Lockdown doesn’t spell shutdown for Family Learning…
Our super squad of nine are engaging with 128 learners and 22 schools.
Who are we?
BAES' Family Learning team brings parents and children together to learn, giving parents a great insight into how their children learn and how best they can support them. We create a positive, welcoming and relaxed environment in which families can have fun learning together and all our learning programmes include opportunities for adults to get information, advice and guidance on how they can go further with their own learning and how they can get support for any literacy, language or numeracy need.
What was the challenge we faced?
Before lockdown we worked with with primary and secondary schools, children's centres, voluntary organisations and other agencies to help us to run courses suitable for children and their family members or carers. However, once lockdown took hold we found a large number of companies that provide this type of service had closed temporarily due to a lack of locations available for them to teach safely.
Our first problem was that 60% of our learners told us they didn't have access to computers or laptops from their homes. To overcome this we worked hard to produce dynamic activities which were easily accessible on mobile phones - where possible these activities used upcycled and recycled items from the home, which meant there was little to no cost for the families who were taking part.
We also found that many of our learners had no facilities to print out work and complete at home. So our resourceful tutors created live worksheets, interactive games and activities, which our learners could access with their children and fill in online. We tailor-made health and well-being activities designed to promote mindfulness and provided the tools to develop emotional resilience because many of our learners voiced their concerns and anxieties about lockdown and home schooling.
"Loved doing the workouts. They were fun to do and good for imagination"
The result?
- 122 engaged learners at 22 schools in the city: all equipped, empowered and eager to step up as the primary educators of their children.
- Innovative new plans to expand our provision to continue to meet the learning needs of parents in Birmingham.
Currently, we are still supporting schools in Birmingham during lockdown to provide the most vulnerable families with the opportunity to enjoy and achieve. If you are interested in family learning courses or would like to get further information on this please complete the team.
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