Inspection of the learning community
surrounding Lasswade High School Centre
Midlothian Council
8 January 2013
Transforming lives through learning
1. Context
Community and Learning Development (CLD) partners within the area of Lasswade
High School Centre were inspected by Education Scotland during November 2012.
During the visit Education Scotland staff talked to children, young people and adults.
We worked closely with local 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:
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the local impact of the parent and family support strategy;
planning within the learning community, while taking account of a small core team
covering a wide geographic area beyond the learning community boundaries; and
the Friday Night Music project, using this to take a closer look at the
implementation of Curriculum for Excellence and skills development.
2. How well are partners improving learning, increasing life chances,
promoting and securing wellbeing?
Services and organisations are delivering projects and programmes which are
improving the life chances of local people. A wide range of relevant support and
delivery locally is clearly focused on key priorities including early intervention, family
learning and employability. Almost all work has targets and intended outcomes
related to employability and skills and there is an increasing focus on building in
accreditation for new and existing activities. This is resulting in better outcomes for
learners and communities. Evaluation and information about local needs is used
well in many instances to plan and develop programmes. Staff and volunteers work
well with each other to make the best use of each others skills and resources.
Dance and music feature strongly across many aspects of learning. Partners build
well on local enthusiasm and interests to sustain high levels of participation. Staff
engage regularly with learners to discuss their learning and progression in a lot of
instances. If this was more systematic, it would have wider benefits. Through the
Midlothian After Schools Snow Sports Group older young people are supported
effectively to gain instructor qualifications and many have moved on to employment
as part-time instructors at the centre. This contributes to the sustainability of the
group and accessing part-time employment opportunities. Involvement in
after-school skiing and snowboarding is enabling young people to progress
significantly in their skills development. Participants are moving on to compete,
including for some at a national level.
Get ready for care is a very effective programme working with young people on
16+ activity agreements. The programme is very well integrated with progression
steps in relation to further training and volunteering. Parents and learners can
clearly articulate the impacts of the Friday Night Music project. Many learners are
progressing to higher education and employment. Staff and learners are clear that
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their participation in the project is leading to significant improvements in their
learning and attainment. Volunteer Centre Midlothian are very proactive in their
engagement with schools and community organisations to encourage volunteering.
Groups, including Midlothian Youth Platform, make very effective use of these to
ensure young people are gaining accreditation and awards to recognise and
celebrate their achievements. A recent focus on encouraging uptake of The Duke of
Edinburgh’s Award across the area is beginning to show positive trends. There are
opportunities to use this and other processes to more systematically record and build
on volunteering and skills development.
The focus locally on work with families has engaged parents not only in learning but
in planning future programmes that will meet their needs. Parents are progressing to
further learning with CLD, crèche worker training and moving on to attend college.
Strong active community members are delivering high quality local services and
attracting the funding to do it. The ‘Toot for Fruit’ van, funded through the Fairer
Scotland Fund and supported by Loanhead Miners, provides access to good quality,
affordable fruit and vegetables to people in targeted communities. The views of local
people and organisations can be mapped through key documents, plans and
priorities. Effective partnership working between community organisations and local
people is contributing to sustainability and resilience in communities. Groups such
as the Patient Participation Group, Loanhead Miners, The Kabin, Lasswade Youth
Forum and the Midlothian People’s Equality Group influence the changes that affect
their communities. Community groups and organisations work well collectively. A
Scottish Youth Parliament Democracy Day held during the inspection week in
Lasswade High School Centre involved all young people in S1-S3. It will be
important to continue to build the capacity of young people to have an effective voice
in local, area and national decision making.
3. How well are partners working together and improving the quality of
services and provision?
Operational partnerships are strong and multi-agency approaches are increasingly
leading to positive outcomes for local people. Partners use a wide range of effective
methods to gather feedback from participants, which is used to improve their
understanding of the needs of their communities. This results in the appropriate
targeting of resources and better outcomes for individuals and groups in the
community. The approaches to neighbourhood planning by community planning
partners are engaging local people and organisations in identifying and prioritising
needs very effectively. This needs to be further developed to enable local groups to
have an equal voice in discussions about resources and delivery of services. The
‘Now you are Two’ project is a good example of a strong multi-agency approach
focused on local needs. It is coordinated well by the Lasswade Early Years
Practitioners Group. Good partnership working is key to this project’s success,
benefiting the children, parents and staff involved. Staff are gaining skills and a
better understanding of one another’s roles and this leads to a more joined up
experience for local people.
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Relationships between schools, CLD and other services are very positive. The
Associated Schools Group (ASG) in the Lasswade cluster has a strong focus on
working across 3-18. There are strong examples of staff across establishments
learning from each other and adopting each others approaches. The impact of this
work is measured and an analysis is used to develop future plans and priorities.
While there is a lot of sharing of planning and information once programmes are
developed there is limited joint assessment of needs, consideration of priorities and
self-evaluation. ASG, liaison meetings and other processes are already in place and
it would be beneficial to review their purposes and membership.
Workforce development has been a priority for the CLD service and partners and the
skills developed are leading to better outcomes for learners. Learning opportunities
are offered both by the CLD service and in partnership with the South East & Central
CLD Workforce Development Consortium. These enable more choice, better use of
resources and there are clear benefits from engaging with a wider group of staff from
other areas. Staff are taking opportunities to attend events or visit good practice
elsewhere to improve their practice and some are improving their practice by
learning from their peers.
This inspection of learning and development in the learning community surrounding
Lasswade High School Centre found the following key strengths.
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Passionate volunteers and staff who know the area and communities well and
who have a strong sense of community spirit.
The strength of relationships between partners leading to some strong joint
delivery.
Clear focus on employability, early intervention and other local and national
priorities.
We discussed with partners how they might continue to improve their work. This is
what we agreed with them.
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Review and improve approaches to tracking, monitoring, and celebrating of
achievements across the learning community.
Services and organisations should make better use of available data to shape
delivery.
Continue to develop self-evaluation across the learning community.
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4. What happens at the end of the inspection?
We are satisfied with the overall quality of provision. We are confident that
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 aspects of potentially innovative practice which we would like to explore
further. We also identified the need for more effective overall planning and
monitoring across the learning community. As a result we will work with the learning
community and education authority in order to record and share more widely the
innovative practice and to discuss joint working.
Maureen Mallon
HM Inspector
8 January 2013
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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/LasswadeHighSchoolCentreLearningCommunity.as
p.
Please contact us if you want to know how to get the report in a different format, for
example, in a translation. You can contact us
at enquiries@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk or write to us at BMCT, Education
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Education Scotland