Family Learning

“Families are the main context of learning for most people. Learning within the family is usually more lasting and influential than any other. Family life provides a foundation and context for all learning.”
- Riches beyond price: making the most of family learning, NIACE 1995

“…when all other factors bearing on pupil attainment are taken out of the equation, parental involvement … has a large and positive effect on the outcomes of schooling. This effect is bigger than that of schooling itself. Research consistently shows that what parents do with their children at home is far more important to their achievement than their social class or level of education.”
- The Impact of Parental Involvement, Parental Support and Family Education on Pupil Achievements and Adjustment: A Literature Review (Desforges and Abouchaar for DfES, 2003)

Big Wide Talk works at the core of relationships between children, parents and practitioners. We believe that in order to achieve the best possible outcomes for children, it is vital for both parents and teachers to be fully engaged in an ongoing, reflective dialogue with each other about what it is that their children need. However, we also recognise that there can be a lot of barriers to parents when it comes to getting involved in their children’s education, particularly for parents in the poorest places. Low levels of parental involvement have been found in studies to be closely correlated with deprivation, and with related factors such as low family social class, low parental education level and single parent status.

Family learning seeks to address these issues by giving parents and their children the opportunity to learn together, raising the skills of both parents and children and improving parents’ ability to help their children at home. They should also give parents the confidence to speak regularly with their child’s school and act as a bridge for parents to go onto further, accredited adult learning where appropriate. Family learning is therefore vital to improving social mobility, narrowing the gap in educational achievement between the most and least well-off children, increasing the skills base in the UK by promoting adult learning, and reducing the number of children living in poverty.

> Read our Case Study: The Morecambe Bay Theatre of Learning

Big Wide Talk welcomes the government’s commitment, outlined in the Children’s Plan, of £30 million for improving the provision of family learning programmes in the UK over the next three years. Similarly, the duty placed on practitioners working with young children to engage in learning partnerships with parents, outlined in the new Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), is a move in the right direction. However the term “family learning” often conflates a number of distinct approaches, including parental involvement initiatives, home-school liaison, parenting skills lessons and parenting or family support (NIACE 2005). This can be misleading as no one of these approaches on its own is likely to result in all of the beneficial outcomes that a more holistic approach to family learning should provide.

“…unless a whole-community, strategic approach to parental involvement is undertaken, and unless this work is embedded in the school’s teaching and learning strategy and development plan, little return on effort can be expected. Outside this strategic approach, parental involvement activities tend to be ad-hoc, short term and to lack followthrough.” The Impact of Parental Involvement, Parental Support and Family Education on Pupil Achievements and Adjustment: A Literature Review (Desforges and Abouchaar for DfES 2003).

Big Wide Talk can deliver targeted, locally specific and highly effective family learning through their Theatres of Learning and Local Groups. We believe that family learning is most effective when parents, children and practitioners can participate in a community where everyone is considered to be equal, and everyone has something to learn. Our method gives parents and practitioners the opportunity to do exciting things with children, to reflect on what they have learnt and to use their learning to instigate change for children locally and nationally.

Click here to read the stories from 'Enabling Achievement: Parents Make it Happen'