Learning community inspection
A report by HM Inspectorate of Education
Inspection of the learning community
surrounding
Mearns Castle High School
East Renfrewshire Council
26 April 2011
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
Mearns Castle Learning Community (MCLC) encompasses the south east half of
Newton Mearns (the largest settlement in East Renfrewshire) together with the
villages of Waterfoot and Eaglesham and the associated rural hinterland. The two
villages, while wealthy compared to the rest of Scotland, are quite different in their
socio-economic profile from Newton Mearns which is considerably wealthier. In
MCLC most housing is in high value Council Tax bands. Life expectancy is high
in comparison to the rest of Scotland. The proportion of jobless people at 1.6% is
below the East Renfrewshire figure of 2.7% and considerably lower than the
Scottish average at 3.7%.
2. Particular strengths of the learning community
•
Shared culture of continuous improvement and self-evaluation.
•
Highly-effective arrangements for gathering and using performance
information to drive improvement.
•
Targeted, inclusive and effective provision for young people and adults.
•
Motivated, committed and enthusiastic staff and volunteers.
•
Strong partnerships which are delivering on priorities in the Single Outcome
Agreement (SOA).
•
Strong culture of reflective practice amongst staff, complemented by a highly
effective programme of training and support.
3. How well do participants learn and achieve?
Community learning and development (CLD) partners make excellent use of a
wide range of available data to inform delivery planning. This is resulting in
sustained increases in engagement, attainment and achievement and positive
outcomes for participants. CLD partners perform very well against increasingly
demanding and challenging targets. Highly developed and effective systems set
targets linked to the SOA and service priorities. Key targets are met or
exceeded. Learning programmes on offer are of an exceptionally high quality.
Excellent corporate reporting, recording and monitoring systems operate. Elected
members and senior council officers use regular information reporting to inform
and improve decision making. An embedded outcome-focused planning culture
operates across the CLD teams. Staff engagement in planning and evaluation is
of the highest standard. Data shows a growing number of adults and vulnerable
1
young people successfully progressing to positive destinations such as college
provision. Participation in adult learning and youth work programmes has
increased significantly and any loss of learners is monitored and pursued. The
impact of learning is comprehensively and effectively recorded through individual
impact statements, parents’ questionnaires and peer review. Face to face contact
by the Young Person’s Services team is increasing. A shared electronic
management information system effectively demonstrates trends over time and
supports more integrated data sharing. Learning programmes are inclusive.
Levels of participation by Black and Minority Ethnic and Additional Support Needs
(ASN) groups are high. Numbers of young people achieving recognised awards
exceeds that of comparators authorities. As a result of a significant increase in
volunteers local community organisations are more active.
Young people
Young people in the area access a good range of activities and opportunities.
Uniformed youth organisations are active with high numbers of young people
engaged. Young people are included and participating with a strong focus on
inclusion. The Monday Night Group is very welcoming and offers good
educational opportunities for young people with ASN. Members value having their
own provision and have a strong sense of ownership. The Rulebreakers group
helps older young people with ASN address key issues such as sexual health and
relationships whilst offering a much needed social network. Youth work
programmes effectively target those most in need. The Introduction to Hair
Design course successfully engages with young people in need of More Choices,
More Chances. Young people in the Mearns Castle High School Award Scheme
Development and Accreditation Network group and the Big Shouter health project
are successfully achieving a wide range of accreditation. The Duke of
Edinburgh’s Award success rates in Mearns Castle High School are high. Young
people benefit from increased confidence, improved social interaction and have
improved confidence in other settings. Young people’s achievement is
recognised and regularly celebrated. Young Person’s Service staff make good
use of Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes to better capture the
specific outcomes of youth work programmes. Young people are progressing to
positive destinations. Hair Design participants have successfully gained
employment and are progressing to college. Structures to support young people
to actively engage in decision making are not yet fully developed. Youth work
practitioners and uniformed partners would now benefit from opportunities to
share information, training and good practice. The Eaglesham Youth Club
programme whilst popular lacks an educational focus.
Adults
Adult learning in Mearns Castle is inclusive, targeted and effective in developing
more confident and successful learners. Learners demonstrate positive impacts
across their lives, their family, employment, in reducing isolation and improving
health. The majority of learners are progressing to further learning opportunities
and positive destinations including employment, training and further education.
Mearns library literacy group learners are actively engaged in the planning and
evaluation of their own learning. Most are confident in assisting fellow learners.
