News
Launching our Spotter and Referrer Factfile
18th May 2010
Over the last year, 353 new students have accessed the Adult Basic Education Service. How did they find out about us? For 82% of students it was the result of our Spotter and Referrer network.
The network consists of a range of agencies, organisations and key workers, who work with potential learners. They are able to spot literacy & numeracy issues and, importantly, have the knowledge to refer those individuals to us.
… read more
Spotlight on ... George
10th May 2010
Our spotlight for May is on George who goes to the Craigsfarm group on a Wednesday evening. He tells us a bit about what he has been learning and how it helps him in his everyday life.
"I come from Blackburn. I work in the cleansing department; I'm the Weighbrig Operator on my shift. I found out about ABE through one of the boys at work. He was telling me all about the class so I asked the Union Rep. if he could try to get me into one of the classes.… read more
Spotlight on... Tony
1st April 2010
Tony from the Adult Learning Centre, Wednesday morning group has become our 'Mr April'. He tells us a bit about his learning experience - from working in the chippy to Cooking by Numbers.
" Hi, my name is Tony and the reason I came to ABE is to improve my reading and vocabulary. Since coming here I've improved greatly but still get a little confused with punctuation marks and knowing when and where to use them. In time and with practice… read more
Spotlight on ... Caroline
1st March 2010
This month, Caroline tells us how her learning has helped in her working life.
"I attended ABE about 5 years ago. I'd decided that I'd achieved what I wanted at that time and decided to leave. Now I've got a bit more time on my hands, I decided to come back again as I've always felt I had a bit of a struggle with my English.
Coming along has given me much more confidence in things that I approach in my everyday life; my job; … read more
Spotlight On...Craig
11th February 2010
This month Craig, from the Monday night Bathgate group, tells us about his experiences of learning.
"I came to ABE for the second time because of my kids. My oldest daughter?s who?s seven and goes to the local school. I felt I wasn?t wanting her to come to me for help on her spelling and words and me saying I can?t help because I can?t spell. I wanted to get in early and make my spelling better but it?s also helped me with my daughter; we?re starting to… read more
In with the New at ABE
18th January 2010
A big welcome to the new members of the ABE team who have recently been recruited.
Two Development Workers, Signe Jakobsen and Ljupka Lynch, have recently been appointed. They will be running groups and developing new courses across the county.
Meanwhile, seven Volunteer Tutors are just about to start their training programme. They will be joining groups in February to give extra support to students. The volunteer team make a huge cont… read more
Spotlight On......Karen
23rd November 2009
Spotlight On? is a new web feature where each month a different student talks about their experiences at ABE. To start the ball rolling Karen, from the Wednesday morning group at the Adult Learning Centre, tells us what she has been up to.
"I like to do acting - I'm in the Linlithgow players and I've done pantos for goodness knows how many years. I'm one of these people who will never stop doing them!
I came here to do numeracy especially wor… read more
Snakes and Ladders
7th September 2009
Recently the Financial Inclusion Network held a seminar looking at ?Young People in Transition?. Learners from the ABE Literacies group at BLES facilitated a workshop based on their journey to employment. The learners were keen for those attending to experience the highs and lows of this journey.
The workshop themed on Snakes and Ladders to illustrate not only the learning opportunities within the ?Get Ready for Work? programme and ABE, but also the sup… read more
New Developments
4th February 2009
Two new Development Workers are now in post at the Adult Learning Centre. Anne Thomas and Alicia Robertson have taken on roles funded by the European Social Fund.
Alicia, who has been working with CLAN in Edinburgh and Donaldson?s College, will be focusing on working with employed people, in particular, those with disabilities.
Anne, who previously worked in the Literacies Department at Motherwell College, has been tasked wi… read more
A Wealth of Experience
30th January 2009
Over the past couple of years, Learning Connections, part of the Scottish Government?s Lifelong Learning Directorate, have been exploring financial learning throughout Scotland. They collected information from 111 organisations to get a snapshot of what financial learning was taking place. From this, 14 case studies were chosen to be examples of effective practice for the report 'A Wealth of Experience'.
West Lothian ABE was one of the chose… read more
Standards are High
27th January 2009
Our Annual Service Consultation for 2008 has just been completed. All students and volunteers at ABE were invited to completed a questionnaire with their views on our service standards. Eighty people responded, answering questions about how they are treated, the resources and venues they use and the information they receive about ABE.
The students' view of frontline staff remained high. All students, who met with frontline staff, felt they had … read more
?ELF ?n? Safety?
5th January 2009
With winter approaching, one of our groups has been working on keeping safe. Recently they received a visit from Robert Meechan, Community Fire Safety Officer.
Students said ?We really enjoyed Robert?s visit to our group. He had a good way of explaining things but at the same time, the message about keeping a battery in the smoke alarm was loud and clear!?
The group really enjoyed the visit and felt they had learned so much, they wanted to share it with… read more
Days Like This ?
5th January 2009
?Inspirational?, ?funny?, ?thought-provoking? were just some of the phrases used by students who attended a recent poetry evening at Bathgate Community Theatre. Mark Thomson shared his personal journey from working on a building site to becoming a published poet. For many attending the event, it was the first time they had listened to poetry and, so impressed were they, that a creative writing group has been set up to encourage future, potential writers. If … read more
Flying High!
