ACL Essex offers free family learning courses to parents and carers, via primary schools, to help them support their child. Parents and carers learn how to support their child’s emotional and social development, establish effective routines, and foster a positive attitude towards learning. These courses have real benefits for children both at home and in the classroom.
Rosa is a 39-year-old mother of two from Heybridge. Both her children attend All Saints Primary School in Maldon. Rosa has a Masters degree and has recently switched careers from being an educational ranger to a swimming teacher.
Through the primary school she became aware of the Family Learning courses offered by ACL Essex at the school. Rosa has started one course and is very keen to enrol on more. Rosa explains why:
“ACL Essex were offering courses that would help parents understand aspects of dealing with children. I have so far attended a course on ‘Zones of Regulation’ which is an idea of emotional wellbeing for children and the tools we need to understand them. I have been on the course for only a few weeks, but it is already hugely beneficial to me in how I interact with my children as a parent, and how it allows me to ‘read’ children in my swimming classes. It also helps me to ‘read’ myself, my own emotions. That was a surprise as I thought, very arrogantly, ‘what are they going to teach me that I don’t already know!’ But it’s teaching me a lot and acting as a refresher to things I may have overlooked.
“The key strength of the course is learning the information, admitting that other people are all going through a similar situation. The mixture of theory with the practical ways to solve issues, along with the real-life experiences of everyone on the course also going through it together, make it a very powerful combination.
“It’s not until you sit down with a community of mothers with the instructor taking everyone through the course that solutions and strategies become clear.
“The course has helped me in my work to understand how children emotionally regulate themselves. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell if a child is scared of being in the water or are just being noisy. The course has taught me to look for signs of when a child is emotionally ready to learn how to swim.
“I would recommend everyone who looks after young children to join these classes.”
Zoe, a 36-year-old mum of two from Maldon, has participated in several courses offered by All Saints primary school, Maldon and ACL Essex. Here she’s learnt strategies for building relationships and top tips on how to support her child’s emotional needs. The training provided effective communication techniques, which she found beneficial for her son, who has special needs and faces developmental delays and learning difficulties. The courses have helped her manage her son’s behaviour and communication issues.
Zoe has so far taken part in three ACL Essex courses, ‘Zones of Regulation’, ‘All About Boys’ and ‘Promoting Positive Relationships’. Here she explains her experience of the courses and what she got out of them.
“My five-year old son has Special Educational Needs. So doing these courses has given me more skills to better understand how I can communicate more effectively with him. He’s had developmental delays and some learning difficulties. Behaviour could be an issue at times. The courses I have done with ACL Essex at the primary school have really helped me come up with different strategies to help my son.
“The emotional wellbeing training definitely helped me to support my child’s needs at home. It’s given me lots of different strategies I can try to help him with everyday life, ways in which I can more effectively speak with him.
“Some of the strategies that we’ve been using are really very simple, but highly effective and make a real difference. In the ‘All About Boys’ course, I learnt that there are 17 techniques that we can use with boys. It’s simple things like when you’re talking to your son. Just putting your hand on their shoulder can make a difference – he’s much more likely to listen to you. They then switch on to what you’re saying, rather than thinking that you are just talking to them. It’s practical, simple things that can make a difference.
“I thought the courses would be something I could come along to and maybe learn something new and network with other parents. The courses have been so good that we’ve had parents from other schools come in and join us.
“I would totally, totally recommend the courses. They are free for the parents to come and access. You can bring your children with you – it’s not a problem if you don’t have childcare. The courses are just really useful. There’s a lot of practical things that will help you with everyday life. They are all things that you’ve probably not thought about but are really easy and simple to do. But it’s not until someone says them that you actually realise to do them.”
ACL Essex offers a range of Family Learning courses including ‘Getting Ready for Early Years’, ‘Managing Big Emotions’, ‘Preparing for the Summer Holidays’ and more.
