As part of Durham County Councils Adult Learning & Skills Service, East Durham Trust delivered a range of wider family learning courses across East Durham during the school holidays.
School holiday sessions for families included: Active families – Getting active with the family through various sports and games. Family arts and crafts – Getting crafty as a family with fun arts activities. Grow to eat – Having a go at growing and preparing your own food in fun hands on family sessions.
The sessions were hosted within various community centres throughout East Durham. All courses and activities were free and included a buffet.
Learning From Home
During the coronavirus pandemic, Adult Learning supported families across East Durham with Pies, Peas and Gravy meals along with an art activity for the whole family to get involved with. Examples of learning activity have included a 3D rainbow, A VE day theme, origami and stone painting activity, with families decorating stones with positive messages. The learning packs along with food were delivered direct to the learner’s door by volunteers. 300 adults and 442 children were engaged over a period of 10 weeks resulting in 742 meals provided.
Debbie Watson and her two children of 11 and 13 were referred to take part in the project by their One Point Family worker. The learner is a single parent who suffers with mental health and also epilepsy. Debbie said “We enjoyed participating in the learning activity as a family and it provided a good opportunity to do something positive together during this period of uncertainty. I’d never done rock painting before, although I do enjoy arts and crafts type activities. Once lockdown is over, and some type of normality resumes I would like to learn some more new skills including sign language. I also would like to take part in a walk leader course and volunteer in the local community” Another learner was referred to take part in the course by the Trust’s Community Coach. They had recently relocated to the area after fleeing an abusive relationship. They took part in the stone painting activity with their young child. Together they made a number of brightly decorated stones which they then went on to hide around the local community for other local residents to find. They made a love heart with a message of “keep me moving” to spread love.
The learner said “I really enjoyed taking part in the home learning activity. The idea is brilliant. I would really like the chance to start new courses in the near future. Something where I could get out and meet new people in a positive environment. I’d also like to volunteer and help out where I can”
Watch this space for further information!
Award Winning Service
Every year Durham County Council’s Adult Learning and Skills Service (ALSS) hosts an annual awards ceremony to recognise those who have used the service to make a difference to their own lives, or the lives of others. This year East Durham Trust was recognised with two awards for its dedication to supporting learners on the course and was the winner in the Outstanding Service to Learners category and the overall winner of the Festival of Learning award.