4th November 2008
Have you ever wondered why someone chooses to improve their skills? Read Colin's story to find out:
The reason I came to do this course is because I am joining the Royal Air Force and they wanted me to improve my spelling so I could be quicker at writing and so my Corporal could read what I write.
The course has helped me to spell. I couldn't spell much but now I can spell words a lot better and a lot quicker than I could before.
It has only been a sho… read more
FABE is Fab
25th September 2008
Friends of Adult Basic Education, our student body, have had a busy year. Not only have they achieved charitable status but they have also developed their own microsite and been successful in receiving funds from ?Awards For All? to produce their own raising awareness DVD entitled ?Strictly Come Spelling?.
This busy year was completed when they found out they had won the group award at the recent West Lothian Volunteer of the Year awards which were held… read more
Watch 'Strictly Come Spelling' online
2nd September 2008
The student made DVD, 'Strictly Come Spelling' is now available to watch online.
A group of students wrote the script and starred in the DVD which tells the story of life at ABE.
Click here to watch the film in full.
The Six Book Challenge
10th July 2008
The National Year of Reading is a nationwide campaign promoting the power of reading to change the lives of individuals and communities. The 'Six Book Challenge' gave students the opportunity to focus on their reading and discover what the world of books had to offer. Library Services hosted 'getting to know you' events which encouraged students to find out what their local library could offer them. The result: an increase in the … read more
'I'm a Mum, Now What?', Available Online.
12th May 2008
Earlier this year, the learner-produced book, 'I'm a Mum, Now What?' was launched. 1000 copies of the book were printed to be made available to parents in West Lothian and literacy learners across Scotland. To allow more people to access the book, a copy is now available to see online. To read the book click here
Lindsay Blackwood
19th February 2008
Nearly twenty years ago, Lindsay joined Adult Basic Education. Over the years Lindsay has had many jobs: group tutor, trainer, tutor advisor, open access co-ordinator and, latterly, as a tutor organiser. All of them with the same aim; to enable individuals to access a service which would put the learner at the centre, would ensure that their needs were met and would help to improve their literacies skills. During her time she has worked with an enormous numb… read more
Festive Messages
18th December 2007
ABE students have been writing their Christmas messages to post on a board at the Adult Learning Centre. The board has added a bit of festive spirit to the centre and includes positive messsages such as
"Learning is the best thing in my life" and
"I am addicted to my learning success"
Best wishes for a New Year of learning to all who come to ABE.
FABE's online
18th December 2007
Members of Friends of Adult Basic Education (FABE) have been working hard to get their own web pages up and running. The microsite is part of the Get Online and Learn website which provides information about local learning opportunities. To find out the latest news from FABE click here
Games and Puzzle Club
27th September 2007
Following hard on the heels of Sudoku, Darts and Dominoes and other one-off fun events, ABE now has a Games and Puzzles Club.
It will meet for the second time early October. At the moment, this is open only to our students and is being held on a monthly basis.
Previous events have shown how this can be a great way to learn about and use number skills.? Here’s to a great future for the Club, no doubt with lots of fun and laughter.
Could a Mac Book Pro make learning fun??
20th August 2007
Learning Connections asked for people to come up with ideas,that would inspire young learners to improve their litercies and be creative at the same time. There was a prize at the end so ABE rose to the challenge!
First of all we had to think of a project or two where young people could use new technology to help them learn. This in itself was a bit of a hurdle because we didn’t know what this new technology could do! A lot of research and picking of brain… read more
What a Star!
15th June 2007
The McRobert Pavilion, Ingliston was the venue for the star-studded Adult Learners' Week Awards 2007. We knew that we had a winner in Joyce McCourt, one of our lip reading students. What we had no reason to believe was that not only was she a finalist, but that she would receive the Overall Winner's Award for the Scottish Television Area!
What a wonderful evening for Joyce, her family and those of us from ABE who had been fortunate enough to be invited. Joyce is … read more
?3000 makes it easier...!
3rd June 2007
Some young mums from Armadale have decided to produce their own guide to parenting! Several of them, all part of a group run by Sure Start, had been talking about the written information that new parents are given. They felt it was hard to get to grips with some of it. Sure Start and Adult Basic Education got together and are supporting the young parents to write their own version.
Even more exciting -the group was awarded a ?3000 grant from Learning Connections to crea… read more
Change Today Choose Fairtade
19th February 2007
ABE is pleased to say that it wholeheartedly supports goods that are fairly traded. All tea, coffee and sugar we have available, carries the Fairtrade mark. When offering hospitality, we ensure that at the very least, fruit, fruit juices, and biscuits also have the mark.
Think about it?. By changing to Fairtrade today, you can change the lives of farmers and producers across the developing world. Why not
CHANGE TODAY AN CHOOSE FAIRTRADE too!
PLEASE NOTE… read more
Money Makes The World Go Round!
19th February 2007
Working in partnership is providing an ever increasing, array of exciting opportunities for those individuals who use the Adult Basic Education service (ABE). Our partnership with West Lothian Credit Forum is one example. The potential for future development is looking particularly good!
Getting your first home, managing your pay and bills can all be a bit of a minefield. With this in mind the partnership between ABE and the West Lothian Credit Union Forum has bee… read more
STOP PRESS!
14th February 2007
Following a successful assessment visit on 30 January 2007, it has just been confirmed that ABE has retained the Charter Mark Standard. Well done to all involved, and to our students, staff, partners and members of the public for their continued support.