Family Learning Week
"As parents we are not ashamed to have our knowledge updated by our children. Our kitchen table is where the homework of our girls always ends up. Every emotion has surfaced across that table. Without doubt my wife and I have our brains regularly tested and we occasionally fail but we discuss, we argue, we laugh, shout and get frustrated - but everyday all four of us learn!", Philip Schofield, TV presenter."Learning and experiencing new things whatever the subject is the essence of life, we love watching babies and toddlers learn about day to day things with such enthusiasm, but we often lose that enthusiasm ourselves, there is no reason why adults can't have the same amount of fun learning, since, whatever your parents may have said, you never get to the point where you know everything, if you did you'd be bored!", Phillippa Forrester, TV Presenter.
National Family Learning Week (FLW), this year from 7-15 October, is an annual awareness campaign promoting and supporting organisations to run FLW events across the country. The Campaign for Learning (CfL) started co-ordinating Family Learning Day in 1998 to highlight the importance of Family Learning, which has now grown to nine days of fun for families across the country.
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The Day itself works as a 'hook' to draw people into learning, who might not otherwise get involved by offering it in a relaxed and familiar atmosphere. Fun, informal learning can be far more successful in engaging people who do not currently participate in formal learning. Mums, dads, grandparents, children and friends participate in locally organised events that reawaken their curiosity to learn. Throughout the country, schools, libraries, museums, sports centres and shopping malls throw open their doors and invite families to discover how to build a robot, create a Roman newspaper, prepare an Indian banquet or animate drawings. The combination of fun and learning are the main ingredients in the Week's winning formula.
Key facts and figures
 Children spend only 15% of their waking hours in school
A four year old can ask up to 400 'why' questions in a single day (if each question took one minute that's nearly seven hours of questions)
The first ten years of our lives are when we learn at the fastest rate.
By the time they are six the average child has learnt 14,000 words
Seven year olds who had been given books at nine months achieved results 20% higher than other children in national English, maths and science tests. (the Bookstart Programme)
Children of parents showing high levels of interest in their children's schooling can progress between 15-17% more in maths and reading between the age of 11 and 16 as compared to pupils whose parents showed no interest. (Feinstein and Symon 1999)
Parents who do not or cannot help their children learn risk seeing them lose out on nearly one-quarter of their potential attainment. Research shows that a quarter of the attainment of top-scoring children at the age of 16 is explained by the interest their parents took in their education. (Campaign for Learning's Give Your Child a Better Chance, 2003).
Interested parents make a huge difference, regardless of class or income. (Dr Leon Feinstein, 2003)
36% of grandparents devote more than 21 hours a week to caring for grandchildren. (ICM/Guardian, 2000 )
Nearly one in four parents believe their children's education is not their responsibility and should be left entirely to schools. (Mori, Nov 1999)
The serious message behind Family Learning Week is that family support of a child's learning has the single biggest impact on their educational development. The Campaign for Learning hopes to show families, through Family Learning Week, that this suport is easy to give, fun to do and can often be life changing.
By bringing Family Learning Week into the headlines, the Campaign and it's partners hope to raise public awareness of the importance of family learning generally and the opportunities that exist through Family Learing Week, as well as focusing Government attention of the need to continue to fund and support family learning in the community.
For more information take a look at Family Learning Week
October 2006 |
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