2B: What is success in teaching, training and learning?

Audrey is a family numeracy tutor.

‘I was approached by a local comprehensive school to deliver a family numeracy course to a group of Year 7 and Year 8 pupils and their parents. This was the fourth course to be delivered in this school. The school is very aware of the value and benefits gained from family learning. The mathematics department provided a list of topics that they would like to be included in the programme. One of the topics, direction, had never been included in previous programmes, so I had to decide how best to teach it.

‘Being of a practical nature, it seemed appropriate that some of the work should take place outdoors. I contacted a local orienteering organisation at Hamsterley Forest and met a ranger to discuss a possible visit. We agreed that the designated orienteering courses would not be appropriate, but my group would enjoy and benefit from a simplified version.

‘The idea we arrived at was that they would have to follow instructions to find certain objects and landmarks, but once found they should always return to the starting point — less chance of getting lost! A date was fixed and included in the planning of the programme, with the following week being set aside to follow up and evaluate the visit, and also look at direction in more detail.

‘On the day of the visit the children were very excited, but the parents were very apprehensive — not sure of what was expected of them, even though they had been briefed, and not sure whether they would cope. Once the session was under way however their fears soon disappeared and both adults and children really enjoyed the day. The day started with an introductory talk about safety issues map-reading, symbols, direction, etc. and then the challenge! The ranger had produced a series of numbered cards. On each card there was a small section of a map and some written instructions, which when used correctly would lead to a particular object or landmark. Each object or landmark had a letter attached to it, and once found, the letter could be recorded on a blank grid.

‘Once all the letters had been collected, three words would be spelt out on the grid. Each pair, child and parent, was given a different card and off they went! It soon became very competitive, but it was obvious that everyone was enjoying themselves and everyone was learning, and more importantly learning together. After a very exciting but tiring morning, we returned to the classroom for lunch, and then prepared ourselves for the afternoon session.

‘This session was more to do with spatial awareness, estimating and measuring and although not directly associated with our main topic, direction, seemed very appropriate to our surroundings. This session was again planned by the ranger, and again was enjoyable and worthwhile.

‘As far as the children were concerned, the highlight of the afternoon was blindfolding their parents, guiding them to a tree, allowing them to feel the texture of the bark, allowing them to judge the size of the trunk by using their arms, returning their parents to the starting point, removing the blindfolds and then ask the parents to find “their” tree! This was great fun, and was only one of the afternoon activities. By the end of the day, everyone was very tired, but all felt that the visit had been very worthwhile and educational. Some even talked about returning some time to try the orienteering course!

At the end of the orienteering day, everyone was tired, but all felt that they had learned something.

‘The following week had been set aside to evaluate the visit, and look at direction in more detail. Joint sessions take place in the afternoon, so the parents were able to learn, digest and discuss the work in the morning in preparation for the afternoon.

‘The cardinal points of the compass had been used on the visit, so they were revised first. Everyone agreed that the points of the compass were inadequate for navigating, sailing, flying, orienteering, etc. and this realisation led us nicely into three-figure bearings.

‘Bearings were used and discussed, and then came the use of the rotagram, a mathematical instrument used to measure distance.

‘The parents had never seen, used or heard of a rotagram, but very quickly became proficient in using one. They realised its importance in planning routes and how it could be used on the orienteering courses at Hamsterley.’

Rachel is a family literacy tutor.

‘In relation to the joint session on longer programmes, I think it is important to include some fairly specific work on “working with your child” in the adult session. Looking at things like motivation, being positive and constructive, allowing children to be proud of their achievements, and being proud of them, even if what they have produced is not, in your eyes, very good, is really important. One learner last year said this was probably the most useful thing she learnt – not to judge her children’s work by her own standards – and I think it is a really important factor in successful joint sessions and building parent–child relationships and confidence.

‘Also important is recognising that the adults may have such a great need for recognition and praise themselves that they find it extremely difficult to provide this for their child. We need to ensure that what we are recognising, working on and praising with the adults is their ability to work with their child, not the product of that work, otherwise they won’t let their child contribute because they want their product to be “the best”.’

Parents and carers discuss how their children learn.

