 Lochend Family Learning Project
Progress Report August 2006 –January 2007
Aim 1: To introduce P5-P7 pupils to their local community learning centre and its facilities. Primary 5 and 6 pupils will be provided with an induction to the network, Internet access, an introduction to the Pathfinder website and e-mail accounts. Primary 7 pupils will visit the Learning Centres to further develop their study skills and Internet research development.
Visits to Local Learning Centres
122 Primary 7 pupils from Lochend Learning Community have visited their local Learning Centre in small groups. They have been developing their Internet Study Skills. Different sources of information were identified and the advantages and disadvantages of using the Internet for research was discussed. The pupils found out 3 facts about a chosen subject and a compiled a biography of a famous person. Each fact or picture needed to be referenced by the web address.
Pupil who have attended these visits have completed an evaluation. It asks if the pupil enjoyed the visit, which activity they like best, if they think they have learned lots of new skills and whether they will return to the Leaning Centre. The response has been very positive.
89% of pupils said they thought they had learned something or lots of new things. 88% of pupils thought the visits were really good or said they had enjoyed them 79% of pupils said they would like to go back to their local Learning Centre in their own time.
So far this term, 18 Primary 6 pupils have been introduced to the Pathfinder website and have learned how to use their email accounts.
Aim 2: To involve young people and their families in learning together using their local community learning centre.
Visits to Learning Centres with fdamily members.
A visit to the Learning Centres was arranged for the children after school or during school time when members of their family were welcome. Those attending received a Gold certificate. 11 adults have participated.
Family Fun Week
Family Fun Week was organised 2nd – 6th October. At the 5 different Learning Centres there were activities for adults, teenagers and children. The teenagers worked on Acid Express, creating their own music. There was an Internet Treasure Hunt for adults about household expenses. The younger children had Internet Treasure Hunts on a children’s website and an art activity.
39 children, 14 young people and 5 adults attended. All the computers in all the Learning centres were full. One Mum who had not been interested in learning before signed up to attend the Monday night IT class at FARE.
IT courses and classes
Three Widening Access IT courses have been arranged for adults through the project. Support staff from Lochend Learning Community are working towards the European Computing Driving Licence. IT Flexible Learning classes for parents of children at Wellhouse Primary and Buchlyvie Nursery, take place at local Learning Centres with the support of tutors from John Wheatley College.
The total number of adults involved in the project August – January is 46.
Aim 3: To develop web based learning resources for upper primary and lower secondary children in partnership with Lochend New Learning Community. These will support the school curriculum.
Primary web links pages
There are now over 40 Primary web links pages linked to the 5 – 14 curriculum, these are online on the Pathfinder website.
www.greatereasterhouse.co.uk/geln/lochend_fam_learn/LFLintro.html
The Pathfinder is a website created by staff at John Wheatley College in Easterhouse in partnership with local people. The Lochend Family Learning pages of topic web links are shown as a grid with hyperlinks to the website, a description of the site and a suggested interactive task for the pupils to focus their thinking, at the appropriate level. The pages can be used to support class work, homework research or for fun. From October to January there were 2007 visits to these Primary pages.
Secondary school links
Secondary school links are also being developed in consultation with the staff at Lochend Community High. Web links pages have been made for S1 and S2 Glasgow 5 – 14 Social Studies subjects. There are 7 pages of interactive games and activities for Modern Studies and 6 pages for Social Studies topics. 281 visitors have accessed the Secondary pages.
Publicity
For publicity a booklet of the web links grids for each primary topic has been updated and sent to every primary teacher in Lochend Learning Community.
The Lochend Family Learning pages can be accessed through the Glasgow City Council Education Intranet GEN2 from the Library Section.
Groups of 'Access to Humanities' students at John Wheatley College in Shettleston and Easterhouse were introduced to the Lochend Family Learning Project. The students were shown the primary web links pages on the Pathfinder website and how they could be used. Ways of finding websites for children, including a list of things to check were suggested. They were also told about the after school clubs. Two students volunteered to help at The Pavillion.
Aim 4: To develop a homework support service.
Glenburn IT Homework club
The Glenburn IT Homework club set up by the Lochend Family Learning Project for local children is now run independently from the project by Glenburn staff. It takes place 4 evenings a week.
