For Youth & Communities PDF Print E-mail

LearnPlay Foundation works primarily with disadvantaged communities to develop amongst other things community cohesion through either direct intervention or by developing learning champions within communities who can then give a helping hand to others in skills development.

We aim to develop basic skills and transferable skills in individuals through our engagement programmes, additionally we signpost individuals towards learning, whether it be a short courses or a more formal route through enrolment on further education courses.

Its not only younger people that LearnPlay Foundation delivers to, we have developed programmes that encourage the physical and mental stimulation of senior citizens through the process of Play.
One to One or Group Programmes

Through our Entry 2 Learning Foundation and ASDAN programmes, sessions are built to accommodate either individuals or groups.

Individuals

We are aware that young people have different learning styles and that they may or may not be ready or comfortable to work in groups for a variety of reasons, this is why we provide programmes based around the needs of the young person who prefers to work in a safe, non-threatening environment which also allows them to develop their confidence before moving on. This can take place at a location of your choosing or right here within our space.

Groups

Some young people thrive and enjoy working in group environments, for this reason we have developed programmes to allow this to happen.  The structure of our programmes and the environment that we create ensures that young people are immersed in a fun and exciting way and also learn as much as they can through our highly customised and innovative programmes.

We undertake all ASDAN awards for both Individuals and groups.

Youth & Community Programmes

ASDAN Activities with Peer Tutoring Awards

This programme presents the person with an ASDAN certificate which allows them to use its points towards GCSE’s, A’ Levels AS Levels and UCAS points.

This particular programme provides the person with an opportunity to complete 3 activities and 3 peer tutoring tasks. It gives them total control and autonomy to develop and complete their own activities or anything that interests them, within guidelines, and enables them to fulfil their own self learning ambitions with real evidenced outputs.

Peer tutoring assists in creating and developing all aspects their communication skills. This is achieved through giving them the opportunity to distil knowledge that they have acquired to their peers, having one to ones, having one to groups and also by presenting their work through a presentation.

ASDAN Expressive Arts

This programme is fun and engaging for the learner. They are given the opportunity, with guidance, to develop their own arts award using video games technology; examples of work include portraying an in game scene from a literary classics and films right through to developing their own game level. The aim of this programme, as the award suggest is to allow the young person to express themselves artistically. This approach allows the young person to open up and develop a whole range of soft and basic skills. This process becomes easier because they are actually achieving something of their own choosing. The young person is guided and encouraged all the way through the programme receiving a lot of one to one development time with our trained facilitators.

Wii & Tea

This programme is aimed at seniors and utilises an array of gaming consoles and games to encourage participation in fun activities that promote mental and physical wellbeing. Specific needs are gathered by LearnPlay Foundation to ensure those with more restrictive disabilities and sight/hearing restrictions are catered for.

16+

This programme provides a bite-sized introduction to a variety of game play genres and to basic content creation. The overall aim is to provide positive activities and encourage engagement to learning for a specific age group. The programme develops both team based and individual skills.

19

This is a specialised community development programme which targets over 19’s within disadvantaged communities back into learning. The project focuses on the development of basic skills, personal skills, ICT development, internet skills and transferable skills.

Game2Grow™

This is a multi faceted programme aimed primarily at upskilling facilitators within community learning centres. The programme puts the power of training into the hands of community facilitators and teaches them how to use; games-related technologies, PCs, consoles and online learning environments. We assist in the development of programme content to allow local facilitators to learn the programme and allow self sufficiency and sustainability within the centre.

For Families

The family learning programme concentrates on bringing families closer together by developing and enhancing bonds and shared interests between a child/children and their family, whether it be primary care-givers, grandparents, uncles or aunts. This is facilitated through the use of video games in an informal but structured environment.

Some of the benefits of the family learning programme include:

  • Families interacting on activities together away from the pressures of family life
  • An improved understanding of each other
  • Improved communication with each other as a direct result of the shared interest that will benefit both outside of the programme
  • Both parties listening, thinking, problem solving and having fun together
  • Parents understanding video games that their children play at home
  • Individual certificates awarded to both parent and child bearing both names on each

Participants must complete at least two activities together in each session and the children are tasked with ensuring that they communicate this to their parent/carer and are tasked with completing the relevant paperwork. The additional benefits and skills augmentation to the child include:

  • Communication skills (they will be encouraging and communicating with the parent to ensure all activities are completed
  • Planning skills (parent & child will decide which activity they do & when during the session)
  • Time management skills (parent & child will determine how much time they need to spend on activities in order to complete them within session)
  • Basic numeracy & literacy skills (selected games assist in the development of these core skills)

Wider community benefits include:

  • Social cohesion as there are often parents/carers who have poor English speaking skills; other adults assist to ensure their participation and contribution.
  • Cultural barriers are reduced through the involvement of participants from a multicultural background

Family Programmes

Closer

This is a customised programme aimed at engaging with and teaching parents how to play games that are age and content specific to their children through real time strategy play. This helps to support the development of communication skills within families and promote shared interests.

Educating parents in understanding games and digital content is an action point of the Government’s recent Byron Review.
 

‘We have worked with LearnPlay Foundation for two academic years and have found them to be passionate about their delivery, easy to work with and very committed to ensuring that our young people are engaged and switched on to learning.

They have delivered 2 Family Learning programmes for our children and their parents/guardians.  These programmes have been immensely successful in regards to connecting parents and children, helping create a shared interest and strengthening the family dynamic through positive communication and active listening. 

LearnPlay Foundation have also delivered a Teach the Teacher programme which has helped our teachers bring their lessons and parts of the curriculum to ‘life’ through the identification of relevant learning games and development tools which compliment areas within the curriculum, This has assisted engagement and learning reinforcement in some of the more dry areas of the curriculum.

Wendy Briscoe Head Teacher Graiseley Primary School