Community arts and literacy model
The fourth scheme is a community arts and literacy model, which fuses media, the arts and family learning to support parents to engage with their children's learning. The scheme is based on the Rochdale Partnership Education Service, which delivers some of its Wider Family Learning programmes in conjunction with a community artist / poet. In Rochdale, this work is supported with funding from the New Deal for Communities (NDC).
The main success criteria are;
- Improved literacy, numeracy and language skills (adults and children)
- creative skills development
- community cohesion and cultural awareness
The scheme was selected for the project as an example of a community-based multi-agency model, which is suitable for enhancing schools' extended services. It seeks to involve parents in their children's learning by 'embedding' literacy in creative activities, and is therefore a contrasting model to that of engaging parents directly in schools' curricula.
The action research stage of the project will entail transferring elements of the model from Rochdale to Sefton, with support from the local authorities involved.

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