After school ICT and homework club at The Hub in Wellhouse
There is an after school ICT and homework club at The Hub in Wellhouse on Wednesday 3.30 – 5.30 pm. The young people use websites for their school research or do interactive activities on suggested topics. An art activity is always available and the children borrow books from the library at The Hub. There is a display of their work in the café. This club is supported by a local volunteer.
The Pavillion IT Homework club
The Pavillion IT Homework club is on Fridays. The young people who attend are developing excellent computing skills. The Health wallchart made last year in partnership with Lochend Learning Community Health co-ordinator was used as an example of good practice at the SETT exhibition. Other projects have included a booklet about the Learning centre, Powerpoint presentations to accompany songs and creating Art using IT. From February the club will be run by two Access to Humanities students from John Wheatley College.
Bishoploch Hall Learning Centre
Support was provided to the Bishoploch Hall Learning Centre staff to set up an after school IT club through this project. Ideas for activities were discussed and demonstration sessions taken. The club is now run independently by centre staff.
Community Connections Kidz Club
The Community Connections Kidz Club was started in partnership with this project. It was initially an IT project, a local volunteer introduced art activities then Glasgow City Council provided a sports coach to take PE sessions. The club attracted over 30 children a week but had to close with the liquidation of Community Connections’ parent organisation.
Other Learning Centres
Other Learning Centres in the Greater Easterhouse area outside Lochend Learning Community have been visited to discuss how to set up an after school club. They have been given a booklet of ideas and activities.
Aim 5: Involving local schools in community life.
Lochend Community Involvement Programme
The Lochend Community Involvement Programme started in August at Bishoploch Hall. It was organised in partnership with Lochend Community High School, John Wheatley College, Bishoploch Hall and this project. Two groups of S5/6 students are creating music and conducting interviews with local people on community related issues of their choice with guidance from a John Wheatley tutor. An Internet radio programme will be compiled and CD copies will be available to buy.
Liaison with the Bridge Library
After liaison between this project, the Bridge Library and the schools, the staff of 3 primary schools came to the library for In-service sessions. Two classes of primary children have attended authors’ readings. Rogerfield P4/5 attended a Roald Dahl Day event held at the Library. Copies of the Lochend Family Learning web links pages were given to the library staff to support the Library’s after school IT club.
Visit to John Wheatley College
Blairtummock P3/4 came to the John Wheatley College restaurant as part of their work on Healthy eating. The pupils were served a nutritious breakfast by college students. They met the chef who showed them around the kitchen then presented them with a certificate.
Other community visits
A group of Wellhouse pupils visited Provanhall house to learn about local history and take photographs as part of a Scottish Civil Trust project. Wellhouse Primary 6 planted strawberry plants and bulbs at The Hub. This linked with their eco-school work. Wellhouse Primary 7 developed their school Year Book at their local Learning Centre.
Aim 6: To work with the Trondra Local History group to produce an Education Pack developed from and extending their book about the History of Easterhouse.
Education pack and workmaterial
The Education Pack is being developed to accompany and extend the book “Hidden History” published by the Trondra Local History Group, based at John Wheatley College. The role of the Project is to link the local history research to suitable classroom activities and aims within the 5 -14 Glasgow Environmental Studies curriculum.
Worksheets have been created for the Bronze Age era. Project timelines and plans, designed support the Trondra Group research, link to 5 – 14 Environmental Studies.
Local history web links
Seven web links pages on local history topics have been created to supplement the Education Pack. Four of these are online at www.greatereasterhouse.co.uk/geln/lochend_fam_learn/LFLlocal_history.html
There have been 163 visitors to these web link pages.
Publicity /Communication and Evaluation
The JohnWheatleyCollege magazine featured an article about the Wellhouse Mums’ IT flexible Learning group.
Regular presentations about the project are made to the Greater Easterhouse Learning Network Representatives at their meetings. This gives an opportunity for feedback from the Learning Centres.
The Greater Easterhouse Partnership Education and Lifelong Learning Group meetings were attended.
There is an article about Family Learning week on The Pathfinder website at http://www.greatereasterhouse.co.uk/news/famFunWeek06.htm
Primary pupils who attended Family Learning sessions have completed a multiple choice evaluation. The response has been very positive.
Judy Long Lochend Learning Community Development Officer
The Pathfinder includes links to
3rd party sites which are deemed to be useful or of interest to
residents of Greater Easterhouse as part of the Learning Network
service. However the Greater Easterhouse Learning Network is not
responsible for the content on 3rd party websites and a link to
a site should not be regarded as a recommendation of the service.
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