Learning community inspection
A report by HM Inspectorate of Education
Inspection of the learning community
surrounding Montrose Academy
Angus Council
7 September 2010
We inspect learning communities in order to let those who use services and the
local community know whether learning communities provide appropriate learning
opportunities and help learners in their development. We are also interested in
how community and voluntary groups are helped to contribute to making
communities better places to live and work. At the end of inspections, we agree
ways in which staff and volunteers can improve the quality of learning for young
people and adults and how the impact of community and voluntary groups can be
further developed.
At the beginning of the inspection, we ask managers and staff about the strengths
of the learning community, what needs to improve, and how they know. We use
the information they give us to help us plan what we are going to look at. During
the inspection, we join other activities which young people, adults and community
groups are involved in. We also gather the views of learners, active community
members and staff. We find their views very helpful and use them together with
the other information we have collected to arrive at our view of the quality of
provision locally.
This report tells you what we found during the inspection and the quality of
learning and development provided. We describe how well learners are doing
and how good the learning community is at helping them to learn. We comment
on how well staff, learners and groups work together and the difference they are
making in the learning community. Finally, we focus on how well the learning
community is led and how leaders help the learning community achieve its aims.
If you would like to learn more about our inspection of the learning community,
please visit www.hmie.gov.uk.
Contents
1.
The learning community
2.
Particular strengths of the learning community
3.
How well do participants learn and achieve?
4.
How well are communities developing and achieving?
5.
How effective are providers in improving the quality of services?
6.
Does the learning community have a clear sense of direction?
7.
What happens next?
1. The learning community
The learning community around Montrose Academy includes the town of
Montrose and surrounding villages including Craigo, Ferryden and Hillside. The
population of the area is around 15,000. Unemployment levels are in line with the
average for Angus Council area and lower than the national average. The town’s
port provides a major source of local employment. Other sources of employment
include the oil and gas sector, pharmaceuticals, tourism and farming. Partners
working together to provide opportunities for adults, young people and community
groups include Angus Council, YM Montrose, Angus College, Volunteer Centre
Angus and local organisations.
2. Particular strengths of the learning community
•
Broad range of learning opportunities which help young people to achieve, get
active and stay safe.
•
Older adults are achieving well and taking on challenges in self-managed
groups.
•
Growing levels of volunteering in the area.
•
The range of accreditation opportunities for young people and older adults.
3. How well do participants learn and achieve?
Partners are delivering a range of high quality learning opportunities in the area
which are helping those taking part to achieve well. Organisations and
participants are able to describe important benefits of provision such as
improvements in health, reductions in crime and enhanced levels of confidence.
Older adults benefit very well from authority-wide programmes. The number of
volunteers from Montrose registered with the Volunteer Centre Angus has
increased significantly in recent years. YM Montrose assesses and reports on
performance in relation to grant funding on a regular basis. An Integrated
Children and Young People’s Partnership meets regularly to identify need and
plan work. However, information on the range of services provided by local
groups and organisations is incomplete. As a result, service providers do not yet
have a full picture of participant achievement in the area. A range of accreditation
opportunities has been introduced in work with young people but overall numbers
benefiting remain low. The number of local adults engaged in literacy provision is
low. Partners need to improve information sharing, communication and planning
to enable clearer target setting and better analysis of performance.
1
Young people
Young people are benefiting from a good range of provision in the area. Youth
work providers, including YM Montrose and the Council’s community learning and
development (CLD) Service are helping to widen opportunities for achievement in
Montrose Academy. Music, dance and other arts activities are helping young
people to develop confidence. Those taking part in the popular Showcase project
are performing at public events and achieving success at national level. Music
and youth café nights organised by YM Montrose are helping young people to
take on responsibility, work together and develop organisational skills. The
number of young people registered as volunteers has increased in the past year.
A Skillszone Extra programme, developed in partnership by Angus Council,
Angus College and Skills Development Scotland, has helped a few young people
from Montrose to gain skills designed to improve their access to employment.
Those taking part are now in employment, attending college or taking part in other
employability programmes. A good range of award and accreditation schemes
are offered in the area but overall numbers benefiting from these are low.
Methods to involve young people in discussion of their learning and achievements
are inconsistently applied. Better guidance and more sustained provision would
help young people gain more from their experiences. Information is not yet being
fully or systematically collated across partners working with young people in the
area. As a result, there are missed opportunities for young people to build on
their learning and make progress. Young people are not sufficiently involved in
local decision-making arrangements.
