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Family learning project

Citizens Advice has worked with St Helens Citizens Advice Bureau to design a project to develop and deliver a range of new courses for primary and junior school children and their parents/carers.

JP Morgan Foundation is supporting the initiative to pilot a range of delivery methods in schools in the Liverpool and St Helens area in 2009.

Most of the learning materials used on the project have been developed in conjunction with a local Pfeg (Personal Finance Education Group) education consultant. Courses vary in terms of length and ways of involving parents/carers. Liverpool Central Bureau and Liverpool John Moores University are also involved in the design, delivery and evaluation of the project.

Courses are highly interactive and will help parents/carers and children learn more about things like the real cost of credit and ways of saving. Sessions encourage family and community learning by inviting parents/carers into the classroom or to participate in sessions being run at breakfast or after-school clubs.

Sessions include activities designed to engage both adults and children. For example, they will demonstrate budgeting techniques through planning the purchase of a pet, a popular topic with children. Some also include a practical ‘jaffa cake’ test - where participants will have their assumptions challenged about the taste experience of different brands.

The project has already secured the support of several head teachers, with the assurance that sessions will be carefully linked to the school’s curriculum.

Recent teaching graduates from Liverpool John Moores University are supporting the delivery of sessions in the Liverpool area. Staff from the University’s Faculty of Education, Community and Leisure are also advising on pedagogical issues.

St Helens Citizens Advice Bureau and the other partners hope that some of the materials will become pfeg quality marked and that delivery models will be replicated.

A full project report will be ready by early 2010.

For further information

Please email Vernon Fuller at St Helens Citizens Advice Bureau or phone 01744 751380.