Hello and welcome to our website.
Learning Altogether is a National College for School Leadership funded Network Learning Community based in Inner city Leeds.
There are ten schools in the network, all based within the Inner East area of the city.
The schools in the network are :
- Woodlands Primary School
- St Nicholas Catholic Primary School
- St Augustines Catholic Primary School
- Oakwood Primary School
- St Patricks Catholic Primary School
- Brown Hill Infant School
- Shakespeare Primary School
- Wykebeck Primary School
- St. Peter's C of E Primary School
All these schools serve communities that are rich in cultural diversity. They are all situated in an area of Leeds that faces significant economic and social challenges.
The schools in our network are all happy, lively and caring communities, where the needs of the children are paramount and where each individual is welcomed and valued for the part they play in their school community.
The schools have a history of working closely together, with the Head teachers and teachers meeting regularly to share their knowledge and skills. It is for this reason that the schools decided to become a Network Learning Community.
What is a Networked Learning Community (NLC)?
Networked Learning Communities are an initiative run by the National College for School Leadership (NCSL).The thinking behind the initiative is that schools ‘ learn with, from and on behalf of each other’.
The schools successfully bid for funding from NCSL in 2003 and receive monies from the college to promote activities that support learning at all levels of the organisations.
Why did we want to become a Network Learning Community?
The area in which our schools are based has a record of educational underachievement, high levels of unemployment and low standards of attainment in literacy, particularly writing. We wanted the schools to work more closely together and with parents:
- To share common problems
- To share good practice , ideas and resources
- To work together to have a positive impact on childrens’ and parents learning.
What is the learning focus of the NLC?
Research has shown that the level of parental involvement in their children’s learning can have a significant effect on children’s educational achievement and attitudes to learning, as well as having an impact on attendance and behaviour. ( link to quotes from research evidence to be added)
One of the aims of our network is to find ways of involving parents more actively in their children’s education through such strategies as shared learning activities, to offer parents opportunities to develop their personal skills and parenting skills and to establish parent link workers in our schools.
We have several activities taking place in our network to do this .To find out more about these click on the following links:
Share:- a family learning activity which aims to motivate parents to use the ‘Share’ materials at home with their children.
Steps:- a twelve week self development programme which builds confidence and self esteem.
Webstor Stratton:- a programme run by the Childhood and Adolescent Mental Health Service which aims to help build parent/ child relationships through play.
PALS:- a drop-in run by parents for parents , where parents can meet informally to explore issues and find information on important areas of concern such as bullying, health and nutrition, drugs awareness and many others.
How to drug proof your kids:- a drugs prevention and intervention programme that can be delivered in schools and to parents groups by parents or professionals who have received training as facilitators.
The other main aim of our network is to prompt children to develop and improve their written skills. To do this we have entered into a partnership with BBC Radio Leeds in a project called ‘all_2gether_now’ .
All_2gether_ now is a BBC community project which gives pupils and local people the skills and opportunities to write for the worldwide web and also to become community correspondents and broadcasters. Each school now has a BBC webclub and each club has a designated place on the BBC ‘where I Live’ website. ( link to bbc.co.uk/leeds/altogether)
Please run our power point presentation to see the outline of our work more fully. ( link to ‘learning Altogethe’r ppt)
Member schools
- Woodlands Primary School
- St Nicholas Catholic Primary School
- St Augustines Catholic Primary School
- Oakwood Primary School
- St Patricks Catholic Primary School
- Brown Hill Infant School
- Shakespeare Primary School
- Wykebeck Primary School
- St. Peter's C of E Primary School
