Anyone a family support worker or learning mentor?

[davidbowie]

Hi I am thinking about the type of work I would like to retrain for. I know I would like to work with children preferably children with barriers to learning. If you are working as a family support worker or learning mentor please tell me about it and whcih qualifications would be most suitable for the jobs. Cheers

bumping for davidbowie, as interested in this too...

I'm a learning mentor, though am an work on the 'academic' side rather than the sort of emotional/SERIS/SEAL/behaviour/attendance/bereavement etc etc side of things.

I absolutely love the job. It's very rewarding to see the students making progress. They are largely very appreciative of my help too.

Generally experience is more relevant that qualifications. I happen to have a degree (in MFL), but that's not necessary. I worked in secondary schools for 4 years before becoming a LM, and I have an HLTA qualification. You can do an NVQ4 in Learning Mentoring, or something; but I'm not sure it would make you a better LM or help you get a job iyswim.

What's your background and what experience do you have with working with children?

Hi thanks for your replies. Work wise I came from a very different background, I was a horticulturalist but stopped due to health reasons. I'm currently a stay at home mum and also a carer for a family member. I have run a playgroup for 9 years for ages 0-5. I have volunteered in a primary school for a couple of years mainly one to one reading but also in small groups doing class work. It is seeing some disadvantaged children in both playgroup and school which has made me think about retraining. I believe it's vital to help children who are struggling to achieve their potential. I also understand how parents who are struggling sometimes just need someone to listen and a helping hand and how hard that can be to ask for. I had thought about a counselling course as over 9 years of playgroup I have talked through problems of alcoholism, drug addiction, depression and many other problems with our mums. I also thought a course in child care, learning and development would help. I did an ou opening course of understanding children which I loved and thought perhaps the childhood and youth degree but really wanted to concentrate on pre school to ks2. Looking at courses is confusing!! Sorry for mammoth post!

sorry should say parents sometimes need someone to listen to them