Home is important too Children spend only 15% of their time in school

Language development 85% of the language we use as adults is in place by the time we are five years old. 50% is in place by the time we are three years old

Key subjects Most differences in achievement by 14 year olds in English, Maths and Science are due to home influences.

Literacy When parents or carers are actively involved in reading with their children at home their children’s reading scores improve, on average, by between 12-18 months.

Homework Doing homework regularly through their years at school has roughly the same benefit as an extra year’s schooling

What helped children succeed? Having people in their lives who cared about them Experiencing stability Being given high expectations Receiving encouragement and support Being able to participate and achieve Celebrating success: “what helps looked after children succeed?” Happer et al SWIA 20060.

Celebrating success My carers got me into karate. They got me all the stuff and came to watch me sometimes. You have to learn to control your temper when you’re doing something like that, which I really needed at the time. I made some good pals up there too. (Glenn) Celebrating success: “what helps looked after children succeed?” Happer et al SWIA 20060.

Celebrating success Every problem I’ve had, they’ve helped me sort it out. There’s more than one worker and you can go to somebody else if you need it so they’re good at doing different things and they work together and there’s someone there if you need it. And six heads are better then one! (Matthew) Celebrating success: “what helps looked after children succeed?” Happer et al SWIA 20060.

Celebrating success I used to do these drawings all the time, doodles and that. My teacher was always going mental ’cos I was drawing and not doing the work. My key worker got me doing murals on the walls at the home and I did all the bedrooms. Everyone that came in used to say how good it looked and how much did they pay to get it done? I’d like to do a course – drawing, design, that sort of thing. (Thomas) Celebrating success: “what helps looked after children succeed?” Happer et al SWIA 20060.

Useful web based resources www.educationscotland.gov.uk/parentzone www.playtalkread.org www.scottishbooktrust.com www.letterboxclub.org.uk www.journeytoexcellence.org.uk

What kind of intelligence? Linguistic Physical Interpersonal Musical Spatial Intrapersonal Logical Language clever Body clever People clever Music clever Picture clever Self clever Puzzle clever Adapted from The Homework File Teacher Pack, Quality in Education Centre, University of Strathclyde, 2002

Using core skills Unit manager Education Pilot Christmas is coming up and we are intending on taking the younger ones on the Santa train up at Aviemore, so the kids had researched that themselves and looked into it, the Space side railway thing I’ve just sent a cheque off to them this morning for 85 quid. ……….and the kids found out where it was, they found out the times of it and they found out the cost of it, ……..we’re taking them up, and that was something that they had done, and that’s not kind of part of formal education if you like but, the spin offs to that in terms of them being able to organise, plan, think about budgets, think about costs. Unit manager Education Pilot