Children spend only 15% of their waking hours at school which is why the founders of an innovative social enterprise, Fran Perry and Sadhana Patel, believe that it’s vital to engage whole families in learning activities outside the classroom. Hilarie Stelfox went along to find out more about the Huddersfield-based education service

EDUCATIONALISTS call it ‘cultural capital.’ It’s what children acquire through being read to, talked to, taken to places of interest and being involved in family life.

And it’s the bread and butter of a social enterprise that aims to raise the ‘cultural capital’ of children in Kirklees.

After working in schools for many years, former teacher Fran Perry came to realise that more needed to be done with children outside the classroom to help parents engage and communicate with their children.

“Experience showed that interventions were needed outside, that schools were doing a wonderful job but just couldn’t do any more,” she said.

“Our fundamental belief is that the majority of learning happens within families and the home.”

And so she and a colleague, Sadhana Patel, decided to launch their social enterprise to take projects into schools and communities that would help families forge better relationships.

That was back in 2008 when both and she and Sadhana were working for the now-defunct Kirklees Extended Learning Service which focused on after-school clubs and activities, summer holiday clubs and family learning.

They gave up their jobs to found and run The Learning Group, now The Learning CIC (Community Interest Company).

Based at the Media Centre in Huddersfield it employs a team of 60 ‘associates’ – teachers, artists, musicians and others.

Fran said: “It was clear that funding was going to run out in Kirklees for significant programmes and we shared the vision that we wanted to keep them going.

“We wanted to make a difference and we knew that we could.”

Funding comes to them now directly from schools who are buying in services that were once provided by the local education authority as well as local authorities and the NHS.

It has enabled them to set up a number of programmes.

A BIG Lottery grant allowed them to establish a Family Passport Scheme which has worked with more than 500 families across five local authority areas.

The scheme teaches adults and children to work and play together through crafts, cooking, circus skills, drama, music and art.

It sets families joint tasks to improve communications and other skills and aims to make learning fun. A popular activity is based on The Apprentice and challenges family groups to come up with their own ideas for a chocolate business.

Both women have an extensive background in education.

Sadhana, who lives in Dalton and has two children aged 24 and 18, is qualified to teach further education and worked within Kirklees as an extended services co-ordinator.

A former Fartown High School teacher, Fran, from Birkby, was responsible for setting up the first Kirklees summer school for children at Huddersfield University back in 1998.

She has two children aged 20 and 22 and was head of extended services.

Today, Fran, Sadhana and their team organise summer holiday provision in schools all over the region – even in the area’s mosques.

They work with children’s centres, young parents and families from all walks of life. One school asked them to provide activities for the families of their gifted and talented children.

Associate John Spencer, who is involved with family learning, said: “They said they already did a lot for their disadvantaged children and wanted something for the gifted and talented children who didn’t normally get anything extra.”

SureStart has commissioned them to run sessions for parents and children and the health service has asked for healthy eating projects.

The Learning CIC is clearly much more than just a business to its innovators.

“We work until 8pm and at weekends,’’ said Sadhana. “We even volunteer our time. Although we work with a lot of disadvantaged families what we do is very varied.

“For example, we have also done work with Bradford University trying to attract students into higher education.’’

Fran added: “Educational disadvantage crosses all social boundaries. There are affluent families with good jobs but the parents haven’t got time to spend with their children.

“I’d say that the biggest factor in achievement is not overwhelmingly social class, it’s the degree to which parents talk to their children.

“Ask some parents how much time they spend with their children and they’ll say ‘not much’.”

Information about the work of Learning CIC will be available at an open evening on Monday, March 26, at The Trattoria, Imperial Arcade, Huddersfield. It also has a website www.learninggroup.org.uk