Initiatives
Musiko Musika | Creating an e-learning platform for disadvantaged families with early years children
INT-452-435
About
Why the work is being done
To create an e-learning platform(website or app) for families with early years children (2-4 years old) lacking access to resources and/or for whom English is an additional language.
Problem to solve
To solve learning and developmental disparities in school entry between early years children who have access to a lot of support at home and those in families where this is lacking.
Research shows this gap impacts on long-term educational and social outcomes and has increased as a result of the pandemic.
There are two parts to this problem:
1) The practical barriers to access to high quality early years learning content due to financial circumstances
2) The engagement of parents/carers that are less active in their child’s learning due to a range of socio-economic and cultural factors including language
Who are the users and what do they need to do
The users for this project are children aged 2-4 years at risk of underachievement in key areas of their early years development. Due to their age the users are also the parents and carers of those children, so it is essentially a family project.
Within this group our target is families that are less able and less active in supporting their child’s learning and development at home due to circumstances and barriers validated during the discovery phase:
- Socio-economically disadvantaged families lacking access to resources including digital and technology
- Parent/ carers that don’t have strong English language skills (EAL) and/ or are not confident communicators
- Parent/ carers with low self-esteem and confidence in their parenting skills
This work will address these two user needs statements which are interrelated in some families:
“As a young child in an economically disadvantaged family, when I am not at nursery/ pre-school/ reception class I need to be doing activities with my mum/ dad/ carer that will support my learning and development so that I am ready to learn and thrive when I go to school.”
“As a young child in a family where English is not the first language of my parents/ carers, when I am not at nursery etc I need to have access to resources that will support my speech and language development in English so I am a confident speaker and communicator when I go to school.”
Key outputs/ deliverables:
- We have launched an effective working e-learning platform with the following characteristics:
- It provides access to Musiko Musika’s early years resources and multi-media content
- It is fun and accessible for the target families to use
- It is sustainable and adaptable with potential for scaling up
- We have knowledge and evidence to help shape and improve the development of future e-learning resources within Musiko Musika and more widely in the education/ cultural sector
Key outcomes:
- Parents/ carers are more empowered, active and effective in supporting their child’s learning and development at home
- Children’s learning and developmental deficits due to Covid-19 have been reduced
- Families, nurseries and staff have improved digital resources to support learning at home
Key project resources
Discovery files
Work already completed during Discovery
Playback
Playback deck from wrap up event 25 March 2021