Family Skills

fkillsThe Family Skills project was led by Learning Unlimited working in close partnership with the Campaign for Learning and the UCL Institute of Education. It was delivered across England by 64 expert local delivery partner organisations working with 155 primary schools. The project was funded by the Education Endowment Foundation [EEF] with The Bell Foundation and Unbound Philanthropy, and independently evaluated by NatCen Social Research. You can find out more about the evaluation of Family Skills at www.natcen.ac.uk/familyskills.

More about the Family Skills project

Family Skills focuses on parental engagement to help improve the literacy skills of reception class pupils with EAL. Parents and carers develop their own literacy and language (ESOL) skills on a 30-hour Family Literacy programme which aims to enable them to increase their skills and confidence in supporting their child’s literacy  at home.

The Family Skills literacy programme includes an introduction to education in England and the culture of schools, reading strategies, home literacy practices, oral traditions (including storytelling, songs and rhymes), phonics, learning through play, and making the most of bilingualism.

Family Skills courses in action

Photographs of some of the Family Skills courses that took ...

Family Skills toolkit

The Family Skills toolkit was developed by skilled and qualified Family Learning tutors working in primary school settings. It provides session plans, resources, and activities for a 30-hour Family Literacy course – a digital copy of the toolkit can be requested by following the link below.

The toolkit was a finalist in the 2018 ELTons awards in the Local Innovation category.

An innovative, high-quality, thorough approach which supports community learning

2018 ELTon awards judge

Request a free copy of the Family Skills toolkit

An innovative, high-quality, thorough approach which supports community learning             ...

What is the independent evaluation?

The Family Skills project was independently evaluated by NatCen. The evaluation involved 155 schools – half as ‘intervention schools’ which received the Family Skills programme from January to April 2017. The other participating schools ran ‘business as usual’ and formed the control group for the evaluation. For more information, see: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/projects-and-evaluation/projects/family-skills/

Additionally, internal evaluation was undertaken by the project team and the report was produced by Olga Cara from UCL IoE

Want to know more?

If you have any questions about Family Skills, please contact Karen Dudley on [email protected]  / 020 3700 1162.