‘I joined a family numeracy course in order to help my son Stuart with his homework. He is 12 and his maths homework is beyond me and they do things differently in school nowadays. I was really nervous when I went the first time. I soon realised that other parents felt the same when we began to talk about why we had come and our memories of maths in school. We did some number puzzles just to get us thinking. I really surprised myself how much I could do and they were fun. Towards the end of class, Jane, our tutor, asked us to do a short numeracy test. The next week she talked to each of us about what the test scores had shown about the things we could do and what we needed to work on. There weren’t too many surprises for me, but it helped to actually decide which things I wanted to work on and improve.

Lynne did not enjoy maths at school and thought a lot depended on how interesting the teachers made the subject. In the previous part of the course on family literacy she had discovered a love of poetry, having also disliked it at school. She gained real skill in writing haiku. She hopes that she will have a similar change in attitude and confidence with numbers.

‘Jane then wrote down a plan of what we agreed I would work on and how I would do it. I had a copy of the plan at the front of my folder and Jane kept a copy to help her plan the work for me. I agreed that it would be useful to do some work at home each week between classes. Sometimes there were things I did on my own and some were activities that Stuart and I did together.‘Each week Jane marked what I had done. At the end of each class we wrote a few lines in our learning diaries to say what we had done, what had been most helpful and what we had learned. Half-way through the course, Jane and I looked back over my plan and the work I had done and it was really clear that I was improving.

‘Jane asked me to think about taking the national numeracy test. At first the thought made me anxious but after talking with others in the group, four of us decided to have a go. I was really thrilled when I received my Level 1 Numeracy Certificate. Stuart was really proud of me. He and I are much more confident working together – I help him when he gets stuck with his homework.’

An organisation that had developed through regeneration funding and had worked closely with the School Improvement Service had good evidence of raised achievement of children through parental involvement. The provider realised that it was not applying the same rigour to assessing and monitoring the progress of its adult learners. Programmes had been developed by different members of staff, each with different processes and forms.

Staff compared what they each did and realised the rich variety and experience within the team. Individual tutors had developed interesting ways of recording progress that were specific to their programmes. For example, a course on story sacks had a progress sheet with a picture of a sack for each of the four weeks of the course. Learners were asked to write a few sentences in the sacks each week on the skills that they had used and what they had learned that week.

Staff agreed they did not want to stifle such creativity. A policy was agreed, stating the purpose and importance of assessing adult learning and setting out the expectation that every course would have an initial assessment, records of on-going progress, a summative assessment and an evaluation of the programme at the end.

Mothers and carers enjoy a number game with their children. Some are recording what they do with their children as evidence for an OCN accreditation.

They agreed different processes and forms for accredited courses, non-accredited courses and one-off events or workshops.

A file was compiled to include the policy, procedures and common forms, with a section with all the appropriate paperwork for each course. The file is a living document and is updated regularly.

Laraine enrolled on a family learning course at her son’s primary school last year. The course was part of a family programme that aims to develop the numeracy skills of both parent and child in a fun way.

Laraine, who has few formal qualifications, tried many creative approaches to engage her six-year-old son in maths. After each session she would try out new ideas, make games and practise the new methods learnt until she felt confident. This led her to be nominated for a City & Guilds Medal of Excellence. Her outstanding NumberPower portfolio won a Regional Award and Laraine was invited to attend the UK C&G Awards dinner in London.

Later, Laraine was invited to St James’ Palace to be presented with her medal by HRH Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh.

Laraine told us, ‘I can’t believe my portfolio won. The skills I have gained have helped me to understand the new methods used in school so that I can help my four children with their homework’.

Laraine has continued with family learning and recently sat the new national tests for literacy and numeracy at Level 1. She has been inspirational to other parents undertaking family learning in her local area.

A family learning programme for the parents of pre-school children to encourage them to read to their children was held in a community centre serving a mining village. In one session, parents with children in pushchairs walked to the local library They explored the children’s section of the library together.

Debbie and Jack are working on a family learning programme together. Debbie comments, ‘I joined this class because I wanted to know more about computers. I don’t have one at home but I want to buy one. It has taught me a lot. Jack is very good on the computer; he is very good at things like that. I have worked as a supervisory assistant in the school for five years and now I want to do the training to be an education assistant.’

Parents read books to their children and some took the opportunity to look at the adult section for themselves. The adults who were not already library members joined and the children were registered in their own right.

Children chose books to take home with them. The library also had a selection of story sacks, many of which had been produced by adults on previous family learning programmes.