Inspection of the learning community
Inspection of the learning community surrounding Newbattle High School
Midlothian Council
2 June 2009
Contents
1.
About the report
2.
The learning community
3.
Particular strengths of the learning community
4.
Examples of good practice
5.
How well do participants learn and achieve?
6.
How well does CLD help the community to develop?
7.
How effective are providers in improving the quality of services?
8.
Do CLD providers have a clear sense of direction?
9.
What happens next?
1. About the report
This report tells you about community learning and development (CLD) activities
in the communities surrounding Newbattle High School. It complements a
separate report on the school. We explain how well people involved in community
learning activities do in a wide range of experiences, and the quality of learning
activities on offer to them. We describe how communities can influence decision
making and how they can respond positively to their own issues. We also talk
about how organisations work together and how they improve lives in local
communities. Finally, our report looks at the vision for the area, and how well all
organisations and the community are working together to achieve it.
2. The learning community
The learning community around Newbattle High School includes the towns of
Newtongrange, Gorebridge and Mayfield.
According to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, the proportion of deprived
areas within the authority has increased in the past few years. Economic
deprivation is most prevalent in the communities of Gorebridge and Mayfield.
Midlothian residents of working age achieve fewer qualifications than people of
Scotland as a whole. The proportion of jobless people is lower than the Scottish
average and employment levels have increased since 2006.
3. Particular strengths of the learning community
•
Very good range of effective partnerships.
•
The commitment and hard work of staff through a period of considerable
change.
•
Skilled, confident and enthusiastic volunteers.
•
Very confident, skilled and empowered young people.
•
Some learners making very good progress in short periods of time.
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4. Examples of good practice
•
Gorebridge Community Development Trust. Gives people in Gorebridge the
chance to share their views about their community and develop new services.
•
Midlothian Youth Platform (MYP). Members work together to improve their
communities by giving young people the chance to inform and influence
change at both a national and local level.
•
Gorebridge Locality Planning Steering Group. Aims to help services and
projects work together with the local community to make improvements.
•
Y2K project. An accessible youth project that offers a seven day a week
service in the Mayfield area.
By visiting www.hmie.gov.uk you can find out more about these examples of good
practice.
5. How well do participants learn and achieve?
CLD providers are making some efforts to use performance data to identify
trends. Participant numbers are routinely collated and have increased in the last
two years. The Gorebridge Community Development Trust is running an ongoing
programme of planning and self-evaluation. Adult literacies staff are collecting
performance data and MALANI (Midlothian Adult Literacy and Numeracy Initiative)
have clear systems in place for assessing progress against targets. Information
about youth participation is well documented and is contributing to the Midlothian
Youth Participation Strategy 2009-10.
The Gorebridge Community Development Trust is gathering information through
the Working with Communities Development Plan. Currently, it is too early to
identify trends in performance. Overall, there is a lack of a systematic approach
to using data to measure progress against targets set. CLD staff are in the
process of purchasing a performance information system. Overall, there is
limited information about performance against aims, objectives and targets.
Information on performance is insufficiently linked to community planning
processes and the Single Outcome Agreement.
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Young people
CLD and their partners are offering a good range of learning opportunities for
young people. Y2K, a local youth work organisation is providing a safe place for
young people to interact and develop positive relationships with others. Members
report improved confidence and value the support, for example, to produce a
Curriculum Vitae to help them gain employment. Strong partnerships between
Newbattle High School, Newbattle Integration Team and Y2K+ are helping young
people tackle issues of attendance at school and anger management. Youth club
members at Newbattle Community Learning Centre are positively influencing how
the building is developing examples include the creation of a Teen Zone room.
CLD staff need to ensure that their priority continues to focus on work with over
12s by increasing the capacity for volunteers to work with younger children.
