Learning community inspection
A report by HM Inspectorate of Education
Inspection of the learning community
surrounding Auchenharvie Academy
North Ayrshire Council
2 March 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. Where applicable, you will also be able to find
descriptions of good practice in the learning community and, in many instances, a
report on the secondary school closest to the learning community.
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 Auchenharvie Academy includes the towns of
Stevenston and Saltcoats (South). There are a number of significant challenges
in terms of multiple deprivation, unemployment and poor health. The proportion of
jobless people of working age population at 20% is considerably higher than the
Scottish average of 12% and higher than the rest of North Ayrshire. The
percentage of the population who are income deprived is 31% compared to the
national average of 17%. The proportion of working age claimants on incapacity
benefit at 10.9% is higher than the Scottish average and higher than the rest of
North Ayrshire.
2. Particular strengths of the learning community
•
•
•
•
Well-targeted and inclusive provision.
Responsive and effective local partnerships.
Effective community groups.
Embedded culture of self-evaluation across community learning partners.
3. How well do participants learn and achieve?
The quality and range of learning programmes is very good. Programmes are
planned and developed in response to locally identified need. The number of
adults participating in Community Learning and Development (CLD) adult learning
opportunities has consistently increased over the last three years. A high
proportion of learners are unemployed or in receipt of benefits. The retention of
learners has also improved. A comprehensive range of accreditation awards are
effectively used to record young people’s achievement. Annual accreditation
targets have been exceeded. Targets in place for third sector organisations are
used to measure the impact of their work and to inform future planning. An
effective electronic management information system provides CLD service
managers and staff with up to date information. This is informing decision making
and improving performance reporting. Community Learning partners’
performance is regularly reported to elected representatives based on agreed
strategic priorities. Expanding the range of agencies accessing the electronic
data system would improve planning and service delivery.
Young people
There is an excellent range of quality learning opportunities available for young
people. Community learning partners effectively engage with harder to reach
young people. Youth work partners share a common belief in supporting young
people to succeed and achieve. Young people benefit from highly effective joined
up working between youth work projects. CLD youth service staff make very good
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use of a wide range of accreditation awards across all groups. A vibrant Duke of
Edinburgh Open Award unit supports young people to successfully complete and
progress through awards. Young people take responsibility wherever possible.
Young people within the Caley Centre are actively engaged as multimedia
facilitators. Young Scot representatives support and maintain youth information
within Auchenharvie Academy. There is a strong educational focus within youth
work programmes. Targeted provision such as the Saltcoats Young Mums group
is building their confidence and self esteem and successfully addressing issues
such as isolation. As a result, participants have improved relationships with their
children. Youth work apprentices successfully engage more disadvantaged
groups such as Black and Minority Ethnic (BME), looked after and accommodated
young people (LAAC), young tenants and disabled young people. As a result, a
broader range of young people now participate in the authority wide youth council
forum. A young tenants forum has been established. Projects such as the Caley
Centre offers young people quality learning opportunities within an attractive
learning environment. CLD youth service staff make a highly effective contribution
to young people’s learning within Auchenharvie Academy. There are excellent
examples of young people progression to volunteering, college provision and
taking on leadership roles. Accreditation opportunities for Caley Centre
multimedia learners could be expanded.
Adults
Partners work very well together to make effective use of community resources
and to provide an excellent range of inclusive and accessible learning
opportunities. Staff in primary schools and libraries make a significant
contribution to community learning, bringing imagination and energy to the role.
Targeted provision and very good referral networks are helping many vulnerable
and isolated people engage in learning. These include ex-offenders, adults with
learning difficulties, unemployed people, and people from minority and ethnic
groups. There are excellent examples of impact on learners. Previous
participants in the Police Standard Entrance Test preparation course have
successfully gained employment as Police Constables. Learners are highly
enthusiastic, motivated, and ambitious and many show great determination in
pursuing their learning goals. Learners are progressing and achieving well.
