Glasgow City Parents Group (GCPG) is made up of volunteer Parent Council members from across Glasgow's schools. They describe their fantastic project in their project report:
'In 2021, Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector (GCVS) announced Glasgow Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund was open for applications. The fund provides small grants of up to £10,000 for projects that improve the mental wellbeing of adults in the city. Scottish Government allocated the funding to support community groups, voluntary organisations and social enterprises to deliver adult mental wellbeing projects across the city ’ s diverse communities.
In 2022, we applied and were awarded £9,900 for our English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) project to improve the wellbeing of parents and carers who do not speak English as their first language. We identified that such parents may feel less confident in participating in their child' s education or communicating with the school due to language barriers. As a result, they may be less likely to join the Parent Council, leading to a sense of isolation from the school community.
In order to deliver a successful project we needed to identify working partners; schools to host the classes and invite parents, ESOL tutors and childcare providers to remove the barrier of childcare for parents to attend. We secured a partnership with four schools in Glasgow: Holyrood Secondary, St.Roch' s Secondary, Drumchapel High, and Holy Cross Primary. Each school was assigned a project coordinator from our group, and a planning meeting was held to identify the best day and time to deliver the classes in each school. To ensure learners were prepared we supplied stationery packs and we offered to cover travel expenses to ensure that barriers to participation were removed. Glasgow Clyde College provided the ESOL tutors, and childcare was supplied by YOMO, Crossreach and East Pollokshields Creche.
The classes ran from October 2022 to March 2023. We provided the schools with posters in a variety of languages to advertise the classes. Project coordinators attended the first evening to gather evaluation information from the parents, including questions about their wellbeing and confidence in speaking and reading English. The ESOL tutors incorporated commonly used education phrases into the classes, and GCPG representatives visited the classes to inform parents about what the Parent Council does and how to join. Holy Cross Primary was the most subscribed school each week, with a full class for the entire duration of the course, so we celebrated the end of the project at their last session with a tea party and ceritificate presentation as part of our evaluation.
In fact, we are thrilled to report that 100% of learners confirmed that they have experienced a marked increase in their confidence and wellbeing. We are particularly pleased to note that all of our learners have reported feeling more confident in communicating with their school. Perhaps the most exciting outcome of this project is that all learners at Holy Cross Primary have decided to enrol in college. This decision speaks to the power of education to inspire and motivate individuals to pursue their aspirations. We are honoured to have played a role in this process, and the learning from this project could transfer into future similar projects.'
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