Setting

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

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Gillian Leather Family Learning Manager Bracknell Forest Borough Council Seymour House 38 Broadway Bracknell RG12 1AU

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and communities

Thank you for your hospitality and co-operation during my visit on the 26 November 2008. I am particularly grateful to you and your staff for all the work involved in preparing for the visit and for giving up a great deal of time to meet with me. Please pass on my thanks to 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 provision in the Open Learning Centre and talk to the staff, parents and children.

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and communities

The evidence used to inform the judgements made on this one day visit included: discussions with yourself, family learning staff, scrutiny of achievement data, lesson plans and a visit to family learning activity. A range of further documents was reviewed.

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and communities

Overall, the family learning provision I sampled during my one day visit to the Bracknell Forest Borough Council 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. The main strengths are:

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 the very good dedicated learning spaces for family learning activities, particularly the foundation stage facilities at the open learning centre  well organised and managed family learning provision which is well targeted to those most in need and informed by clear and accurate data  good teaching and learning with parents, carers and children developing good personal and social skills and demonstrating confidence in their interactions  close monitoring of progress and careful tracking of learners’ participation and progression. Records are clear and accurate  good outcomes for parents/carers and children on the family literacy and numeracy courses with 75% of adult learners entered for examinations and a 94% pass rate equating to a 70% success rate on accredited programmes.

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 the extension of provision for teenage young people and their parents/carers  to more accurately capture the views of all stakeholders, for example, head teachers and other school staff.

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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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