Glasgow Clyde College is one of the largest further education providers in Scotland, with over 500 full-time and part-time courses to choose from, and is a multi-site college with campuses in Anniesland, Cardonald and Langside.
Community Learning and Development (CLD) sits within the college’s Faculty of Arts and Continuing Education. It provides outreach learning provision to adults across the North West and South of Glasgow, often in partnership with community organisations, schools and the voluntary sector and third sector.
Empowering parents
The Supporting Parents – Supporting Children Numeracy and Mathematics Levels 1 and 2 units at SCQF levels 4 and 5 were developed by Glasgow Clyde College’s CLD team.
They were created in response to parents and caregivers expressing concerns about their ability to support their children with these subject areas, initially in early primary, but extending through primary and early secondary.
Parents and carers stated a lack of confidence in how to support their children, as well as a lack of confidence in their own competence in maths and numeracy as key factors in disengaging from supporting their children at home. Both researchers and teaching professionals have identified this as a key factor in the attainment gap in maths and numeracy with school-age children.
Learning outcomes
The units focus on four objectives:
- Understanding Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) in the context of their children’s learning, particularly as it relates to levels 1 and 2 numeracy and mathematics;
- Understanding the core language used in numeracy and mathematics within CfE;
- Developing a strong understanding of the curriculum and how this would be delivered in a primary school context; and
- Developing methods to work with their children on their numeracy and maths.
In the Review of Family Learning Supporting Excellence and Equity (Scottish Government 2016), it is suggested that the reason we have a family learning approach is to support, equip and build capacity among Scotland’s parents in order to capitalise on children’s opportunities for learning.
It sees this as an important step in raising attainment and closing the poverty-related attainment gap. However, it also recognises that to impact on a child’s individual attainment, aspirations and personal learning journey, a family learning approach must be seen as a catalyst in helping adults take up adult learning and training opportunities, gain employment and attain new skills as part of the family learning cycle.
These learning programmes support this connection between the importance of delivering family learning that supports adults in their learning, and one that effectively supports children’s attainment and aspiration.
The impact
Feedback from parents and partner organisations has been very supportive of both the content of the units and the approach taken in targeting STEM provision within families. Parents and carers have commented that they have been able to increase their own knowledge and understanding of a topic they found challenging to the extent that they were comfortable working with their children.
Parents said:
“For the first time I was able to sign my son’s homework knowing I had helped him instead of asking the teacher for help. I felt great.”
“Homework is a more relaxed time, I no longer lose my temper and walk away as an excuse for not knowing what I am doing.”
“I use what I am learning in my own life. I want to do more studying and become a teacher support.”
