Setting

Midlands Regional Office T 08456 40 40 40 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Ruth James Curriculum Improvement Manager (Family Learning) Family Learning Office, Appleyards House, 72 Brighton Road, Horsham, RH13 5BU

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and communities

Thank you for your hospitality and co-operation during my visit on the 13 th of October 2008. I am particularly grateful to you, your staff, the family centre staff, parents, children and partners for the hard work involved in preparing for the visit and for giving up a great deal of time during the visit to meet with me. Please pass on my thanks to all those concerned.

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and communities

The visit provided much useful evidence, which will contribute to our national evaluation and reporting for the family learning survey. It was particularly interesting to see the provision in family numeracy at Petworth Children and Family Centre .

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and communities

The evidence used to inform the judgements made on this one day visit included: a staff interview, meeting parents and children, the family centre coordinator and head teacher during my visit to Petworth Children and Family Centre and an observation of the session. A range of documents was reviewed.

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and communities

Overall, the family learning provision I sampled during my one day visit to West Sussex Adult and Community Learning Service is good. I agreed to provide a summary of the good practice seen and to identify some areas for development, and I outline the main findings as bulleted points below.

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and communities

The main strengths are:  Good dedicated resources and accommodation used for family learning activities  Parents are particularly well prepared for joint activities sessions with their children  Session planning is thorough and takes good account of the differing needs and abilities of learners  Good teaching  Well managed provision with careful consideration given to developing a broad and balanced curriculum to meet the first step learning needs of parents, carers and children

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and communities

Areas for further development  The range of family learning target groups. For example developing provision with minority ethnic groups, community based organisations and at the local male open prison  The systematic application of procedures to monitor and evaluate family learning outcomes for adults and children

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and communities

I hope these observations are useful as you continue to develop your Family Learning provision. If there are any points or aspects of the visit you wish to discuss, please contact me. As we will be evaluating the survey, you may be contacted in the future to find out your views. I hope you will contribute to this evaluation.

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and communities

As I explained in my previous letter, a copy of this letter will be published on the Ofsted Website.

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