Family and Community Learning

Are you a family adult (parent, carer, grandparent, aunt, uncle) who would like the opportunity to learn and enjoy activities with your child(ren) or children you care for? Or would you like to gain skills so you are better able to support your child(ren)’s learning?

We run family learning courses where you and your child(ren) can learn and enjoy activities together. You could gain a qualification in supporting children’s learning while doing activities with your child(ren).

We also run courses where you can learn about pre-school early reading skill and the literacy and numeracy methods used in lower schools so you are better able to support your child(ren)’s learning. Don’t worry if you are not confident with literacy and numeracy, the methods you’ll learn will mean you can brush up your own skills.

We deliver courses to groups where opportunities and access to family activities are limited and where adults would like to gain skills to support their children’s learning. Sessions and courses can be delivered in community venues and at lower schools.

If you attend or run a group, or live in a community that would benefit from Family Learning courses please contact Karen for further information, on (01582) 818781 or email karen.simpson@bedscc.gov.uk|

Course	Day	Date	Time	Number of sessions	Price	Venue	Course Code
Keeping Up with the Children Numeracy	Wed	17 Sept - 08	9.30 am - 11.30 am	6	FREE	John Bunyan ICT Centre, Bedford	FLBD302D1N
Keeping Up with the Children Literacy (creche available)	Wed	28 Sept - 08	9.30 am - 11.30 am	6	FREE	Redborne Upper Ampthill	FLBD301D1N
Family First Aid, dealing with accidents	Thur	25 Sept -08	7 pm - 9 pm	6	FREE	Samuel Whitbread Upper  Clifton	FLSW401E1N
Family First Aid, Dealing with Accidents	Tues	23 Sept -08	9.30 am - 11.30 am	1	FREE	Raleigh House, Ampthill Rd Bedford	WFBD201D1N
Family First Aid, Fevers, Fits, Choking & Allergies	Tues	30 Sept -08	9.30 am - 11.30 am	1	FREE	Raleigh House, Ampthill Rd Bedford	WFBD202D1N

Please telephone (01582) 818781 to register for any of these courses.

Recent Events

Family Gardening at Leedon Lower School

Family Learning runs courses and workshops that give parents, carers and their children opportunities to learn and develop new skills together.

During Spring, Family Learning ran gardening sessions at Leedon Lower School for a group of families to give them the opportunity to learn about growing and caring for plants together. In March, after finding out about the life-cycle of an annual plant, the families had a go at sowing tomato and flower seeds in pots.

After Easter the seeds had grown so the children learnt how to give the seedlings more space by transplanting them into trays. The group also spent time digging, weeding and adding soil improver to establish a vegetable patch. The children learnt about why some plants, vegetables especially, store food which we eat and had a go at identifying vegetables.

A week later families were busy sowing and planting hardy vegetables. Radishes, beetroot, lettuces, salad onions, carrots and peas were sown in the raised bed and potatoes and onion sets were planted in the newly dug vegetable patch. They also sowed runner and dwarf bean seeds ready for planting out once the weather warmed up. Lots of seeds, potatoes and onion sets, as well as instruction leaflets, were given to the families so that they could have a go at growing things home.

Three weeks later an examination of the raised bed showed that the families had been very successful with seed sowing. Digging the rest of the vegetable patch was speeded up when a dad came to help! It was also time to plant out the sunflower plants that the children had sown during the first session.

The good weather continued, speeding up the growth of the half-hardy vegetables so much that they needed planting out a week earlier than planned. At the next session half hardy vegetables were planted out and tomato plants were potted out into their final pots. The children really enjoyed getting dirty, mixing the compost and water-retaining granules.

The final session, which had the theme of 'sensory plants', involved crushing the leaves of culinary herbs to decide which were favourites and planning for flower colour using the colour wheel. Five wooden troughs in the school's quadrangle were weeded, the soil enriched then planted up with herbs. After the final session the school took over the management of the vegetable plots for the benefit of all the children.

The families enjoyed the opportunity to learn about and do gardening together. Comments included “I'm interested in seeing what happens to the seeds".  “Nice to do something constructive.” “Our favourite part was the vegetable plot.” “I enjoyed getting dirty!” “We talked about what we had done and learnt to dig to".