Karla Johnson from Community Learning Development

Karla Johnson spoke to Ayr Rotary about her role in Community Learning Development (CLD) and in particular the extensive involvement with Dalmilling Primary School. Following on from her success with Newton Primary on delivering programmes which empowered people individually and collectively to make positive changes in their lives and communities, Karla was asked to join he Dalmilling team for one year. Four years later, she’s now spending four days a week helping support the children by supporting the whole family unit. Like many other schools, raising attainment is a priority for Dalmilling. This means developing strategies to engage parents and grandparents to become more involved with their children’s learning therefore simultaneously developing the adults themselves.
Family fitness days, pupil council, community clean up days, first aid for pupils, cooking together are just some of the initiatives which Karla has helped launch.
As a poignant conclusion to her inspirational presentation, she showed a slide stating that children don’t need more things. The best toys a child can have is a parent who gets down on the floor and plays with them.

John Ewing gave a worthy vote of thanks