2
BefriendER project service users are trained as volunteer providers. However,
there is no accreditation for this training. Family Learning staff, working with a
range of partners, provide very effective and appropriate educational support to
families. Family Learning staff input is highly valued by partner agencies. Staff
involved in the No Barriers project have also established good partnership
arrangements particularly with Criminal Justice services. Kirkhill Primary School
parent group use a variety of effective courses such as Heart Start and Handling
Children’s Behaviour to assist parents with their children’s education. Participants
have gained skills to help deal with major life changes. English for speakers of
other languages (ESOL) courses offer positive opportunities to learn about other
cultures. Within adult learning, individual learning needs are clearly outlined in
learning plans. Libraries are well used as learning resources. Innovative use of
new technology within the Spoken Word group is improving reading, accessibility
and inclusion for visually impaired learners. Informal arrangements at a strategic
level exist to support vulnerable students in transition to further education
provision. However, this is not yet systematic. The integration of library and
information service and adult and family learning is at an early stage of
development. As a result approaches to planning and evaluation are not yet fully
consistent. Some learners in the ESOL group would benefit from more
challenging learning opportunities.
4. How well are communities developing and achieving?
A good range of community and voluntary groups operate across the learning
community area. Groups are led by skilled, enthusiastic and motivated
volunteers. There is a strong sense of community spirit. Community groups are
active and influential in decision making. Some organisations contribute to
important decision making within the local authority and Community Health Care
partnership. This is helping shape service planning and delivery. Community
members gain positive outcomes from their involvement in activities and local
projects. Mearns History group have published books and other learning
materials. East Renfrewshire Council Heritage staff provide effective support and
links to this organisation. The opportunity exists for group publications to be used
as effective learning resources by schools and young people. Services are
developed in response to identified need. Eaglesham Development Trust have
developed a Heritage trail which supports the local economy of the area. The
trust board is well represented on the Wind Farm Funding Board. Groups are
inclusive and value community and social diversity. Mearns Community Week
provides an effective focal point for community activity. It encourages a diverse
range of local groups to participate. St Cadoc’s Community football club actively
supports players and coaches to achieve accreditation. Local charities benefit
from club fundraising. The club has very good leadership at all levels, effective
procedures and has secured the SFA Development Quality Mark. Local groups
are well supported by a range of council services. Not all groups have planning
and evaluation systems in place. Groups would benefit from additional support to
improve their ability to network, plan, apply for funding and monitor work more
effectively. Coordination between CLD providers which support community
groups is limited.
3
5. How effective are providers in improving the quality of services?
Community Resources and Adult Learning use a wide range of relevant and
highly effective methods to gather information from participants. Gathering of
participant evaluation and experiences is consistently applied to a high standard
across all teams. Highly effective systems for evaluating outcomes and impact
are in place. As a result outcomes are regularly evaluated with identified
improvements introduced. Planned programme outcomes are effectively matched
to specific sources of evidence. Staff and partners have a shared understanding
of the self-evaluation process. Young Person’s Services staff effectively use
Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes to map young people’s
progress against identified outcomes. Arrangements for reflective practice are
excellent. As a result all staff are able to describe confidently what improvements
they make to the quality of service delivery. Regular team meetings, and
self-evaluation tutorials encourage staff to actively reflect and engage in peer
evaluation. This helps maintain a culture of continuous improvement. A
comprehensive training calendar helps improve planning and evaluation skills
across CLD partners. Family Learning staff have devised and implemented their
own “How Good is our Home Visiting?“ set of effective quality indicators. This has
resulted in a clearer and more focused approach to self-evaluation. Opportunities
for sessional and voluntary Youth Work staff to reflect are systematic and
effective. Quality improvement systems are positively embedded. An effective
learning community based approach is enabling partners to jointly plan and
evaluate. CLD services use a highly effective range of methods to report
progress to stakeholders. These include websites, Standards and Quality reports
and popular social networking sites.
6. Does the learning community have a clear sense of direction?
The East Renfrewshire SOA and Curriculum for Excellence Partnership offers
clear strategic direction to core CLD providers. CLD providers share a
commitment to continuous improvement. Partners benefit from participation in
shared quality improvement training programmes. As a result, self–evaluation is
increasingly embedded in practice. Community Resources and Adult Learning
staff are held in high regard by learners and partners. There is a positive culture
of shared ownership and responsibility across staff and volunteers. Service level
agreements clearly set out agreed contributions. Service managers and
practitioners have high expectations of themselves, each other and service users.
There is a commitment within Community Resources and Adult Learning to
maximise staff resources to ensure best outcomes for learners. Links with
Mearns Castle High School could be further developed. Networking opportunities
for community groups to share information and practice are not yet in place.
4
7. What happens next?
The inspection team was able to rely on the high quality self-evaluation provided
in the learning community. CLD providers have a good understanding of their
strengths and areas for improvement and communities are achieving very well.
We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the education authority
and its partners.
•
Improve networking opportunities for local youth practitioners and partners and
for local community based organisations to share information, training and
good practice.
•
Develop structures that support young people to better engage in decision
making.
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 Mearns Castle High School.
Improvements in performance
Impact on young people
Impact on adults
Impact of capacity building on communities
Improving services
Managing Inspector: Stewart Maxwell
26 April 2011
5
excellent
very good
very good
very good
excellent
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 2011
HM Inspectorate of Education