusses practical ways to integrate Read, Write, Count in schools and communities.

The presentation includes how Bookbug and Read, Write, Count has been  used as a support tool for parental engagement and family learning in Gaelic Medium Education. It also  highlights the related impact on Gaelic language development .

* A Glow login is required *

 

Resources to support health and wellbeing in Gaelic Medium Education (GME)⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

The Safer Scotland Scottish Government website has resources to support children learning through the medium of Gaelic. These include interactive games and stories.  Please visit:

http://gaelic.gosafewithziggy.com/

Road Safety – ‘Go Safe with Ziggy’ Competition

Ziggy’s BIG competition is about helping children learn about road safety in a fun, creative way.  This is part of a Scotland-wide movement to help young children be safe on roads and about traffic. The competition is open until the end of April 2018.