New to the Team
They’re mean and keen and ready to go! (Well, they’re not really mean, but they are enthusiastic.) The latest batch of new Volunteer Tutors have proudly received their certificates on 6th July. So congratulations to Sam Cochrane, Alison Craig, Denise Hogarth, Alison Josephs, Irene Lamont, Virginia McLachlan, Jake McLarty, Anne Ross, Robert Speirs, Tony Steele, Mary Strachan and Janet Wilson.
We know it won’t be long until Elma Paton joins them, but we wish her a great big Get Well Soon. We hope it’s not long till she’s back in The Learning Shop cheering us all up.
New Projects
This year sees nine new literacies projects being delivered in South Ayrshire and funded by the Lifelong Learning Partnership.
Access to Employment – Ayr is running a series of short projects in North Ayr, helping existing groups with their literacies.
A-Cert is also helping people in North Ayr, particularly young people, through exciting projects involving d-j-ing and community–based activities.
Ayrshire Initiatives are introducing a literacy workers to support their tenants in their own homes with form filling and handling money.
An innovative project delivered by Ayr College will support students about to start on a college course for the first time. Where they are worried about their literacies skills, they will receive up to 30 hours of additional support prior to the beginning of their full time course. This will build their confidence and hopefully help them to make the most of their time at the college.
The autumn project at Houdston Travellers’ Site focuses on family learning. Mums and Dads can learn how to use information technology to help their children with learning games and homework. There will be a tutor on site, but of course, the wee ones may bring the oldies up to speed on the computers!
What do you think Geo-caching is? I didn’t know either! It turns out to be a bit like orienteering and a treasure hunt. May-Tag Ltd will be delivering an exciting project for young people in the Carrick area in the early autumn. It will train learners to read maps, make calculations, access the internet, follow instructions and find the ‘cache’ at a particular location. It will also increase learners’ (and tutors’) fitness as they find their way through the countryside.
Newton Primary intends to bring guardians and children together to write a booklet of children’s stories. They will meet an established author, take tuition in creative writing and desk-top-publish their writing together.
Skillsbuilder 3 – this is the third year that South Ayrshire Council’s Community Education (Adult Education) has worked with the Lifelong Learning Partnership to provide a literacies tutor to support each of the adult classes they offer. Most people get by with their level of reading and writing, but the literacies tutor helps students to read and write more confidently so that their learning is more effective and there is less chance of them dropping out of the course. … so everyone benefits.
Unity Enterprises already run a project at Prestwick Airport, introducing clients to work experience. Now they are funded to support their clients’ literacies skills with an on-site tutor. This will improve their learners'skills and make them more work-ready and independent.
What’s Been Going On?
Maggie, Gail and I went to Stirling in June to see how technology (especially ICT) was changing the shape of adult literacies. Now I’m catching up with everyone else – I know what an MP3 is, and a memory stick, and a pod cast, and a PA!
We went to workshops to see what was happening throughout Scotland and as a result, I’m working on getting a student forum up and running on the Adult Learning Website.
Maggie wants to tell you about a CD we have in the Shop. It contains 10 case studies on innovations projects, suggests useful resources and summarises the project findings. Ask to have a look at it – it may inspire you to great things. There are loads of useful websites which have been recommended by project workers, covering ESOL, audio, video, images and templates, general literacy sites and help with specific learning difficulties.
Gail says another useful website we should all be having a look at is :
www.adultliteraciesonline.com
It was launched on the 28th of June, especially for literacies practitioners. It’s a resource bank for
• learning and teaching materials
• training programmes
• research
• links to other useful websites
Have a look and tell us what you think.
If you want to know what’s going on in literacies across Scotland, here’s another website to visit –
learningconnections@communitiesscotland.gsi.gov.uk
|