Ninety eight percent of all learners report that they had learned new skills. Ninety
six percent of literacies learners had improved skills and knowledge. Tutors and
volunteers ensure that learners help decide the content and style of many learning
programmes. As a result, learners are able to quickly apply new skills and
knowledge to their everyday lives. They are clear about the positive benefits to
their social, emotional or physical well-being. The community learning partnership
provides good routes for progression. There are formally accredited courses for
learners of Gaelic, computer skills, and English for speakers of other languages
(ESOL). The majority of learners are involved in agreeing and reviewing group
learning goals.
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4. How well are communities developing and achieving?
Community organisations and groups are very active and influential. Volunteers
and workers are highly skilled and confident. Individuals have progressed from
being users of services to become volunteers and paid workers. Community
groups value the support from CLD providers. They are equal partners when
working with council services. All partners provide a range of effective, targeted
services and programmes which benefit the community. As a result of advice
from Community Led Action Support Projects (CLASPS) the number of people
awarded benefit entitlements has increased. Skills Development Scotland
provides effective job advice and support. Programmes and activities are jointly
planned between organisations. Effective partnership working ensures people in
the community are quickly referred to the appropriate agency. The North
Saltcoats Neighbourhood Compact have been successful in securing
improvements in street lighting and security. The Access Forum works well with
local businesses to make improvements for people with disabilities. Community
members are actively engaged in promoting issues such as older adult rights, the
role of carers and disability issues at a national level. Three Towns Motor Project
(3TFM) community radio working with CLD service staff is successfully raising
health awareness to a wide audience and supporting local people to engage in
volunteering. Generational barriers between different age groups are also being
broken down. Engagement and consultation processes are in place for work with
communities. Youth consultations are influential in securing improvements and
opportunities for young people. Good progress has been made in implementing
the Hayocks action plan. A more consistent level of capacity building support to
local communities and networks would be beneficial.
5. How effective are providers in improving the quality of services?
A regular programme of joint planning and evaluation has been established within
Educational Services. There is a strong and embedded culture of systematic
self-evaluation across the CLD service. Staff use a range of effective approaches
to ensure continuous improvement. Community learning partners systematically
gather the views of participants and use these to improve future activities. Staff
regularly reflect on their own practice. The CLD service has developed an
effective Performance Information Evaluation System (PIES) which helps staff
monitor and evaluate outcomes across the learning community. This system has
also been used very effectively to record the attainment and achievements of
young people in Auchenharvie Academy. A range of education partners
contribute to robust local learning community reviews. As a result of shared
reflective practice partners now have a clearer idea of the impact they have on
learning. A broad range of partners including voluntary sector organisations
participate in the systematic planning and evaluation of the local Neighbourhood
Compact. The annual community representative forum engages stakeholders
from the local community in planning and evaluating provision. CLD service staff
and local authority partners such as libraries are actively engaged in improvement
planning at both individual and service level. The annual CLD standards and
quality reports is informative and well presented.
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6. Does the learning community have a clear sense of direction?
Community learning partners share a clear sense of purpose and direction.
Service management offer clear vision and leadership. Strong and effective
partnerships operate across the learning community. There are very good
examples of joint planning, self-evaluation and local partnership working involving
the CLD service, libraries, arts and culture service, social services and schools.
Integrated working by youth work staff in Auchenharvie Academy is highly
effective. Creative internal partnerships involving the Caley Centre, and 3TFM
are directly benefiting learners. Networking with local uniformed and community
organisations could be strengthened to further support learning.
7. What happens next?
The inspection team was able to rely on the high quality self-evaluation provided
in the learning community. As a result, inspectors were able to change their focus
during the inspection to support further improvements within the learning
community.
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 networking with local community based youth organisations.
Ensure a more consistent level of capacity building support to local
communities and networks.
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”.
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 Auchenharvie Academy.
Improvements in performance
Impact on young people
Impact on adults
Impact of capacity building on communities
Improving services
Managing Inspector: Stewart Maxwell
2 March 2010
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very good
excellent
excellent
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 2010
HM Inspectorate of Education