Throughout the year, as part of our support for parents, we run workshops and information sessions. During the past academic year, these have included maths problem solving and calculations, reading, phonics and healthy eating events.

Over the past few years, we have also been working closely with Aspire Sussex to provide additional learning support opportunities for our parents.

Last year we ran a ‘Make a Maths Bag’ course for our parents of pupils in Early Years and Key Stage 1 with the added benefit that the children worked for part of the course alongside their parents. This was so oversubscribed that we ran it twice and a total of 36 parents attended.

Some examples of the comments made by our parents at the end of these courses:

“The examples and explanations helped to make the learning easier.”

“I can now show my son how to learn with numbers in a fun way.”

“This course has helped me to be confident in teaching my son maths whilst making it fun.”

“My feel for the subject has improved and I feel I can pass this enthusiasm to my child and he has wanted to participate.”

Also in conjunction with Aspire, we organised a Family English course for our Year 1 parents towards the end of the academic year.

In addition to this, we ran the ‘Getting Ready for School’ course in June to support our new parents with their preparations for children starting in Reception in September. The course was much enjoyed and included a chance to discuss routines and expectations and a visit to the Reception classrooms during the day to experience first-hand the learning of children in the Early Years here at Northgate.

“Visiting the Reception class with the course tutor gave me a real idea about how they learn in the school.”

During each academic year, we hold several themed weeks for our children and we will be continuing to offer workshops and community events linked to these during this coming year.