Bemis Scotland and 4Children have joined together to put on 3 workshops here in Scotland where you can give us your views on what it is like to be a parent or carer in today’s world. Please take time to join us at one of the workshops on 30th October and give us your views.
4Children Inquiry Surveys – Britain’s Families: thriving or surviving?
Children and families charity 4Children has recently launched a major Inquiry into modern family life in Britain. “Britain’s Families: thriving or surviving?” asks parents, carers and young people across the country about what it is like to live in Britain today. We want to uncover the challenges and opportunities they face, and ask what can be done to better support family life. You can read more about the Inquiry at: http://4children.org.uk/Page/thriving-or-surviving
As part of the project, there will be three focus groups in Glasgow on Friday 30th October, for parents and carers who would be interested in participating. BEMIS Scotland are particularly keen to make sure that the voice of the diverse ethnic minority community is heard. The focus groups will be taking place at Centrum Building, 38 Queen Street, Glasgow at the following times:
When: Friday 30th October
At: 11.00 am – 12.30 pm
OR 1.00 pm – 2.30 pm
OR 3.00 pm – 4.30 pm
Where: The Board Room, 1st Floor, Centrum Building, 38 Queen Street, Glasgow
Please book your session here
If you have any questions please contact liz.mcconnell@bemis.org.uk
If you are unable to attend a focus group but are interested in taking part in the Inquiry, 4Children are also running two surveys to gather views from people in England, Scotland and Wales. One is for children and young people (aged under 21) and the other is for parents and carers. These are available via the following links:
Children and Young People Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/inquiryYP
Parents and Carers Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/inquiryparent
The surveys take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. To thank those who participate for their time, we are offering everyone who completes one of the surveys the chance to be entered into a prize draw to win £50 of Love to Shop vouchers.
In August we offered to provide “Bespoke Support” for schools and Parent Councils wanting help to better engage with the ethnic minority families in their school. The closing date for applications was 14 September and we had a really hard time choosing the six schools and Parent Councils we would be able to work with. After a lot of discussion and cups of coffee we managed to choose six schools- all with distinct needs, diverse populations and a real desire to reach out to all parents. The people we’ll be working with are:
Corpus Christi Primary School and Parent Council (Glasgow)
Dalry Primary Parent Council (Edinburgh)
Hillpark Secondary Parent Council (Glasgow)
St Francis Xavier Primary School and Parent Council (Falkirk)
St Mary’s Primary Parent Council (Edinburgh)
St Mungo’s Primary Parent Council (Alloa)
We’ll be sharing our journey with each of the schools here and are really excited about learning about what’s happening in each school and how we can best support them- keep an eye on this blog to find out more
A huge thanks to everyone who came along to our seminar at the Scottish Learning Festival yesterday. It was great to have the opportunity to share the learning from the Scotland, People and Language Forum we held in February with new people and highlight some of the issues that were raised in the Forum. One of the points that people had raised was the importance of having resources and that these resources were being used- if bilingual books aren’t being borrowed a library won’t reorder them. In our briefing papers we have identified some great resources around language learning- including information about supporting bilingual learners, an introduction to the 1+2 Approach and sites that selling dual language books.
In preparing for this seminar we asked people to share their good practice in celebrating language diversity and got some fabulous ideas back including the work of James Gilespies primary school in Edinburgh where “The Gruffalo” was read in 14 languages! We would really like to hear more about what you are doing to celebrate the languages in your schools and communities- please share your ideas
Your can read the full report from the Scotland People and Language Forum here or click here to see our presentation
You can read the briefing papers we created for the seminar
For our seminar at the Scottish Learning Festival in September we are going to be sharing some of the good practice that came out of our Scotland, People and Language Forum. We know that there is wonderful work going on throughout Scotland to support language diversity- including celebrating the home language of children whose first language isn’t English, getting parents to come in and teach their native language and using bilingual story books that can be used at home and in school.
But we know there are more brilliant things going on in schools and communities. If you have any tips for celebrating language diversity please leave a comment below or email marion.fairweather@bemis.org.uk
For the past two years Gathered Together has been supporting parents from ethnic minorities to become more involved in their children’s learning and school communities. We’ve been working directly with schools, Parent Councils and parents from ethnic minorities (you can read about our work with EM parents and the good practice that’s going on in schools and Parent Councils here). We know that engaging with parents who are new to Scotland can be a challenge and also how important it is that these parents are supported to be able to help their children’s learning and be part of the school community. We also know how much parents from other cultures can bring to schools- helping children learn about other cultures, religions and languages and to become responsible citizens
This term we are planning to support six schools or Parent Councils, providing bespoke support to meet the needs of the individual school/ Parent Council to engage more effectively with families from ethnic minorities. Our support is up to 10 contact hours and the bulk of the support would need to take place by December 2015
The support will include:
If you have any questions please email richard.bloodworth@bemis.org.uk or phone 0141 548 8047.
Complete this form Bespoke-support-application-form (3)
The deadline for applications is 14 September 2015 (applications to be sent to richard.bloodworth@bemis.org.uk)