5B: What is ‘success’ in leadership and management?

Mark Eales is Director of Education for Doncaster LEA.

‘The LEA, despite a low resource base, set two key goals of combating deprivation and raising achievement in the year 2000. Family learning was seen as having a strategic importance and making a contribution to the Education Development Plan theme of “engagement of parents and the community in their children’s learning”. The advent of Mayoral governance led to significantly increased support for education, particularly community and family learning. We were delighted that the Adult Learning Inspectorate report in 2003 recognised the clear direction and strategic framework for adult and community learning, including family learning, an effective strategy to involve the local community, clear policies and procedures for equal opportunity and some good use of formal evaluation to improve the quality of provision.

‘Doncaster continues to see the engagement of the community, be it adults, children or families in learning, as the key to a brighter more dynamic future, where its citizens will be proactive and confident individuals, able to contribute to our society at all levels and secure employment in the rapidly expanding economy. Learning for life is not just a slogan – it is about day-to-day action, which will enable people to make choices about the lives they wish to lead.’

Kevin Crawford is Head of the Children and Family Education Service in Coventry, a long-established family learning service.

‘Family Education has been built on a lot of developmental projects. Family learning is now shifting from a project-based approach with short-term funding to a service-based approach. There are some really exciting projects across the country but the challenge is how to turn those into a service.

‘We need to raise the profile of family learning. This is happening as people come together locally and nationally with a positive view of what family learning can achieve. People are beginning to recognise the potential of family learning and its power to motivate learners. It hits a range of Government targets – children’s achievement, family and social cohesion, crime and regeneration as well as the adult learning agenda.

Family learning staff team meeting

‘There is a move towards consistency as people find out more about what others are doing by meeting and by seeing. We are less insular in curriculum development.

‘These developments need to be underpinned by sound staff development practice and opportunity.’

Ian Blakely is Manager of Fast Lane Family Learning Service. He comments on the self-assessment process.

‘The most important part for me as a manager around the self-assessment process was to be able to encourage the whole staff, in a very open way, to think about how to move forward and make improvements. Everyone could have their say and put forward their viewpoint to help us reach judgements. The immediate effect of this was that it helped people to be self-critical in a non-threatening way. It set people thinking in their own heads about how they could improve their own practice.’

One Chair of a Family Learning Network commented on audit and strategy as follows.

‘Our family learning network looked at the potential for family learning across a sub-region and undertook an audit of all provision. We agreed a definition of family learning to be “events or activities that are planned and purposeful for families to work and learn together”. We also agreed that events and activities should be progressive, that is, designed to encourage the learner to continue to learn. On the basis of an audit, the partners in the network drew up a three-year action plan.

‘Although we did not find anything out from the audit that we were not expecting, it created a framework for the sub-region and an action plan. It also created a common agenda for the local Learning and Skills Council and the providers in the sub-region. The priorities in the action plan are reflected in our own Adult Learning Plan and our local priorities are also reflected in the Network’s strategy.’

Carol Laye is the headteacher of a primary school.

‘When I first came here, parents stayed at the school gate. Family learning has helped the school to engage with the community. Parents now see it not just as a place to bring their children to. We now have an active parent governor and parents are confident to come into school. When children work alongside their parents, they see that adults go on learning and it is not just something for the children.’

Laraine and her grandson Callum made a ‘number washing line’ at home using an ideas sheet they were given in a Footsteps into Number session.

A family learning provider in a rural area was approached by a village school to deliver a programme for parents and carers to help them understand how literacy is taught in schools.

The programme was to run for six weeks and would be held in the evening. The accommodation proposed by the school was a classroom with small tables and chairs. Since there were no other users in the building on that evening of the week, the provider negotiated with the headteacher for the programme to be taught in the school staff room.

This provided a comfortable learning environment for the adults. They still had access to the children’s classroom to see materials and visual displays that were used with children. The arrangements were set out in a written agreement that stated what the family learning organisation would provide and what the school would provide.