Improving young lives in Burnley

Staff from more than 25 primary schools in the Burnley area attended the partnership event hosted at LAL’s new home at Northlight in Brierfield.

LAL’s Family Learning team ran the session to support Burnley Council’s strategy of ‘Making in it Burnley’ which aims to raise aspirations and increase resilience in young children through Family Learning – leaving them better able to cope with the demands of life.

The event was also attended by the Primary Engineers, the school’s library service, Participation Works, New Era Enterprises, the Children’s University, Burnley FC in the Community and Brierfield Library.

Nicola Hall, Head of Curriculum at Lancashire Adult Learning, said: “We are delighted to be supporting Burnley Council’s strategy to raise aspirations and create resilience in young children through Family Learning and it was a fantastic opportunity to engage with so many schools under one roof.

“The Family Learning team at LAL currently works with over 200 primary schools throughout Lancashire to raise attainment and last year we worked with 2,750 parents. This year we are expecting to work with 3,000 parents – taking learning into the communities where it is needed most and where we can be most effective to deliver positive change.”

Burnley Council leader Mark Townsend said: "We're excited to be working in partnership with Lancashire Adult Learning to support the Making it in Burnley strategy which, we believe, will make a real, positive difference to the lives of some of our borough's citizens, and improve their life chances. Family Learning is one important element of our wider aspiration strategy."

The partnership event brought together schools who have been working with LAL for several years and those who are just beginning a relationship with LAL or those considering one.

Faz Khan, Learning Mentor at Barden Primary School, said: “We have been working with Lancashire Adult Learning’s Family Learning team for five years and it has been an amazing experience for us.

“For parents, it has seen some move onto further courses with Lancashire Adult Learning and others have gained employment through the skills they have learned. For the children, by parents being able to sit down, bond with them and help them with their education, we have seen some gain the best scores in SATS and progress on to really good secondary schools.”

Joanne Elliott, the Family Support Manager and Designated Safeguarding Lead at Springfield Community Primary School, said: “We’ve only done one course so far with Lancashire Adult Learning, an arts and crafts course, but the uptake was very good. The parents on the course really enjoyed it and the children loved seeing their parents in school, which was encouraging.

“We’re now looking at a few other Lancashire Adult Learning courses to offer parents including a Family ESOL course.”

If you would like to find out more about LAL’s Family Learning team and the tailored provision the team delivers in schools across the county, please contact Nicola Hall on [email protected] or Kathryn Taylor on [email protected]

Lancashire Adult Learning also delivers a huge range of planned public provision across the Red Rose County, from Arts and Crafts to Humanities classes, Languages to Health and Wellbeing sessions and Employability courses.

For more information about LAL, contact 0333 003 1717 or visit www.lal.ac.uk.