ERASMUS+ Learning Families Project
About the Learning Families Project
The project targeted school children from educationally, socially or economically disadvantaged backgrounds and who are at risk of early school leaving because their parents were not able to support their education or provide encouragement and motivation. Parental support is vital in promoting educational achievement. But there are many reasons why parents may not be able to help their children to achieve their full potential; from long working hours and caring responsibilities to low income, poor housing, language difficulties and unfamiliarity with the education system.
The project focused on tried and tested family learning activities, in non-formal environments outside normal school hours. Each project partner worked with young people and parents to design and deliver family learning in selected schools, and to create a Training and Resource Pack applicable in all settings nationally and across Europe.
For Parents
The project adopted a strategic approach based on research and experience, and successfully delivered a range of out of hours activities (non-formal-learning) helping parents/carers to:
- Get to know the school and its staff without feeling intimidated
- Understand how the education system works
- Develop a positive outlook about their children’s future
- Gain confidence to help and encourage their children
- Improve communication with their children and enjoy quality time
For schools, local authorities, policy-makers and NGOs
A range of innovative measures to help create strategies for effective parental involvement in their children’s learning – as opposed to approaches at individual levels often dependent on school and teacher goodwill, a common experience in partner countries.
And a tried and tested menu of activities that have worked effectively in engaging hard to reach parents, transferable across all settings and deliverable using school staff or volunteers without having to use external providers.
Outcomes
THE LEARNING FAMILIES TRAIN-THE -TRAINER KIT
The partners have produced the Learning Families Training Kit based on the results and feedback from the Family Learning Activities we delivered to more than 500 parents and children in the UK, Romania, Bulgaria and Italy. The training course is web-based programme with useful handouts and links to further reading materials.
The partners will continue to maintain the relationships they have built with local schools, policymakers and community organisations and build on the positive results to contribute to the local efforts to combat ESL. The partnership intends to promote the initiative after the lifetime of the ERASMUS+ Leaf project.
We are aware (from our experience) that in order to nurture the benefits of effective methods and tools created to help disadvantaged young people and their parents, we have to work with the schools and the wider community to embed these into their work culture and practices. We shall continue to do so through identifying and seeking grants from local funding bodies.
We stated in the application form that this initiative should be linked to the wider strategies for raising attainment and reducing ESL and the partnership will continue to pursue this task.
The target group children come from a diverse range of communities – e.g migrant and refugee communities (including people from Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe), homeless and unemployed groups, single parent families and children in state care.
Partners will continue to build networks of stakeholders and promote the results and achievements of the Learning Families project outside the areas the activities are targeted by the partners.
The partners have incorporated the LEAF initiative in their own work plans and will work with education authorities, relevant NGOs and grant makers to widen access of this initiative to schools in their operational areas.
FAMILY LEARNING ACTIVITIES
The UK partners held a number of workshops to develop the Family Learning Activities for the target groups and ensured that key learning outcomes and the messages that we wanted to convey to parents were integrated into the structure of the FLA sessions. This was shared with the rest of the partnership, who developed their FLAs to be piloted at schools.
Some short activities are also included in some countries:
- Cultural days
- Sports days
- Picnics
- Art workshops
The main activities for the target groups were delivered over 5 – 7 weeks with each session lasting 1.5hrs (10 -14 parents and children in a group).
The results from these pilot activities informed the development and creation of the Learning Families Training and Resources Kit. We received excellent feedback from the schools, parents and children.
The results of the ERASMUS+ leaf project was disseminated widely by all partners and the UK partners organised a Multiplier Event in July, which attracted more than 30 people from the Haringey Council (Director of Children’s Services and officers), local NGOs and community and refugee groups and parents.
THE FAMILY LEARNING ACTIVITIES AT SCHOOLS (IO2)
Partners from the UK, Romania, Bulgaria and Italy completed the delivery of the family learning activities to parents and children at participating schools. The feedback from the schools, parents and children has been positive. A report on the impact of this initiative will be published on this site shortly.
The partners developed a range of creative activities through workshops and discussions at national and transnational levels.
The following approaches were used to inform the creation of a menu of activities for parents and children:
• Sports days
• Cultural days
• Picnics
• Induction meetings with parents and children
• Art workshops
We have now commenced the preparation of our final product (the Training and Resources package) that schools and practitioners can use to support their efforts to foster learning culture in the family and reduce early school leaving.