Today I’ve been meeting with parents and potential ALPs students. So far we have had agreement from 6 of the 8 we had selected. The feedback we received about the content was very positive and both students and parents are looking forward to the programme starting. We’ve invited parents along to the induction day to meet with the staff who are delivering each individual element. We had only one parent who was unable to make it and that was through work commitments.
As we were talking with the first parents, we were chatting about the blogging and self awareness aspects of the programme. One of the parents commented on how he was a bit wary of using the computer and thought that he might not access the ALPs site as a result. That reminded me of the discussion we had had one Friday morning about involving parents more with the programme. The upshot is that we now have 4 parents who would like to come and take part in a session to help them navigate the ALPs site and to learn about blogging. While I accept that we are not adult education providers I do think that this can only be a positive thing in bringing these parents closer to the ALPs programme and their child’s educational experience. We also asked for feedback from parents about the layout of the site, we’re looking for some parental representation on our ALPs development group once the programme has begun.
I’m both excited and nervous now as we move towards the induction date and start of the programme. Have we covered everything we need to? Is the system robust enough to deal with unexpected events? Have we missed anything glaringly obvious?! Will all of the youngsters ’keep it together’ in school until then? I really hope so.
I also have my Unit 3 SQH submission next Friday. It’s going to be squeeze to get it in! I’m finishing all my data gathering tomorrow and should have the write up done over the weekend all being well…..
Final note, if you fancy a bit of world music this Saturday, there is a one world peace concert at the Queen’s Hall at which we(Waa Sylla) are performing some African drum and dance. By Monday I think I’ll be ready for a sleep.
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2 responses so far ↓
OllieBray // Feb 8th 2007 at 10:28 pm
Barry, I think this is great news about the latest development in the ALP’s Programme. Although adult education might be out width of our remit as schools, I have been a strong believer that parent training should be an important part of our work for a long time. I think this (opt-in) training should include things like information, web 2.0, fair-trade, energy saving, the Scottish Parliament and other things that have evolved in our society since the majority of our parents were at school. By providing these opportunities hopefully we will cut back on the mixed messages that are sometimes given to children because school and home are not ‘singing from the same song sheet’. Ollie
David Gilmour // Feb 9th 2007 at 8:35 am
I’m pleased the parents are so positive. I’d be pleased to spend some time with them to address these concerns in whatever way suits. This is about promoting involvement in their children’s education, and we are in that business. It would be great if we could get one or more to share a parent’s perspective, even if anonymously.
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