The Dorset Education for Sustainability Netwrork. Children Learning at Home

	Learning at Home

Children Learning at Home

'The child who comes to school excited about what is going on in the world around them, the child who feels that life is exciting, is the child who makes a lot of sense out of school'. Ref. J.Abott in 'Learning news' the magazine of the Campaign for Learning www.campaign-for-learning.org.uk

The Campaign for Learning would like a wide range of locations to become places where we are expect to learn; many of these centre on learning at home.

Learning at home encompasses a wide variety of skills, attitudes and values including: Holiday learning - Leisure learning - Learning through cooking, eating and shopping… Ref.'The Learning Age - A Renaissance for a New Britain' (1998)

The importance of home circumstances can hardly be exaggerated: 'A pupil who is able to work at home who has the space, the resources and the encouragement to study will achieve far more'. Ref. 'The Learning Game' (1997)

Making the home into a learning environment: Wherever a child lives their home can be made into a learning environment. If home circumstances prevent children from doing homework - many schools rise to the challenge and support children in their work at home.

The National Grid for Learning offers guidance to parents on the safe use of the Internet * Keep the computer in a communal area of the house such as the corner of the living room * Take an interest in what children are doing with the computer. * Full information is available on http://www.ngfl.gov.uk

The Changing needs of children: As children develop their needs change:
1.	The home-school agreement. All Dorset County Council schools have a written home-
	school agreement and parents can contact the school to find out how their children's
	needs may change as they develop or contact www.parents.dfee.gov.uk/outschool/home/homeagree
2.	Infants and young children identify themselves through adults. The pre-school years are
	vital and from September 2000 the Government has identified the learning goals for the
	Foundation stage of Education: Age 3 - end of Reception. These identify six areas of
	learning, which lay a secure foundation for future learning. Full details on: www.qca.org.uk/early-years
3.	Between the ages 7-12 children become able to step outside of themselves and take a
	self reflective look at their interactions, they become more outward looking, enthusiastic
	and industrious as they forge their independent identities.
4.	The teenage and early adult years are important…because it is here, where people begin
	to understand themselves and their possibilities for the rest of their lives. Youth transition
	is now more open ended and fluid and if it goes on too long there may be frustration.

'Young people need a place to go - the need for room to nurture and explore themselves as individual people … the room to learn'. Ref. 'Self, Space and place youth identities and Citizenship'. T.Hall et al. British Journal of Sociology of Education, Vol.20, No.4, 1999.

The Dorset Education Service supports Children learning at home in a variety of ways:
*	The Dorset Youth Service helps to provide a space for young people. Its practice is
	located in between home and school. Link to Youth service site
*	The Schools Effectiveness Service develops strategies to enhance the community
	contribution to pupil achievement, including guidance to parents and good practice on
	homework. http://www.dorset-cc.gov.uk/educate/pds1.htm
*	Pupil and Parent Support Services exist to provide support, according to need, to pupils
	and their parents.
*	The Early Years Partnership exists to support learning in the early years both in and
	outside of the home. http://www.dorset-cc.gov.uk/educate/pds1.htm
*	The Adult and Continuing Education Service supports, develops and delivers Lifelong
	Learning Opportunities for people in Dorset. Click the button below to go to...

'Acquiring the learning habit will help individuals to sustain it later in life and this begins by getting the foundations right in the home and at school'.

Ref.'The Learning Age - A Renaissance for a New Britain' (1998)