During 1998-99 the Parent School Partnership Service, in working with parents both in school and at home, has focused on the key LEA priorities of raising achievement and lifelong learning. This has meant the development of a number of initiatives to support schools and children's learning, as well as providing parents and other adults with opportunities to develop their own skills and knowledge, often towards future training and employment. A major focus has been the support of the National Literacy Strategy on a range of literacy focused projects such as family literacy, Parents as Educators (support for the Literacy Hour), story sacks, READATHONs and Our Family Matters (a new course accredited through the National Key Skills framework). In addition, PSP has developed exciting curriculum materials based on real family issues in the modern world identified by parents across Liverpool acting as central figures in curriculum design and development. PSP is part of the Liverpool Education Directorate.  Its staff are based in parent centres in local schools, where they work in collaboration with others to provide a city-wide service for developing parental involvement in children's learning, accessible adult education opportunities and a range of family support initiatives.

Family Literacy Project
The PSP Family Literacy Project has now been running for 4 years and has grown from strength to strength involving work in 43 different schools with 476 families ranging from nursery through to Year 7. Because the national demonstration model we helped to develop with the Basic Skills Agency was so successful, we have continued to develop the course with the help and support of schools.  We are now running courses with: KS2 children and their families; children with additional needs and their families; bilingual families; and children and families in Year 7. In addition to the accreditation for Communication Skills and Parents as Educators, parents' confidence and enthusiasm for continuing to work on their own skills or to help in school has increased enormously. Benefits to the children have included very significant gains in early language, reading and writing. 

One parent said:
"We spend a lot more time painting and playing.  We make birthday cards instead of buying them.  We write shopping lists together."

Parents working within the Literacy Hour
Due to demand and interest from Liverpool schools, a new Parents as Educators course has been developed focusing on parents working and supporting in school during the Literacy Hour. This has been funded through the European Social Fund and is accredited by Merseyside Open College Network. The course involves giving parents information about the Literacy Hour, what it involves, sessions on reading, writing, spelling and how, as parents, they can support the children in their learning. 

Our Family Matters
Our Family Matters course is part of the REACHOut to Parents initiative, a major SRB project from pre-Access through to Access and Community Degree led by Liverpool Hope University College in partnership with Parent School Partnership, BT and area partnership groups across Liverpool. The whole lifelong learning programme operates in PSP centres in local schools, supported by academic staff from Liverpool Hope, working in the community on an outreach basis.

Our Family Matters, the pre-Access part of the programme, is all about real issues in the modern world that affect families. These issues have been identified by parents and carers and put together as an accredited course.  Writing from parents and children in the pilot groups has formed the basis of the core curriculum materials and has been of such impact that it will shortly be published in its own right as part of a Liverpool Family Festival of Reading and Writing to celebrate the culmination of the National Year of Reading. 

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