Inspection of the learning community
Inspection of the learning community surrounding Shawlands Academy
Glasgow City Council
5 May 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 Shawlands Academy. 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 Shawlands Academy is located in the South East
of Glasgow and spreads across most of the Southside Central electoral ward.
The area is one in which neighbourhoods of relative affluence sit alongside those
of marked poverty. The level of migrants moving into the area has created a
multi-cultural community. Drugs and alcohol related hospital admissions are
higher than the Scottish average.
The proportion of jobless people is higher than the Scottish average.
3. Particular strengths of the learning community
•
Breadth of ethnic mix, knowledge and distinct communities within the
learning community.
•
Good informal partnership working and networking.
•
Energy and commitment of staff to handle change.
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4. Examples of good practice
•
English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) initial assessment, advice
and placement service.
•
Govanhill Community Development Trust.
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 and their partners are gathering and using some performance information to
measure trends. This is most evident where targets are being set in specific
funded projects. In these projects output targets are being exceeded. Similarly,
targets set for literacies in the Single Outcome Agreement are also being
exceeded. The Youth Justice Forum is beginning to set targets for improving the
life chances of young people identified as persistent offenders. It is too early to
judge if this is having a positive impact on anti-social behaviour although
partnership working between agencies is improving. High level targets are being
set by the Community Planning Partnership although these are not yet distilled at
a local level. The Learner Outcome Tracking Information System (LOTIS) has
been developed to determine whether provision is meeting needs. However, it is
not yet fully implemented.
Feedback is collected from learners using a variety of methods but adults taking
part in community-based provision is not being systematically recorded. Too
often the focus is on outputs rather than outcomes and CLD providers need to
work towards improving this. The Youthbase system used by CLD is not always
able to produce data readily. More accreditation opportunities for adults and
young people would help to set higher expectations.
Young people
The Community Planning Board is providing a good framework for youth work.
CLD providers are facilitating the sharing of information, support and development
of young people’s aspirations. Local youth provider networks are established and
are supporting the development of youth foras, although these are at an early
stage. Play development clubs are enjoyed by primary-aged children providing a
secure integrated, fun environment to develop language confidence and
interpersonal skills. Streetwork is targeting disaffected young people and ethnic
minority groups. A drop-in provision for the Roma community is giving young
people an opportunity to socialise and build relationships. The Gypsy Heart band
project has developed as a result. Attempts are being made to integrate young
people into projects such as sports and Y dance. The Govanhill Community
Development Trust (GCDT), in partnership with National Children’s Homes
(NCH), is helping to reduce youth unemployment by providing structured work
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experiences. As a result 20 young people are making a successful transition
between school, education, training and work.
New targeted provision such as Thank Goodness its Friday (TGIF) and Sunday
Night Live is reducing anti-social behaviour and tension in communities at
weekends. The Gorbals Library drop-in is providing a safe learning environment
for homework and project work and is encouraging use of the library.
Accreditation opportunities are offered through XL and Junior Sports Leadership
Awards. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is promoted in both mainstream and
special educational needs (SEN) secondary schools. Accreditation opportunities
in other settings have not yet been fully explored and implemented. Individual or
group learning plans are not embedded and there is scope to develop youth
literacies provision.
Adults
Many learners are reporting important impacts on their lives from their learning.
Work with ESOL learners is helping them to build confidence, and preparing them
to seek employment or to progress to other work or training opportunities. A good
initial assessment system for new learners is now being introduced into all of the
neighbourhood ESOL provision. Literacy learning is particularly effective when
linked with other relevant learning, for example budgeting, and form-filling for
homeless young women. Most participants have individual learning plans to help
them review their learning. ESOL groups would benefit from the introduction of a
group planning process. A range of other community-based adult learning is
being delivered in the area in response to requests from groups and agencies.
How progress in adult learning is recorded does not do justice to either the
number of learners involved or the range of benefits associated with learning.
This requires improvement.