Adults
Those taking part in adult learning provision are achieving well. Learners value
the support of staff and appreciate the opportunities provided. Growth in
confidence, reduction in social isolation and increase in skills development is
experienced by learners across almost all programmes. Older adults are
achieving very well across a range of programmes. Those taking part in the
Discovery Award scheme and Angus Gold have taken on new challenges,
developed skills and confidence and have achieved recognition of their
considerable achievements. The Tuesday Trampers are undertaking personal
challenges in walking and navigation, resulting in improved confidence and a
strong sense of personal achievement. In addition to achieving certification in first
aid and navigation skills, a few members have improved their photography skills,
produced an animated film and contributed to a photography project recording
seasonal changes. Some learners have used their achievements to become
more active in their community. For example, the Montrose Gold Forum has
organised a public information event in the local health centre to raise awareness
about the group and issues they are tackling. English speakers of other
languages (ESOL) learners are benefiting from high quality provision delivered by
Angus College and the Council’s CLD Service. This is helping to improve
language skills, integration in the local community and access to employment
opportunities. Literacies learners are benefiting from weekly drop-in provision but
numbers are very low in relation to population size. A few learners from Montrose
have benefited considerably from Angus Council’s participation in a national
research project into visual perception difficulties. More opportunities for working
2
aged adults to gain qualifications are needed. Information and guidance on
progression opportunities is not systematic or sufficient.
4. How well are communities developing and achieving?
Community members are benefiting from their involvement with activities and
projects delivered by local groups and organisations. A number of older people’s
groups are managed by confident volunteer members who are contributing
effectively to their communities and taking part in national initiatives such as the
Older People’s Parliament. Members of groups are confident and take
responsibility for work within the community, for example, through raising funds to
support new activities and campaigning for improvements to a local play park.
Participation in the recent community open day and ‘Montrose Moving Forward’
event enabled a range of established local groups to share information, make
links with other groups and contribute to discussions on local community planning
developments. As a result, the Montrose Together partnership has collated a list
of possible actions but these have not been prioritised and no measurable action
plan has yet been put in place. There are some good examples of inclusion such
as YM Montrose working with members of the travelling community, but overall,
work to promote inclusion and equality in local decision-making is limited. There
is a need to develop a stronger shared vision amongst organisations working in
Montrose. Communication, shared planning and joint working between council
departments and amongst partner organisations is not consistent. There is a
need to focus more on what is being delivered. A recent survey found that most
local residents have limited confidence in their ability to shape and influence
decision-making about their communities. There is a need for better coordinated
support for local groups to equip them to more effectively manage their provision.
Young people are not being sufficiently included in local decision-making.
5. How effective are providers in improving the quality of services?
Some organisations are able to evaluate their work effectively, plan improvements
and report progress. YM Montrose produces regular reports for funders and
stakeholders. Adult learning partners have undertaken joint training to enable
better planning for improvement. Staff reflect on their work and take learners’
views into account when planning provision. At a partnership level,
self-evaluation and shared planning for improvement is at an early stage. There
is a need for more focus on what is being achieved. Plans lack detail and are not
sufficiently specific or focused on outcomes. This makes it difficult to measure
progress. Data and analysis of need to inform planned provision is incomplete.
Reporting to stakeholders is inconsistent and undeveloped across the partnership.
A number of local organisations do not yet make effective use of self-evaluation
tools.
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6. Does the learning community have a clear sense of direction?
There are some established structures to enable joint planning and evaluation
amongst partners including the Integrated Children and Young People’s
Partnership and the Adult Learning Partnership. However, there is a need for a
clearer shared vision and direction amongst organisations in the area. Partners in
the area are not yet sufficiently clear on their short, medium and long term
priorities and have not yet succeeded in achieving a consistent approach to
effective joint evaluation and planning.
7. What happens next?
There are significant improvements needed and CLD providers do not yet have a
good understanding of their strengths and areas for improvement. We will
therefore revisit the learning community to check on progress within one year of
publication of this report.
We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the education authority
and its partners.
•
Develop a clearer local vision which represents all members of the community
and improve coordination amongst providers.
•
Ensure that local plans are outcome focused, measurable and address priority
needs.
•
Enable more young people to benefit from the range of accredited award
programmes.
•
Meet the needs of more literacies learners and develop better progression
opportunities for working age adults.
4
Quality indicators help CLD providers and inspectors to judge what is good and
what needs to be improved in the learning community. You can find these quality
indicators in the HMIE publication “How good is our community learning and
development? 2”.
HMIE checks five important quality indicators to keep track of how well all Scottish
CLD provision is doing. Here are the results for the learning community
surrounding Montrose Academy.
Improvements in performance
Impact on young people
Impact on adults
Impact of capacity building on communities
Improving services
Managing Inspector: Peter Hamilton
7 September 2010
5
weak
good
satisfactory
weak
satisfactory
This report uses the following word scale to make clear judgements made by
inspectors.
excellent
very good
good
satisfactory
weak
unsatisfactory
outstanding, sector leading
major strengths
important strengths with some areas for improvement
strengths just outweigh weaknesses
important weaknesses
major weaknesses
If you would like to find out more about our inspections or get an electronic copy
of this report, please go to www.hmie.gov.uk.
Please contact us if you want to know how to get the report in a different format,
for example, in a translation, or if you wish to comment about any aspect of our
inspections. You can contact us at HMIEenquiries@hmie.gsi.gov.uk or write to us
at BMCT, HM Inspectorate of Education, Denholm House, Almondvale Business
Park, Almondvale Way, 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.
You can find our complaints procedure on our website www.hmie.gov.uk or
alternatively you can contact our Complaints Manager, at the address above or by
telephoning 01506 600259.
Crown Copyright 2010
HM Inspectorate of Education