Mid Yell Family Learning: Building Confidence Through Learning Together
Building Confidence Through Learning Together
During 2025/26, Community Work and Adult Learning worked in partnership with Mid Yell Junior High School to develop a programme of free family learning sessions, helping parents and children learn together in a relaxed and welcoming environment. By bringing families together outside the school day, the project strengthened relationships, built confidence and encouraged learning to continue at home.
The need for the project was first raised by the Head Teacher of Mid Yell Junior High School at a North Isles Learning Partnership meeting. This was followed by consultation with parents at a school event, where families completed questionnaires and discussed the type of provision they would find useful. Their feedback was collated and used to shape the first programme of sessions.
The programme included five publicly advertised evening sessions between September and November 2025. Each invited local families to make food, try a hands-on science activity and play a game together. Alongside practical activities and opportunities to socialise, families could access information from wider support agencies. The informal, inclusive format used low-cost ideas that could be repeated at home, helping people feel comfortable participating whatever their previous experience.
The partnership between Community Work, Adult Learning and Mid Yell Junior High School ensured that education staff and community learning practitioners could work together to support families in ways that complemented learning both in school and at home. Parents continued to shape the programme, with feedback gathered after each session and used to adapt the activities and delivery where needed.
The project resulted in strong attendance and growing participation over time. Parents reported using the activities at home with their children, demonstrating that learning had extended beyond the sessions themselves. Parents also described positive changes at home, including children showing greater enthusiasm, being more willing to try new foods and, for some families, improvements in relaxation and bedtime routines. Attendance increased as the programme progressed, with both parents from some families attending and school staff joining several sessions. Parents also valued being listened to, with changes such as moving the sessions to an earlier time being introduced in response to their feedback.
“I’ve done all the activities (from these sessions) at home with my child!”
– Parent
The programme also strengthened community connections by helping parents build relationships with one another, school staff and Community Learning and Development workers. The inclusion of pre-school children supported smoother transitions into school, while the positive feedback generated interest from another primary school, which requested support to develop a similar programme in its own community.
The project demonstrated the value of designing services alongside families and adapting delivery in response to feedback. By working collaboratively across education and community learning, partners created an inclusive programme that strengthened family learning, built confidence and provided a model that can be replicated elsewhere in Shetland.
Contribution to the Shetland Partnership
- Participation: Enabling parents, children and partners to shape and participate in family learning opportunities within their local community.
- People: Building confidence, strengthening family relationships and supporting children and parents to learn together.
- Place: Creating stronger connections between families, schools and community learning services, helping to build more connected and resilient communities.
- Money: Providing free, low-cost activities that families could continue at home, reducing financial barriers to participation.