Holiday Club (Summer 2008)

Schools in the Clifton Education Action Zone, Extended Services, Families of Rotherham East and RMBC Community Coaches hosted a variety of activities for children, young people and families over the Summer holidays.

Clifton A Community Arts School hosted a Literacy Summer School for Y6 & Y7 pupils with the help and support of Extended Services.

Family activities were held at Coleridge, East Dene, Badsley and St Ann’s schools. Both adults and children said they had really enjoyed the activities and will hopefully be back next year!

Activities for  Herringthorpe families were provided by RMBC and Families of Rotherham East and FORE also ran additional sessions for families across Rotherham.

Across the EAZ children and families were able to enjoy activities as diverse as African drumming, Archery, Track Activities and Circus Skills.  

Parent/Carer Project -Help your Childs Thinking

This was a parent/carer project designed to show how simple strategies can be used to develop critical and creative thinking in their children. 

Introduction:

The teaching of learning skills, as opposed to subject-specific skills, is a rapidly-growing area in schools.  The world is not what it used to be and the demands of the workforce are now such that skills such as communication, reflection, working with others, resilience, problem solving and critical and creative thinking are in great demand as employees have to adapt to new situations and cope with new technologies.  It is impossible to know what kind of jobs will be around when our children leave school, so we must do all we can to make them quick and effective learners, able to cope with whatever they meet.

Strategies such as the Learning Skills Curriculum, in place throughout the Clifton Partnership Education Action Zone and having a very positive effect in schools, help make children aware of these skills.  For this to be supported at home would mean that we are giving our children the best chance possible of succeeding, hence this evening event at Herringthorpe Infant School.  It started at 6pm and was scheduled to end at 8pm, giving parents/carers a chance to arrange child care and to fully engage in the process without having to look after their children during the session. 

Aims:

• To bring together parents/carers with a common interest in supporting their child’s thinking
• To illustrate some of the things happening in school around developing thinking skills
• Through practical activities, begin to become aware of strategies that can be used at home and that will support school
• To equip parents/carers with a starter pack of resources that can be used at home
• To answer any questions parents/carers may have

Positives:

• Parents/carers were engaged throughout the evening, showing a real interest in the activities
• There were very positive comments on the Learning Skills Curriculum
• The resource pack was welcomed, with parents/carers keen to try out the activities with their children
• All parents/carers were committed to finding out more – the five minutes left at the end for questions stretched to forty minutes
• Parents/carers were very impressed at the work being done both in school and across the Education Action Zone

Improvements:

• Although numbers attending were in line with other Family Learning events, there was capacity for more to attend
• A parent/carer evaluation form wasn’t done – future events should have one to enable us to make adjustments according to need
• Some kind of feedback form would also be useful, perhaps for parents/carers to complete and hand in after a few weeks.  This could be a forum for them to share successes and to communicate areas of need. 
• A more structured method of follow up might result in increased parental support in school
• The timing of the event may need to be investigated – a different time might result in more attendees, although it is felt that the absence of children contributed to the success of the event

The Future:

• This is a package that could now be replicated in any school.
• Future events are being planned already
• There is a  strong link between developing critical and creative thinking skills and the Learning Skills Curriculum as a whole.  Perhaps dedicated Learning Skills Curriculum parent events should follow.
• Evaluation/follow up is being planned into the events in a more structured way

 Resource Pack Examples:

The following are some examples taken from the resource pack given to parents/carers on the evening.

• Pictures – one of the activities on the evening involved parents sorting a selection of 12 pictures, all of some kind of building.  There was no given criteria for the sorting, they had to decide that in their small groups.  One group, for example, chose to sort them in size order, another in order of influence.  Lots of discussion arose, where challenges were made, justifications given and anomalies shared.  The following four pictures were given for the parents/carers to discuss with their children, with possible questions such as ‘Which is your favourite and why?’, ‘Could you put them in any kind of order?’, ‘Which is the most beautiful?’ etc.