Almost all young people involved in MYP and Newbattle Youth Forum are
becoming confident, successful learners and active citizens. In a period of less
than twelve months, they have taken part in two residential weekends, organised
surveys and run events such as a rock concert. Impressively, they organised a
MYP local conversation in response to the National Conversation presented by
the First Minister. Articulate, confident and motivated young people are gaining
leadership skills, working effectively as a team and improving self-esteem. They
are very well supported by the Youth Participation worker. Several young people
are gaining Youth Achievement and Millenium Volunteers Awards.
CLD staff are successfully contacting young people through a well organised
programme of street work. Activities such as street football are attracting high
numbers and leading to new initiatives. Through Community Safety diversionary
funding, young people are accessing leisure centres and becoming more involved
in a range of sports. Some are completing coaching certificates awarded by the
Scottish Football Association. Young women completing a babysitting course are
gaining certificates and progressing to volunteering in local playschemes.
Adults
A wide and varied range of quality, community-based adult learning opportunities
is available to learners. Staff and partners display a high level of commitment.
Good quality provision is offered by Midlothian Council Adult Learning Team,
MALANI, Progress Through Learning Midlothian and Jewel and Esk College.
MALANI has an established management information system which is identifying
information about individual learners. It is used well to plan provision.
Community-based adult learning is routinely evaluating impact feedback from
learners. However, learners are not always clear about how information gathered
is used to plan provision. The adult learning team is conducting needs
assessments so that provision is tailored to the needs of local people. They are
also developing working relationships with newly built schools and parents to
target provision.
Learners are accessing a range of support, including obtaining child care costs
which enable them to access learning opportunities. Working With Families key
workers lead on collating learners’ action plans. These chart and progress
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multi-agency interventions. Midlothian Adult Learning Partnership has enthused
staff and partners to consolidate existing working relationships and resource
sharing. Almost all learners report increased confidence and other impacts as a
result of their involvement. Learners consistently report progressing onto further
learning and education opportunities. Many are also gaining SQA qualifications.
Some learners also report progression to employment and higher education.
6. How well does CLD help the community to develop?
The Newbattle learning community is well served by a very good range of
community groups. Most volunteers are skilled, confident and influential in
delivering a broad range of programmes that are improving the quality of life of
local residents. The majority of groups are able to demonstrate achievements
and improvements to community life. Community representatives are active and
influential in the Improving Opportunities Midlothian (IOM) group, one of
Midlothian community planning framework groups that includes Fairer Scotland,
Leader Plus appraisal and the Small Projects Regeneration Fund.
Established groups such as Y2K, Gorebridge and Mayfield Community
Development Trusts and Black Diamond FM have secured Fairer Scotland
funding to deliver specific outcomes. Newbattle Community Learning Centre is
successfully upgrading the facilities within their building. Management committee
members have a clear vision to meet the needs of the community, including
increased programmes for young people.
MYP members describe the range of learning opportunities and skills acquired
through their involvement. Young people are applying skills gained in a variety of
settings including, school, college and employment. They are very active within
their local community and are successfully engaged in a range of initiatives that
are shaping future services for the community.
The Gorebridge Locality Plan has assisted in shaping a National Lottery bid to
develop a new community hub. Gorebridge Community Development Trust has
successfully taken over a local community centre. A busy community programme
is now operating without direct council funding. However, some new and
emerging groups require support to access funding and establish appropriate
planning and evaluation procedures. Reporting of outcomes and impacts requires
to be more consistent across the range of community groups and services
working within the area.
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7. How effective are providers in improving the quality of services?
CLD providers are using some helpful methods to gather feedback from
participants. Adult learning providers record quantitative data and some are also
gathering impact information. English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)
and literacies groups and MALANI are integrating this into their practice, helping
to improve provision. Youth workers are routinely completing nightly recording
sheets. However, some are unclear about the purpose and value of evaluation.
Youth workers would benefit from further training on the nature and purpose of
evaluation. A good system is in place for recording information and issues raised
from Streetwork sessions. This is helping to inform changes and target more
effectively. The Community Development Trust has a clear vision of where they
are going and are planning and reflecting on their practice due to the intensive
support form CLD and Regeneration Workers.