Partnership work in the area is responding effectively to expressed need for
example through the ESOL Partnership and the Community Planning Partnership
Board. However, a more proactive and planned approach to local partnership
activity would help create more innovative programmes for ESOL and literacy
learners. In particular, the development of family learning work with primary
schools would help to attract parents into adult learning as well as helping them
support their children’s learning.
6. How well does CLD help the community to develop?
The Gorbals and Govanhill areas have vibrant community and voluntary
organisations that contribute well to supporting community development. An
impressive range of community festivals celebrate the mix of cultures within the
communities. Most community activists are skilled and confident. The South East
Community Health and Care Partnership employs community development
workers whose main role in the area is to build the capacity of the Slovakian
Roma population. They also support groups to tackle drugs and alcohol misuse
and domestic violence. The Govanhill Community Development Trust runs a wide
range of projects to build community capacity. These include learning and skills
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projects in horticulture and construction for young people who have been unable
to make a successful transition from school to education, training or work. They
also provide support for families of drug users, advice for workless people on
employability, campaigns on poor housing conditions, and rights-based legal
advice. The Gorbals Community Forum supports a large network of local
community groups through training, advice and information. The Forum hosts
Steps to Success, a highly successful personal development programme for
adults. This programme has provided training for over 300 local people and has
trained 45 local staff and volunteers to deliver the programme. Culture and Sport
Glasgow provides opportunities for local people to train for Community Sports
Leadership Awards to build capacity within local sports clubs. Local
arrangements to engage people in decision-making are less effective. Active
community members do not feel that they have sufficient opportunities to
influence decision-making on matters that affect their communities. Managers
need to make sure that effective support for grass roots community organisations
is sustained.
7. How effective are providers in improving the quality of services?
At a strategic level, Culture and Sport Glasgow are developing a good range of
structures to routinely gather and report on feedback from participants. They link
clearly to the Single Outcome Agreement (SOA) and Community Plan. Local
arrangements within the learning community are less effective. Adult literacy and
numeracy (ALN) learners are being consulted about the quality of their
experiences and improvements are being made as a result. The South East View
newsletter is used as a vehicle to report to stakeholders and the Integration
Network is a good forum for information sharing. The outcomes of Streetwork are
being recorded on the Youthbase system. Quarterly reports are produced and
issues identified and acted on by workers. Recording of young people’s
progression in their learning could be improved. The Youth Justice Forum is
gathering some information from stakeholders although it is too early to
systematically evaluate impacts.
The Gorbals Community Forum Steps to Success programme is well monitored
and evaluated. There are early signs of a good approach to planning in the
Govanhill Neighbourhood Group. CLD staff are beginning to use self-evaluation
to routinely reflect on their practice although some staff are not always clear about
its purpose in improving the quality of service delivery.
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8. Do CLD providers have a clear sense of direction?
CLD and their partners have good informal links across a range of groups and
agencies. They are beginning to develop joint approaches with schools to support
young people in their learning. The diverse learning community around
Shawlands presents many challenges and there is scope to embed the very good
structures being put in place at a city-wide level within the local context. There is
a need to develop a more joined-up approach to monitoring and evaluation and
establish a clearer understanding of measuring impacts.
9. What happens next?
There are some important improvements needed, but because CLD providers
have a good understanding of their strengths and areas for improvement, and
communities are achieving well, we have ended the inspection process at this
stage. We will monitor progress through our regular contact with the education
authority.
We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the education authority
and its partners.
•
Further develop joined-up working with partners.
•
Improve and embed self-evaluation as a tool for improvement.
•
Improve individual and group learning planning.
•
Further develop the use of accreditation with adults and young people.
•
Improve target setting to more effectively measure trends.
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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
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 Shawlands Academy.
Improvements in performance
Impact on young people
Impact on adults
Impact of capacity building on communities
Improving services
Managing Inspector: Sheila Brown
5 May 2009
6
satisfactory
good
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