How to use this exemplar to improve practice?

This resource can be used in settings, schools by practitioners or by parents at home. The illustrative videos invite you to try out some enjoyable activities and games with children in the classroom or with parents and families at home. The videos complement the books in the Read, Write Council bag which has been gifted to families by the Scottish Book Trust.

What was done?

Edinburgh City Council worked with Scottish Book Trust and Moray House School of Education and Sport to develop short videos to support children’s learning at home.

Why?

The funding supported the Read, Write, Count Group to address inequalities by engaging with families who may not otherwise find it easy to engage with the Scottish Book Trust’s universal gifting of resources or with the school in general. It specifically targeted families learning English as a second or other language, fathers, families with Looked After Children, and other families identified as likely to benefit from a focussed interaction.

Research on the impact of family learning and parental engagement underpinned the project. In particular that parental engagement in their child’s learning is a key factor to ensuring successful attainment and lifelong learning outcomes.

What was the impact?

Key findings included:

• Participation in family learning programmes had a significant and lasting impact on parents.
• Understanding how the every-day activities parents do with their children can be learning experiences.
• Knowledge and skills to help parents manage their child's behaviour.
• Having parents own knowledge valued gave them confidence that they were able to learn, and so help to teach their children.
• A supportive social space, helped parents feel that their goals were respected. It helped facilitated wider social networks that led to personal development.
• Participation in family learning impacted on parents’ self-confidence and raised their horizons of possibility. This allowed them to consider embarking on new careers.

Improvement questions

• How do we identify and overcome barriers to participation for parents in the service / setting and the opportunities we provide PACS 2.3
• How can we demonstrate families feel included and are participating, achieving, and progressing? HGIOS 4 5 Family Learning
• How can we ensure that provision is responsive to the needs of families? HGIOS 4 5 Family Learning
• How well do we share skills, information, knowledge and experience with those we work in partnership with. HGIOS 4 2.7 Partnerships
• Does our family focussed programmes engage families from a range of social and cultural backgrounds? HGIOCLD 2.2B Adult Learning
• How well do our programmes increase the knowledge, skills and confidence of parents to support children and young people’s learning and development? HGIOCLD 2.2B Adult Learning