Family learning
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Information about the school/provider
The North East Wales Adult Community Learning Partnership was established in April 2021. It is a partnership between Flintshire County Council and Wrexham County Borough Council. The partnership employs five lead providers to deliver most of its Welsh Government-funded provision.
Context and background to the effective or innovative practice
In family learning sessions, parents and their children work, play and learn together. Sessions take place in school and community venues. They offer supportive environments for parents to help their own children learn and, in the process, become re-engaged with education, grow their confidence, and develop their own literacy, numeracy and other skills.
In this partnership, leaders have worked closely with community groups and headteachers from local schools to identify what would work best in their areas. The family learning offer was shared and promoted by the school and community groups, and this has helped parents to engage with the programmes.
Description of nature of strategy or activity
The partnership identified two main priorities for its family learning provision – improving reading skills and outdoor education. A ‘Wellies in the Woods’ six-week programme was devised and offered to primary schools. This involved working with parents and children in local schools, making use of the very good outside spaces that many schools have. The programme focuses on the communication skills of all involved and shares exciting ways of promoting, supporting and improving reading in the outdoors. The partnership evaluates its programme throughout the year to make sure that it makes the best engagement with families and local communities. As of August 2022, 187 families have completed the Wellies in the Woods programme.
The partnership has established a range of programmes offering different contexts for family learning, each with the aim of engaging parents and children in learning together, including:
- ‘Unwind with Wool’, which focuses on the wool sector in North Wales, where participants learn wool felting and craft skills, incorporating literacy and numeracy, and areas of the science curriculum
- Family history, where participants research their family’s history, improve their digital literacy and learn how to work safely online
- Sea glass and mindfulness which focuses on improving participants’ knowledge of the North Wales coastline, craft skills and use of mindfulness techniques.
What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?
The partnership’s collaborative approach to planning family learning resulted in the offer being shared and promoted well. Engagement on all courses has been good and families have been positive about the impact the courses have had on their lives. One parent commented ‘I have loved being back in my son’s school after lockdown, learning new skills and spending quality time with my son’.
With the partnership’s support, many leaners taking part in these family learning programmes have identified their next steps in learning and the partnership has put in place provision to help these learners continue to progress.