Inspection of the learning community
surrounding Cleveden Secondary School
Glasgow City Council
4 March 2014
Transforming lives through learning
1. Context
Community learning and development (CLD) partners within the area of Cleveden
Secondary School were inspected by Education Scotland during January 2014.
During the visit Education Scotland staff talked to children, young people and adults.
We worked closely with CLD managers, CLD providers, partners, paid staff and
volunteers. We wanted to find out how well partners are improving the life chances
of people living in the community through learning, building stronger more resilient
communities and improving the quality of services and provision. We also looked at
how well, paid staff and volunteers are developing their own practices and how well
partners, including schools are working together. We looked at some particular
aspects of recent work which were identified by partners including:


how the wide range of partnerships work together; and
improvements based on previous inspections in the wider area.
2. How well are partners improving learning, increasing life chances,
promoting and securing wellbeing?
Partners are working hard to meet the needs of learners and communities in this
complex and diverse learning community. There are a number of city wide and area
wide teams who contribute a great deal as well as high levels of local organisations
and agencies. The profile for Cleveden learning community outlines the
demography of the area and provides a useful set of data. Some agencies and
organisations use this data well among other sources to identify their own priorities
and targets, but this is variable across the learning community. There is no overall
audit of the learning needs for this learning community. A large quantity of Glasgow
Life data is available at a city level but much of this relates to numbers of visits to
establishments, registrations and attendances at events. Information and analysis of
participation at local area level and the impact of this is more limited. Glasgow Life
have developed a new evaluation system to address these limitations and plan to roll
out with partners in due course.
Most agencies have a strong focus on working with the most high risk individuals,
groups and communities. Partners deliver very targeted and effective work in
relation to health and wellbeing which has substantial impacts of lives of participants.
Programmes such as smoking cessation services and the drop-in youth health
facility meets a wide range of adult and young people’s needs. Participants
overcome territorial street issues, change risk taking behaviours, feel safe and have
more respect for themselves and others. Most learners are very articulate about the
impact of their learning on their lives. All partners need to build in regular
discussions about progression and next steps with learners. Accreditation of
learning is variable depending on the skills, experience and understanding of
individual practitioners and organisations.
Partners delivering Cadder Early Years Transition programme ensure that children
are included, confident, achieving and effective contributors. Young people engaged
in North United Communities (NUC) programmes and projects are becoming more
active, included, safer and responsible through a robust, needs assessed
1
programme of youth work. This is being delivered through initiatives including
streetwork, diversionary work, targeted groups, drop-in, arts projects and breakfast
clubs. Youth workers are working in partnership with family support workers to
address needs of targeted learners. Young people are effectively involved in the
planning and pace of their learning. Shakespeare St Youth Centre, A&M training,
Young Peoples Futures and other partners also offer a wide range of clubs and
activities which are meeting the needs of young people. Young people attending
A&M Training programmes are progressing from being participants in diversionary
activities to volunteering within the organisation. They are gaining a range of
accreditation such as Girls on the Move leadership certificates and Sport Leadership
Awards. Almost all participants are achieving and progressing to further education
or employment.
The Maryhill Integration men's group provide a very effective range of targeted
support services and activities for male refugees, including gardening and
photography. Participants work towards accreditation and are very positive about
the impact of the project in reducing isolation and building very effective support
networks. North Glasgow Learns programme of family learning is having a positive
impact on reducing learner isolation, increasing learner aspiration and supporting
learner journeys with learners progressing into positive destinations. Adult learners
with additional support needs at Artform are increasing their skills, confidence and
self esteem, enabling them to self-travel and move into independent living. Some
learners are also progressing onto further education courses.
Community organisations are well supported by a range of specialist organisations to
build capacity and sustainability. Social work services offer targeted and effective
support to groups including the North Kinship carers group. Local organisations
network very well informally and signpost people to each other’s services.
Organisations would benefit from more opportunities to come together to share
practice, skills and knowledge. There are high levels of volunteering and peer
support across a wide range of organisations and settings. This is increasing the
level and quality of services available for local people. There is a strong ethos of
putting something back into the community, with many participants training as
volunteers and supporting others.
Local organisations deliver high quality services to meet local needs. Lambhill
Stables Trust provide meeting spaces and leisure services which meet the needs of
local people. Possil Disability Community and NUC have developed community
gardens and these spaces are used as events venues and learning opportunities
around health and wellbeing and the environment.
3. How well are partners working together and improving the quality of
services and provision?
Partners actively engage in thematic and geographic partnerships to plan and deliver
services. Complex community planning arrangements and changes to structures
have contributed to difficulties in communication and setting joint priorities.
Organisations which cover discrete communities can find it difficult to ensure their
voice is heard in debates which cover large areas of the city. Staff and volunteers
2
have a strong commitment across agencies to find solutions to work effectively
together and to build on good existing relationships. Thematic partnerships, such as
those around employability, have clear joint targets and deliver services very well in
partnership. There are clear links between national and city wide priorities and local
targets. School staff engaged in the Cleveden learning community work very well
together and undertake regular joint career long professional learning which
develops their shared understanding. Volunteers and staff from other organisations
and agencies would benefit from participating in joint professional learning in relation
to curriculum and assessment.
Glasgow Life has a planned training programme which began recently to build
capacity for effective self-evaluation. Staff have begun to apply frameworks
systematically to identify strengths and areas for improvement. Self-evaluation is
undertaken in partnership with local groups including NUC and Shakespeare St
Youth Centre. There is scope for partners to strengthen and embed self-evaluation
at the early planning stages of collaborative working.
This inspection of learning and development in the learning community surrounding
Cleveden High School found the following key strengths.



High levels and good ethos of volunteering.
Relationships between staff and learners and between partners.
Enthusiasm of staff and volunteers to learn and improve within times of
substantial change.
We discussed with partners how they might continue to improve their work. This is
what we agreed with them.



More effective pathways and accreditation of learning.
Develop a shared understanding of needs and outcomes in this learning
community.
Joint planning and reviewing shared outcomes for improvement across partners
including schools.
4. What happens at the end of the inspection?
We are satisfied with the overall quality of provision. We are confident that the
learning community’s self-evaluation processes are leading to improvements. As a
result, we will make no further evaluative visits in connection with this inspection.
During the inspection, we identified an aspect of innovative practice which we would
like to explore further. As a result we will work with the key partners and Glasgow
Life in order to record and share more widely the innovative practice.
Maureen Mallon
HM Inspector
4 March 2014
3
Additional inspection evidence, such as details of the quality indicator evaluations,
for this learning community can be found on the Education Scotland website at
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/inspectionandreview/reports/othersectors/com
munitylearninganddevelopment/ClevedenSecondarySchoollc.asp
If you would like to receive this report in a different format, for example, in a
translation you can contact the administration team on 01506 600381.
If you want to give us feedback or make a complaint about our work, please contact
us by telephone on 0141 282 5000, or e-mail:
complaints@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk or write to us, addressing your letter to
The Complaints Manager, Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park, Livingston,
EH54 6GA.
Text phone users can contact us on 01506 600 236. This is a service for deaf users.
Please do not use this number for voice calls as the line will not connect you to a
member of staff.
Crown Copyright 2014.
Education Scotland
4