How family activities raise attainment
Emily Rogers
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
School-based early intervention project is helping to improve children's behaviour in and out of school, as well as child-parent relationships.
PROJECT
Fast (Families and Schools Together)
PURPOSE
To help children thrive at school and improve family wellbeing
FUNDING
The initial cost for schools is £9,995, which certifies them for three years for an unlimited number of families. Re-certification in the fourth year costs £1,800, with an ongoing annual implementation cost of £1,500, sometimes funded through grants or community organisations
BACKGROUND
Fast is an internationally recognised early intervention programme first developed in the US and adapted and taken forward in the UK by Middlesex University. In 2010, Save the Children joined forces with the university to run the programme and it has now been delivered to 40,000 children and adult family members at more than 600 primary schools. Fast extended to secondary schools last year, after being piloted in three schools in Northern Ireland and Birmingham.
ACTION
Schools offer the programme to at least one “hub” of 10 families and the first task is to recruit each hub’s delivery team. Primary school teams include two or three parents, one or two school staff and one or two community partners, such as health, social care or family support workers. Teams receive two days’ tuition from Fast’s certified trainers.
Most primaries choose one year group to participate, usually reception or year one. Delivery team parents play a crucial role in encouraging others to take part.
The team delivers an eight-week programme of weekly two-and-a-half-hour group sessions for families. These offer structured activities and interactive games to build parent-child relationships and social networks. Sessions include one-to-one time for parents and children, a self-help parents’ group and “buddy time”, enabling couples or allocated buddies to support each other.
Family activities include “Scribbles”, a drawing game that encourages participants to take turns and give positive feedback, and “Feeling charades” involving family members acting out emotions for others to identify.
Families also design their own “family flag”, representing all members. The sessions incorporate a family meal, cooked by one family and served by the children.
“Families don’t even know there’s learning taking place; they just think they are doing fun activities,” says Bernadette Thomas, head of Fast UK. “But all components are underpinned by a great deal of research. It’s not just 15 minutes of special time for the parent and child, for example, it’s about the parent-child relationship changing.”
In weeks one, three and eight, a Fast UK trainer attends to support the delivery team, meeting members the following day to review the session. The UK team compiles a 60-page evaluation report for the school at the end of each programme, after which a final day’s training is provided, shaped by the evaluation findings and parents’ experiences.
After graduation in week eight, participating parents form a Fastworks group, also open to non-participants. Parents set the agenda, identifying community issues to tackle. They fundraise to support the group and the school’s Fast programme.
“This is about empowering parents to lead with their families and develop positive relationships with each other,” says Thomas. “We work in schools with as many as 30 or 40 languages and some parents say they previously didn’t know anybody else. Fast brings down barriers.”
OUTCOME
An evaluation by Middlesex University published in January 2015 suggests Fast helps children achieve at school, improves family functioning and reduces stress.
The evaluation covered programmes in 146 UK schools. It found 1,821 children’s average academic competence score increased from 3.09 before taking part in Fast to 3.24 afterwards. Behaviour in school measured for 1,878 children through the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire improved with the average “total difficulties” score dropping from 8.78 to 6.99. Behaviour at home for 1,821 children also improved, with the average total difficulties score decreasing from 11.74 to 6.69.
Relationships within 1,533 families, measured using the Family Environment Scale, showed improvement from 10.48 before Fast to 12 afterwards. Parent-child relationship scores for 1,821 families increased from 7.77 to 8.54. Meanwhile, the average community relationships score for 1,844 families, measured through the Social Relationships Questionnaire, rose from 7.9 to 8.34.
Of the 1,977 parents evaluated, more than 73 per cent said Fast made them feel better equipped to support their children through education.