Learning Solutions

The Learning Beyond team have been responsible for the development and delivery of several bespoke learning solutions that meet the needs and demands of schools and the wider community.  Here are a just few:

The SHARE Project

Share is an innovative family learning project which is being offered to infant/primary schools in your local education authority and in other areas throughout the country. Building on the experiences of many schools and on previous project work with parents, it seeks to make an important contribution to the quality of parents' involvement in their childrens's learning as one of the most positive and worthwhile influences on improving children's educational attainments.

The Aims of Share
To improve the educational attainment of children.
Many research programmes have found that children are more likely to be successful at school if their parents are involved in their education. Share offers teachers and parents an additional means of improving the educational attainment of children in their care.

To motivate parents to take an active interest in their children's education and to further their own education.
Research has also shown that the vast majority of parents are keenly interested in their children's educational development but that many are not sure of the best way to help their child learn. Share aims to give parents an understanding of how children learn, and to provide them with a range of practical learning activities to use at home with their child. At the same time, Share gives parents an opportunity to discover their own abilities, and to find out how much they can enjoy and gain from learning.


To develop effective management and organisation of parental involvement in schools.
Like other educational initiatives, Share is more likely to be effective if it becomes embedded in the everyday life and work of the school, as part of its routine planning and organisation. The Share model helps schools to co-ordinate a variety of types of parental involvement and develop a whole-school approach.

 

Golden Goal Project

Using football as the theme and recognising that the family unit is at the centre of learning.  This intergenerational learning project will encourage children, parents, teachers and other community workers to build a positive partnership that shares a common interest.  This common interest is football - the beautiful game!

The Golden Goal project concentrates on core curriculum subjects by translating good ideas into practice as well as establishing new partnerships with other agencies such as your local football club, library services, local schools and colleges of further education.

Golden Goal has been successfully pioneered in Walsall, West Midlands and schools participating in Golden Goal have the assistance of professional football staff at Walsall Football Club and access professional games at the Banks's Stadium.

It encourages parents and children to build on existing family skills, self esteem and experiences that affect a family unit living together with the shared common interest of football!

The project is non-threatening to adults or children and demonstrates that the parent is both actively and positively supporting the child's education.

For everyone involved it helps build confidence, the understanding of roles and responsibilities, self-esteem, communication, skills, standards and ultimately the golden goal - to improve the quality of life for everyone in our local community!

 

Down in the Deep Blue Sea!

 

West Midlands rock legend Noddy Holder returned to the studio to record a new CD ‘Down in the Deep Blue Sea' especially for children and families to enhance their learning together.

It is an exciting Family Learning collection of nautical activities, songs and narrative that will be offered to families with young children.

 

Learning doesn’t have to be limited to the classroom but many families don’t know how to help support learning at home.   This is a brand new enchanting collection of learning materials that are fun for all the family!

 

Noddy Holder was keen to be involved with the project and is delighted that families now have the opportunity to explore new ways of learning.

 

Whilst recording the narration of the undersea adventure story Noddy said, ‘This a really great resource and something I am really proud of.  Learning as a family – what a brilliant idea!’

 

So welcome to, ‘Down in the Deep Blue Sea'

 

To children, parents are the most important teachers.  And all parents want to help their children to succeed but sometimes don’t know how best to go about it.

 

This is why ‘Down in the Deep Blue Sea - a Family Learning programme for you and your children is so important!

 

Read the adventure story to your children – or let them read it to you!  Join in with the songs and do the enjoyable learning activities together.  They are all fun sessions you can do at home.  They are full of facts and lots of positive learning outcomes that will enable your children to grow in confidence and learn whilst they have fun!

 

Dive into the Deep Blue Sea and have a really fun time with your children!

 

‘Down in the Deep Blue Sea’ was created in collaboration with Earlybirds Music and inspired by our own children - Rachael, Ben, Jacob, Ben and Sam.

 

 

 

Spaceman Sid

 

Action songs for Early Years, Primary & Special Children

 

Spaceman Sid is an exciting collection of original children’s educational action songs, video, puzzles and is arguably the best collection of original children's songs ever!

 

Music is about having fun!’ claims Spaceman Sid as he flies around the Planet Blid singing songs about the Brontasaurus Stomp, Ollie the Octopus and the Early Birds Hand-Jive with his Early Birds Orchestra.

