Starting Primary school can be an exciting and nerve-racking time for you and your child. To help you feel more prepared for the big day, we have put together a 5-week ‘Get Ready for School’ course.

This course has been designed to support parents, carers and grandparents of children who will be starting school in September. There will be 5 sessions exploring the following areas:

• Building confidence and supporting independence
• Developing interpersonal and cognitive skills
• Introducing early literacy and numeracy skills
• First days at school and settling in
•Home Learning and Family Learning

Our tutor is a fully qualified primary school teacher who has knowledge of our local schools. She will be liaising with them throughout the course and we may invite specific school staff to join from time to time to chat to you and answer your questions. You will have opportunities to share ideas to support your children and voice any concerns you have.

Workshop style sessions, run in term time (3 x 10 weeks) for parents, carers and grandparents of 1 and 2 year olds.

In Early Start, we focus on your child’s speech, language and communication. We try out and talk about activities and ways you can  support their development and widen their experiences at home and in the outdoor world.

Some of these sessions run in Children’s Centres or libraries adn we also have an online option on Zoom, with short videos of activities to try out in advance followed by chat sessions to share ideas and talk about what your children are learning and how you can adapt activities to suit children of different ages. We can provide support to get started with Zoom if you need it – and don’t worry if children join in the online sessions, they’re very welcome but you can always turn off audio or video if you want to … we’ve all been there!

Some of the face to face sessions have free childcare on site.  Please ask about this when you make an enquiry to ensure we have space for you.

As well as some Family Learning goodies, you will receive a free Look, Say, Sing Play resource pack when you start the course.

Fun with Phonics and How Children Learn to Read and Write are all about developing the skills your child needs to start to be able to read and write.

In Fun with Phonics, we will help unravel the mysteries of phonics and give you lots of tips, games and activities to do with your child to help their early sound and word recognition and reading skills.

Fun with Phonics and How Children Learn to Read and Write are all about developing the skills your child needs to start to be able to read and write.

In ‘How Children Learn to Read and Write’, we talk about sharing stories and books and how you can make reading time a shared treat for you both.  We also try out activities to develop fine and gross motor skills, which are so important for early writing and play.

For adults, parents and careers of children aged 2-5, these two 5 week courses will build on your child’s experience of the world.

In the first 5 week course, we’ll talk about how stories, songs and rhymes really help your child’s speech and language development and we’ll share and learn ideas to try out with them at home. And don’t worry – this isn’t X Factor – your child will not judge your singing!

In the second 5 weeks, we discuss the benefits of risky play and how to manage risk. You’ll try creative outdoor activities and grow confidence in helping your child develop their motor skills. We will explore how using stories outside supports a child’s language and number skills.

These courses have a free crèche available to book when held in local venues.

How children learn English at school / Keep up with the children in English

How children learn maths at school / Keep up with the children in maths

These courses are for you if you want to develop your own skills in English and maths to support primary aged children.  The focus in term 1 is on how the children are taught at school, making resources to try out and talk about, identifying what you already do and talking about how you can extend their learning at home.

In terms 2 and 3 you go on to explore and develop your own English or maths skills, still in the context of what children learn at different stages, but you will be working towards your own adult qualification.  So if you didn’t get the GCSE grade you want, and you need qualifications for work or further study – or if you just want to prove to yourself you can do it – we’re here to help!

An added bonus is that our Keep up tutors are always on hand to help with any tricky homework problems your children bring home!

In this short introductory course, we will look at the causes of stress and share ideas about how we can reduce the negative impact on ourselves and our families. We’ll explore how you can create time out for you and share stress-busting techniques with your family.  Stay calm – you can do this!

This short course will look at the difference between signposting and offering information, advice and guidance to help you to build skills to support people in your community.  If you want to, we can support you to access formal qualifications in IAG too.

Our IAG network community is growing rapidly and the contacts you make through this course may be of real value to you in your future voluntary work or career, as well as being able to put faces to names when referring people you come across to different services.

Join us!

For more information, please visit this page.