Aparent support programme developed in the United States, already in place in a Lincolnshire school and due to be rolled out in some children's centres, is benefiting children's well-being and social skills, raising educational outcomes and reducing children's aggression and anxiety.
Called Families and Schools Together (FAST), the eight-week, after-school programme brings together parents, children, teachers and members of the local community to raise outcomes for children by improving relationships within and among families and so increasing parents' involvement in school. The scheme is offered to all threeto eight-year-old children and their families, including older siblings and grandparents.
The weekly sessions are held at school, where each family sits, eats and plays together. Parents lead positive activities in the presence of supportive trained teams who unobtrusively coach them through activities designed to raise parents' self-esteem and strengthen family relationships.
One of the key features of the programme, which has United Nations endorsement and has been systematically replicated in over 2,500 schools in 14 countries, is that it is run voluntarily by parents in partnership with professionals.
Founder and developer Lynn McDonald, who is now at the University of Middlesex, set up the programme in America in 1988, when she was a single mother with little support. She says, 'The idea is that these groups are support networks for parents, which allow them to have positive energy and time with the child at the school, and they are run by other parents. There's a sprinkling of professionals at hand in case a participating parent is struggling with bigger problems - for example, domestic violence or alcohol addiction - but this would be dealt with outside the programme.'
The first UK pilots began in summer 2009 and finished in August 2010. Since then, 34 schools have participated in the programme and the results have been evaluated. A further 75 schools will participate next year and the charity Save the Children UK has just announced that it will be rolling out FAST to 400 schools and children's centres by 2014. It will be offering FAST to children aged three to five in deprived communities, with the objective of closing the early years achievement gap.
Chris Wellings, head of policy at Save the Children UK, says, 'The 15 FASTs that we've been involved in show statistically significant impacts across a whole range of areas. The whole ethos of FAST is very empowering and it's offered on an entirely voluntary basis, yet the retention rates are very high.
'We find that families and children have fun and it creates a real buzz. Families see this as an entitlement. We think FAST is a key way to help parents to support their child's early learning and get to know their school.'
TRIED AND TESTED
Each aspect of FAST has been rigorously researched for its effectiveness. Parents meet for two-and-a-half-hour sessions for eight consecutive weeks at the school.
'We want parents to form relationships as quickly as possible,' explains Professor McDonald. 'Meeting four times in four weeks, they start to feel connected to the other parents and their children. And if we look at people who went six out of eight times, 86 per cent made a friend during that eight weeks that they still see four years later.'
Under the programme, each team or 'hub' of 40 families should have four support workers, including a health or social care professional and a professional from the school. At least 25 per cent of the team should comprise 'parent partners', who are parents from the school. All of the support workers have to complete a two-day training course run by Middlesex University, the body that holds the licence for the programme.
After the training, the children and families meet at the school and each family sits together at its own table. At the start of the session, each family introduces itself - 'Hello FAST family, we're the Pope family'. Everyone says, 'Hello Pope family' and makes a big, circular wave.
There are songs and music, and then the families eat together and the children serve the adults. The children go off to play with the school partners, while the parent partners and the community partners stay to facilitate parent discussion groups on issues they want to talk about.
At the end, there is a 15-minute Special Play session, where one parent sits with their child and is coached to take the child's lead in the play, without criticising or telling them what to do. For example, someone at their side might whisper, 'Don't forget. Listen and follow and respond to your child.'
Professor McDonald says, 'This has been proven to work and to be extremely effective in helping a child to feel content and more grounded. That makes them more curious and more able to learn in the classroom. Basically, we are having parents teach their children learning-readiness skills. That's why we like to focus on four to five-year-olds, because if the parents go through these eight weeks, not only will they get to know other families, but their children will do better at school.'
The teams also coach parents to gain respect from their children. At the mealtime, parents give little commands like, 'Please get my plate and bring me my meal.'
Professor McDonald says, 'It's very important for the parents to be respected as the person in charge of their own family. These techniques support the hierarchy in the family and they learn to be obedient to the parent.'
At the end of the eight weeks, there is a graduation ceremony where the children make hats and the parents receive certificates of achievement. Participants are then encouraged to take part in a monthly peer support network, 'FASTWORKS', for at least two years after they have completed the course.
The programme is backed by research, but the key ingredient is fun. 'There is guaranteed family laughter at FAST,' says Professor McDonald. 'As the children feel their parents are listening to their ideas and following their play ideas, their eyes become brighter and they look to their parent with pure adoration. I see this happen time and time again.'
CASE STUDY
Strand Community School in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, was one of the first schools in the East Midlands to implement FAST, after receiving funding from the council under the PEIPs (Parent Early Intervention Programme) grant. Now, a year later, head teacher Nigel Bishop describes the results as 'phenomenal'.
He says, 'It has literally transformed some parents' lives. You can't measure how lack of self-esteem in the parent impacts on the child until you have a programme like this and you see the difference.'
One of the cleaners at the school became a FAST parent partner and in the space of 18 months, she has become a parent governor, is attending a childcare course at the local college and is doing two days unpaid work at the school as part of her course.
Mr Bishop says, 'To see her confidence grow has been amazing. At the start of FAST, she didn't think she could get through it, but by week eight she was fronting a hub with ten families and making announcements. And it's all because she's had to be responsible for something.'
Another mother who was struggling with her two girls, who have behavioural problems, graduated from FAST and is now the school's lollipop lady. 'The scheme really does pull people in,' says Mr Bishop, who strongly believes that working with parents is the secret to children's success.
Children in years 1, 2 and 3, who also had siblings in the Foundation Stage, were targeted for the FAST scheme.
Linda Guilliatt, early years practitioner at the Foundation Stage unit, says, 'The children loved it and loved coming. Having quality time for their families was good for them.' But she says it took a great deal of 'time, money and organisation' to set up all the activities.
Gaynor Rogers, parenting commissioner at North East Lincolnshire Council, who co-ordinated the scheme at the school, says that it is a 'labour-intensive programme' but the relationships that have been established and the increase in social capital has been 'well worth the effort'.
She says, 'One of the main challenges was providing a choice of hot meals for 80 people each week. Another time-consuming task was shopping for items for the weekly raffle, which every family won once.'
Mr Bishop admits that at first, he was sceptical about the programme with all its 'American affirmations'.
'When we saw it written down at the training session, we didn't think it would work at our school. But we were nearly in tears at the graduation because we were so pleased at how far we'd come. There was an 83 per cent completion rate. My advice is to embrace it. It's quite American, but it really does work.'
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