 

Written by children’s television writer Vo Fletcher, Spaceman Sid is an enjoyable and informal way of developing skills in literacy and numeracy as well as a love of music and movement.

 

Every child receives a CD or tape of the songs and the beautifully illustrated songbook, whilst staff and parents are provided with informal training to enable them to support learning

 

The Spaceman Sid programme is recommended by the National Grid for Learning as an effective method of supporting learning both at home and at school.

 

We are delighted to be able to offer you the opportunity to participate in an exciting and innovative learning project. 

 

 

 

Storybook Weaver Project

 

Storybook Weaver is a family learning programme whereby parents use specially designed software to produce a high quality book with and for their children.  The books are printed using the latest colour printing equipment and are laminated to ensure they are durable.  The supplementary work underpins the Skills for Life agenda and is mapped to the Adult Core Literacy Curriculum.  In addition, the programme would help your school meet many of the new inspection requirements around Promoting Parents Partnerships and Engaging the Local Community.

 

Participating schools would be provided with:

  • one full days training for up to two delegates 
  • software and licences for up to 10 pc’s
  • resources for delivery of the programme including:
    • laminating pouches
    • laminator
    • colour cartridges
    • colour printer
  • Ongoing telephone and e-mail support
  • Three weekly visit from Consultant to provide support and offer advice and guidance

 

 

Calmer Classrooms

 

Have you ever noticed how your favourite music can make you feel better?  Well, new research studies now show how music can make you smarter too! 

 

Some of the benefits are:

  • Calmer classrooms
  • Improves test scores
  • Reduces errors
  • Improves creativity and clarity
  • Integrates both sides of the brain for more efficient learning

 

In the USA, major corporations such as Shell, IBM, and Dupont, along with hundreds of schools and universities use music, such as certain Baroque pieces, to cut learning time in half and increase retention of the new materials. 

 

There is compelling new evidence to show how music, used properly, has calmed students with such problems as ADHD and even helped autistic children. 43 of the world's largest industrial companies provide music to their employees.  Dupont used a music listening program in one department that cut its training time in half and doubled the number of people trained.  Another corporation using music found that clerical errors decreased by one third.

 

Recently, music by children's television composer Vo Fletcher was the subject of a study by The Psychology Department at Worcester University. Tests proved that not only did this music provide the benefits listed above, it was significantly more effective than other types of music including Baroque music.

 

When your body hears this specially composed music, your heart rate and pulse relax. When you are in this relaxed, but alert state, your mind is able to concentrate more easily.  Music corresponds to and affects our physiological conditions. During heavy mental work, our pulse and blood pressure rises, and naturally it's more difficult to concentrate in this state.

 

In conjunction with the Learning Beyond consultants, Vo Fletcher has been facilitating music in schools for the last 15 years and has extensive first-hand experience of the problems now facing teachers. We are therefore currently looking for schools who would be interested in this innovative approach to better behaviour in classrooms.

 

Using this material involves playing a CD at low level during lessons and during homework over a period of time and noting improvements in behaviour and performance.

 

 

 

Bags of Stories

 

Bags of stories and learning activities are a popular, non- threatening way of encouraging parents and carers to start sharing stories and fun learning activities with their children.

 

All training programmes can be modified to suit the needs of your organisation and the community you serve.  We can deliver the sessions at your location or provide a suitable venue in your area. 

 

 

 

It’s a Man Thing!

 

Evidence collected on achievement levels in schools has indicated a gap between the performance of boys and girls particularly in reading and writing.  The ‘It’s a man thing!’ project was created by ContinYou [formerly CEDC] to make a special effort to support boys’ learning through providing positive role models and mentors.

 

Many fathers, given the motivation and self-confidence, would be willing to carry out clearly-explained and manageable tasks at home with their children, with an explanation of how these are important to their children’s learning.

 

You do not have to be male to co-ordinate the programme – it can be delivered just as successfully by a female member of staff!!

 

We can offer a limited number of spaces on the ‘It’s a man thing!’ training course and, as a special one-off offer, we will provide free-of-charge to each participant organisation sufficient resource packs to run a programme for up to 10 fathers. and male carers. 

 

 

For all course availability and costs, please see our Training Programmes link.

 

For any further details of Learning Beyond programme development:

Contact: Barbara Bennett

Telephone: 07703 741218

Or email us here

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