are particularly important where parents face the challenges of single
parenthood or sick children.
12. English language training is crucial to parents who do not speak English, to
enable them to understand the educational and health needs of their children and
to enable them to access successfully the appropriate services.
13. Overall, learning of all kinds enables parents to retain their sense of being part
of a wider, adult society, to contribute to it and to access support from it.
Family lives
We identify a number of ways in which family members participating in learning
benefits the rest of the family.
14. Taking part themselves in learning strengthens the general value parents place
on their own children’s learning. We could not from our study identify how this
actually enhanced the children’s achievement levels, but it may be assumed to
have done so in many cases.
15. Parents come to understand more of specific aspects of their children’s
schooling, for example the curriculum in maths, English or computing/IT, and
can offer direct support.
16. Parents may learn skills directly enabling them to improve their parenting, for
example in devising games with their children or understanding their
developmental patterns better, and managing their behaviour more effectively.
They also develop better communication skills generally.
17. Learning may improve relationships between partners, or between adults and
their parents or the wider family. This may be by providing common subjects of
interest around which communication can improve; but more generally it is
likely to be because of enhanced respect and self-confidence.
18. There can be negative or double-edged effects. For example, a parent’s
participation in education may reduce the time and energy they have available
for their family, or raised aspirations may cause them to give up serving other
members of the family.
Health
We found little evidence of education directly improving physical health. The
exceptions were some older people. However, mental health effects of various kinds
were very clear.