Schools - BEST Academies
Learning as a Family
Doing things with your children is not only fun, it is an important part of their learning and development. It is also a great way to interact with them and for them to get to know you a lot better. Swimming, days out, a game of football in the park, even walking the dog together are good ways to spend "quality time" with your children.
The Bedfordshire East Schools Trust and the Samuel Whitbread Pyramid of Schools recognise this and have started a scheme to help families do things together and learn new skills as a family unit.
Together with the Extended Services Department, Sam Whit and Best have started a number of "Family Learning Academies" which will let parents, carers and their children learn together and learn from each other.
What are the BEST Academies?
Ian Kite, the Chief Executive of BEST, said:
"An academy is a vertical learning group of people of all ages, as far as is practical. The members of the group design their course and decide how and what they are going to learn and they learn collaboratively"
"For example, there will be a Family Spanish group made up of families of people, the parents and or guardians, carers and their children. The members of the group will have a tutor to help them learn, to access resources and to co-ordinate and facilitate the sessions but the participants will learn and teach each other. The groups will be completely comprehensive."
"Each academy will provide between 20 to 40 hours of co-constructed learning based at a local venue. These courses will culminate with a "learning away experience" where the participants go off to a residential training centre for a three or four day residential learning experience."
"The programmes of learning, resources and residential learning experience will be completely free to the participants."
Cathy Bailey, who is administering the project, told us:
"The courses are resourced by Bedfordshire East Schools Trust, Extended Schools and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, a charitable organisation who are funding the "learning away" experiences. The group will organise a residential learning programme of up to 4 nights stay to completely immerse themselves in their chosen field of learning."
The other academies currently on offer are: Spanish - Gardening - Cooking - Mathematics - English - Poetry - Media/Film - Photography - Science - Family History - Physical Education - Archeology - Performing - Arts - Cricket - Cheerleading.
"We would also envisage an Engineering Academy being set up in due course. BEST are now recruiting families to join these Academies and are also looking for "tutors" to run them."
"We want children, young people and adults (CYPA) to learn at these Academies, but we also want order to encourage CYPA to continue with their learning beyond each phase of schooling. We would want to create all through partnerships with schools, local clubs and community organisations to minimise drop out at; school transitions, 16 and 18+ by having coach/team members and participants work alongside teachers, established coaches and BEST Champions (trained Sixth Formers from SWCC) in each of the academies and for CYP to be part of a single all through Academy."
Cathy went on:
"We believe that the Academy scheme has the potential to transform teaching and learning within our pyramid of Schools, as eventually they will develop into 'all through' structures, serving the learning needs families with children of all ages and involving not just local schools, but also local clubs and community organisations.
We hope it will raise achievement for all learners’ particularly underachieving groups and children in vulnerable circumstances, and lead to children discovering that learning can be fun. Most importantly we hope it will strengthen and improve relationships within families and inspire children to raise their aspirations."
Interested in joining in?
So, if you and your children fancy tracing your family tree, learning how to take the perfect picture, speaking Spanish or any of the other subjects on offer, now is your chance. The academies will start to come on-line during the summer term although community gardening, physical education, media, family history and performance are already underway.
For more information on the Academy scheme, and details of how you can enroll, all you need to do is to contact Cathy Bailey on 01462 701941.