The Regeneration Team is using self-evaluation to shape service planning.
However, this is not yet consistent across all providers. CLD staff offer training
using a self-evaluation toolkit. However, its use is not yet consistent and some
staff do not have a good understanding of how it can be used to drive
improvement. Although at an early stage, the Newbattle Youth Work Partnership
is beginning to reflect on current provision and plan new developments. Planning
arrangements are in place across CLD providers although there is not yet a strong
enough focus on outcomes. Some good reporting to stakeholders is evident, for
example through the Working with Communities newsletter. There is scope to
improve this across all providers.
8. Do CLD providers have a clear sense of direction?
CLD is well led within the inspection area. Partners are working well together and
this is leading to good outcomes for learners. This is particularly evident in the
work with young people. There are strong and developing links with Newbattle
High School. Whilst there are clear areas for improvement, CLD providers are
aware of their strengths and weaknesses. Good understanding of the local area
is helping local providers to begin to set common priorities.
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9. What happens next?
CLD providers have a good understanding of their strengths and areas for
improvement and communities are achieving very well. As a result we have
ended the inspection process at this stage.
We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the education authority
and its partners.
•
Improve self-evaluation processes so that all CLD providers embed it into
their practice.
•
Ensure that part-time youth workers are clear about the value and benefits of
monitoring and evaluation.
•
Ensure that appropriate support is in place to help groups, individuals and
volunteers to access funding and evaluate the impact of services.
•
Improve performance monitoring and reporting.
Quality indicators help CLD providers and inspectors to judge what is good and
what needs to be improved in the work of the school. You can find these quality
indicators in the HMIE publication “How good is our community learning and
development? 2”.
The 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
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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 Newbattle High School.
Improvements in performance
Impact on young people
Impact on adults
Impact of capacity building on communities
Improving services
Managing Inspector: Sheila Brown
2 June 2009
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satisfactory
very good
very good
good
satisfactory
How can you contact us?
HMIE has responsibilities to evaluate the quality of pre-school education, all
schools, teacher education, community learning and development, colleges and
local authorities. We also publish reports of interest to the public and
professionals about services for children and evaluate child protection services.
From this extensive evidence we are able to give the professional advice needed
to support the development of educational policy.
For more information about the work of HMIE, including examples of good
practice and links to Journey to Excellence, please visit our website at
www.hmie.gov.uk.
To find out more about inspections go to www.hmie.gov.uk. Please contact the
Business Management and Communications Team if you require any of our
information available in translated or other appropriate versions.
If you wish to comment about any of our inspections, contact us at
HMIEenquiries@hmie.gsi.gov.uk or alternatively you should write to Business
Management and Communications Team, HM Inspectorate of Education,
Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale Way, Livingston
EH54 6GA.
Our complaints procedure is available from Rona Littleproud, HM Inspectorate of
Education, Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale Way,
Livingston EH54 6GA or phone 01506 600258 or from our website at
www.hmie.gov.uk.
If you are not satisfied with the action we have taken at the end of our complaints
procedure, you can raise a complaint with the Scottish Public Services
Ombudsman (SPSO). The SPSO is fully independent and has powers to
investigate complaints about Government departments and agencies. You should
write to the SPSO, Freepost EH641, Edinburgh EH3 0BR. You can also
telephone 0800 377 7330, fax 0800 377 7331 or email ask@spso.org.uk. More
information about the Ombudsman’s office can be obtained from the website
www.spso.org.uk.
Want to join us?
In addition to HMI, inspection teams often include people who are not HMI but are
involved directly in education. They are called Associate Assessors and most
work in community learning and development. Most inspection teams also
include a member of the public called a Lay Member. More information about
how you can become an Associate Assessor or Lay Member is available at
www.hmie.gov.uk .
Crown Copyright 2009
HM Inspectorate of Education
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