The Indigenous Parent Factor (IPF) program helps parents/carers and families develop skills to engage effectively in their children’s early learning and develop strategies that foster trust and communication between home and school. It is designed for individual parents/carers with children aged 0 to 8 and lays strong foundations for early learning and transition to formal schooling.
The program helps parents to understand how children learn to read, write and early numeracy skills and how to apply that knowledge in home and community settings. It was designed by the Australian Parents Council and developed in collaboration with Indigenous Elders and educators.
The IPF Workshops are for Indigenous parents/carers and families to:
- develop parent knowledge and skills to be an active partner in a child’s learning
- increase understanding the way schools are teaching reading and writing
- develop knowledge of reading and writing conventions
- assist in engaging proactively in early literacy and practical ways
- you can actively be involved to enhance learning at home understanding children’s
- developmental milestones
- build a partnership mindset between home, school and between parents and teachers
- sustain positive relationships
The interactive workshops each of which are 2 hours in length are :
Successful Learning – takes parents through the developmental milestones of learning, the importance of positive self-esteem and feedback and introducing the concepts of literacy and numeracy.
Learning to Read – full of practical tips on how parents can help their children by understanding how children learn to read and what to do at home to support their child’s classroom learning. It emphasises the importance of family and home language in the process of learning to read.
Learning to Write – builds on the knowledge gained in the first two sessions and will help parents to help their children understand how to write and why it’s a skill that needs practice and encouragement. It also emphasises the importance of listening, talking and modelling to children.
Successful Learning in Mathematics – highly interactive and builds an understanding of what numeracy is, how we use it every day and introduces many mathematical concepts in a practical way to build the confidence of parents around the subject