Family Literacy Program at Kensington Neighbourhood House

Homework Club Profile

In 2021 the Learning Beyond the Bell team will be showcasing some of the programs and hardworking people in the Out-of-School-Hours Learning Support Sector. This month, we had a chat to Kerrie, coordinator of the Family Literacy Program at Kensington Neighbourhood House, and asked her a few questions.

1.  How long has the club been running, and how many people are involved? 

The Family Literacy Program started on Monday afternoons in 2016 with one 1-hour session a week involving 8 volunteers matched one-on-one with a child and their parent.  As more families became interested in the program, we added an extra session in 2019 and recruited more volunteers to be able to offer the program to more children.

2.  What are three words that you would use to describe your club?

Fun, Learning, and Nurturing

3.  What do you think makes your club successful?

Including the parent in the sessions. Parents learn strategies they can use at home to help their children as they are learning to read.  Often the children come from big families and do not get one-on-one time with their parent at home. We also include parents in any literacy games that we play, and the children enjoy seeing this side to their parent.

4.  What’s been a highlight for your club?

Being finalists in the 2018 MY Education awards in two categories.

5.  What advice would you give to a new club starting up?

Look to what the community needs! We were approached by local families from our local African Australian community whose older children attend homework clubs, but they felt if their children could get help earlier, they may not need as much support later. Parents told us they were not confident reading to their children or helping with school readers so this became the focus of our program. Also, utilise the training available from CMY for coordinators and volunteers.

Thanks to Kerrie and her team at Kensington Neighbourhood House for their incredible work. If you would like to follow Kerrie’s’ advice, you can check out our available modules here, or get in touch to chat with our training team.

If you would like your club to be profiled, or have a volunteer you’d like to celebrate, please get in touch at learningbeyondthebell@cmy.net.au