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

2. 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

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

4. 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 months.

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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. Useful web based resources

11. 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

12. 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