What is Family Learning?
Fully funded* Family Learning courses are a great way to support parents, carers and wider family members to support their child’s learning and development at home.
A family learning course is:
- Fun, practical and engaging and provide learning activities for families to follow up at home, building on what children are learning in school or nursery
- Relaxed, friendly and inclusive and provide a supportive environment to help parents update and refresh their own skills and build confidence
- A way to support parents to support their child with homework and to help them understand current teaching methods
- Linked to the Primary National Curriculum or the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework
- An opportunity to build links between home and school/nursery
- A step into wider learning opportunities for parents
- Run by qualified, friendly and experienced tutors
Funding may be available towards registered childcare to enable parents to attend. (A crèche may be provided by the host venue or registered childcare costs refunded, depending on circumstances. Please contact us for more information.)
Family English, Maths, IT and ESOL courses provide a focus on core skills and are designed to enable parents to make progress at their own level. Current teaching methods are introduced so parents can more effectively support their child’s learning.
Wider Family Learning courses offer families the chance to work together across a range of subjects and topics and develop a wide variety of skills. These courses also build confidence and promote a love of learning.
A flexible approach
Some Family Learning courses are primarily designed for parents and children to work together - this is when the full impact of Family Learning is achieved. The exact timings can be negotiated to suit. Sometimes we realise that it might not be possible to facilitate the joint session so please do discuss with us as we are very flexible.
What can you expect from Cambridgeshire Skills?
We will work with you to identify the most appropriate Family Learning provision for your setting. Once agreed, we will provide you with marketing materials to share with parents and are available to answer any questions you may have about eligibility for funding.
We will provide a fully qualified tutor who will plan learning to suit the needs of the families enrolled on the course and, where necessary, additional learning support. We will also provide careers information and guidance to enrolled parents to support them to progress on to further learning and employment.
At the end of the course, we can provide a summary of feedback received from parents to help you assess the impact Family Learning is having in your setting.
What will you need to provide?
You will need to provide an appropriate space for learning to take place on your premises. Before the course starts, we will visit and complete a health and safety check and risk assessment and complete a Service Level Agreement with you.
You will also need to promote the courses and take details of parents wishing to enroll onto the programme. Please note all courses need a minimum number of 6 parents enrolled to be able to run.
If we have agreed to a joint session with the children as part of the course you will need to support with ensuring children are available and are brought to the session at the agreed time.
What courses could we offer?
Our course offer is flexible and responsive and we can work with you to design learning that meets the needs of the families at your school. Some examples could be:
- Keeping up with the Children (English/Maths/ESOL/Digital Skills)
- Family Budgeting
- Starting school
- Confidence and Wellbeing
We also deliver engagement sessions such as our very popular themed Escape Room sessions (see posters below):
For more information please contact the Curriculum Team.
Cambridgeshire Skills - adult learning - Cambridgeshire County Council
For details of all the courses go to our Family Learning Offer.
