Isle of Wight Council Family Learning Service
Encouraging parental engagement
The Family Learning Service, part of Isle of Wight Council’s Adult and Community Learning Service, has set up a family learning centre at one of the island’s primary schools.The centre was set up partly to provide a model for how extended schools could operate in a community. The centre uses its own teaching resources as well as working in partnership with local providers to deliver family literacy, language and numeracy (FLLN) programmes both at the centre and at primary and middle schools across the island via a team of teachers and learning support assistants. Programmes are actively promoted at coffee mornings, family breakfasts and school fairs.
Feedback from headteachers suggests that parents are more willing to engage and communicate with them following an FLLN programme. Several schools have recruited governors from parent learning groups.
