Cafes for All: Training With Julie Westrop

Cafés for All training

Cafés for All is an innovative, simple way of engaging parents and the wider community in supporting children’s learning from Foundation Stage to end of Key Stage 2. It is especially effective in working with those parents who have previously found it harder to engage with the school.

Over 40 schools subscribing to PLP have now sent staff on Cafés for All training in order to offer Café sessions for pupils and their families. Pre-school settings in the Peterborough area have begun to offer Café sessions to their families and Café hub schools are currently being established in Peterborough for staff from other schools to visit.

The Cafés for All approach is well regarded nationally by schools, parents, children and Ofsted.

One day training for schools which are looking to improve pupil outcomes through developing strong home/school partnership and involving all parents in supporting learning at home. This one day training is for a member of staff who will lead on the introduction of Cafes for All ®. Cafés are informal, sociable learning environments created in early years’ settings and school classrooms, where community assets for education (c.a.f.e), knowledge, skills, interests and time , are shared to enhance the learning of all.

Cafés for All®

1. helps school staff develop partnerships with parents, families and the wider community in order to enhance all children’s learning and development

2. enables staff, through running classroom-based cafés, to facilitate greater parental and family involvement in supporting learning at home

3. helps schools create communities of lifelong learners

Trainer: Julie Westrop

Testimony

………’ Family cafés have been the best thing we have done as a school, this year. The non-threatening way of encouraging parents to come into school and support their children has been a huge success. We have never had so many parents attend activities in school. The parental engagement has had a huge impact on the children reading in school, seeing their parents and carers enjoying books has raised the profile of reading massively within our school. Our parents look forward to these cafes and are excited to attend each one.’ St Peter’s Junior, Wisbech

Comments from school Ofsted reports

‘Through the café, parents have gained an understandinghttp://) of how children are taught, particularly mathematics and phonics. As a result, parents are more able to help their children with their learning’

‘The school’s cafés help build links with parents and enable them to support their children with their learning through enjoyable shared experiences.’

By the end of training, delegates will;

1. Have a secure understanding of the Cafés for All® concept and rationale

2. Know how to implement cafés in their own school

3. Be able to plan and deliver a variety of family learning opportunities in café sessions

4. Understand how to help all parents/families support and develop a child’s learning

5. Have begun action planning for the introduction of cafés, with a secure understanding of how to evaluate impact on pupil and adult outcomes as well as embed cafés in school improvement planning

Limited to 10 places per session

TBC

Throughout her career as a teacher, senior leader and senior adviser for a local authority, Julie’s work has focused on inspiring , enabling and empowering all parents and schools to work in partnership in order to ensure best outcomes for each child, not only in terms of their academic achievement but also their emotional health and well-being.

She currently provides consultancy , advice and training to schools across the U.K. on how to do this, drawing on a wealth of experience and research in the field of stakeholder engagement and parental support for learning.

Cafés for All®, (A2E2’s ) highly successful whole school approach to parental engagement and support for learning, is now used in 600+ UK schools