‘The Dad Factor’: a new training package for schools from the Fatherhood Institute
Building on the phenomenal success of Fathers’ Story Week (note 1), the Fatherhood Institute (note 2) brings you The Dad Factor - a training package designed to support schools to get fathers and father-figures engaged in their children’s learning and development, and in ‘parent-school’ activities more widely.
Did you know?
- The reading age of children in the UK is declining
- Where fathers and father-figures are positively involved in their children's learning and development, educational attainment improves (including, for example, raised IQ scores and significant improvements in boys’ reading - note 3).
But research also shows that fathers often feel excluded by schools, preschools and nurseries, and that this helps prevent them from participating actively in their children's education.
The Dad Factor shows schools how to increase father involvement, thus unlocking a huge resource which can greatly improve child outcomes.
What is The Dad Factor?
The Dad Factor, our new training package for schools, is evidence-based and practice-focussed. Designed with INSET days in mind, the course will provide your school (or schools cluster) with tools and strategies to:
- Evaluate your current engagement with dads
- Challenge your team’s beliefs and assumptions about fathers and father-involvement
- Get dads through the door
- Get dads involved in their children’s education and sustain this involvement
- Make your school more father friendly
- Get dads involved in parent-school activities
Positively involved fathers can have a huge impact on children’s learning and development, including on their reading age and other performance measures, and on their behaviour. Drawing on international evidence and our extensive practical knowledge of ‘what works’, we show you how best to tap into dads’ potential.
To find out more about The Dad Factor, contact: Katherine Jones, the Fatherhood Institute’s Training Manager at k.jones@fatherhoodinstitute.org or tel 0786 776 1251.
Notes
1. Fathers’ Story Week
Schools across Britain engaged successfully with dads – many of them for the first time - during Fathers’ Story Week, an annual event we devised in March 2010 and rolled out in June. During this short three month period, 2,641 organisations registered to take part, with coverage from across all 4 home nations of the UK including two participants from New York and Buenos Aires! The event is estimated to have reached around 250,000 dads.
As well as being held at 716 schools, FSW was implemented by 216 nurseries, 182 pre-schools, 907 children’s centres, 45 libraries and 30 prisons. launched in June 2010. FSW was organised by the Fatherhood Institute in collaboration with Barnardos, with the aim of getting dads involved in their children’s learning and development, working and spending time together in order to improve educational outcomes.
Early results suggest 75% of dads rated FSW as excellent, and the remaining 25% rated it as good. Almost 90% said the week had improved their relationship with their child’s school. To find out more visit the FSW website, www.fathersstoryweek.org.
2. What is the Fatherhood Institute?
The Fatherhood Institute helps dads to do the best for their children. As the leading UK think tank on fatherhood, the Institute collates research, helps to shape the government’s family policy, influences the public debate on fathers and trains family services to be father-inclusive. The Institute’s vision is for a society that gives all children a strong and positive relationship with their father and any father-figures; supports both mothers and fathers as earners and carers; and prepares boys and girls for a future shared role in caring for children.
3. Fathers’ impact on their children’s education
Read the Fatherhood Institute’s Research Summary, available to download free:
http://www.fatherhoodinstitute.org/index.php?id=12&cID= 583
Fatherhood Institute, Horsingtons Yard, Tiverton Place, Lion Street, Abergavenny, NP7 5PN.