Learning community inspection
A report by HM Inspectors
Inspection of the learning community
surrounding Bellshill Academy
North Lanarkshire Council
12 June 2012
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.educationscotland.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 Bellshill Academy learning community includes the communities of
Thorniewood, Bellshill, Mossend and Holytown. The total population for the
Bellshill learning community is 42,915. Parts of the area have significant areas of
deprivation and higher than average rates of unemployment.
2. Particular strengths of the learning community
•
Strong and effective partnership working between community learning and
development (CLD), a wide range of services and the voluntary sector.
•
Active and motivated community members from all ages and faiths who
contribute positively to community life.
•
Positive and effective working relationships between CLD, partners and local
schools’ staff to support vulnerable young people and families.
•
High levels of engagement with significantly disadvantaged groups.
3. How well do participants learn and achieve?
High numbers of learners from all ages and faiths participate actively across
learning provision and in community organisations. An extensive range of diverse
learning opportunities are available in youth work, adult learning and in community
based organisations. Community organisations, such as the Orbiston
Neighbourhood Centre and faith organisations such as the local Mosque,
effectively deliver an increasing range of services. Highly effective projects such
as Reeltime Music and the Activity Agreement Learning Hub work with excluded
young people and make innovative use of music and film to engage vulnerable
and socially isolated learners. This work provides young people and adults with a
broad range of skills such as literacy, numeracy and computing skills. All projects
meet local needs very effectively. Learning programmes are well targeted to
address local issues such as low attainment, learner confidence and skills for
learning, life and work and to raise aspirations amongst learners. As a result,
almost all young people are achieving positive destinations and entering further
learning or gaining employment. The number of adult learners who gain
accreditation and who achieve the gold Discovery Award are increasing.
Volunteer numbers are rising and there has been a decline in anti-social
behaviour. Staff and other partner agencies regularly record performance
information against targets and compare their performance against the strategic
objectives of the Council and local planning targets. The majority of learning
targets are achieved and exceeded and this makes a significant difference to
learners. Staff from a number of agencies involved in the Activity Agreement
1
Learning Hub project make very effective use of qualitative data and intelligence
drawn from their respective agencies. They use this intelligence effectively to
plan and deliver appropriate support. CLD staff and partners are working
effectively with schools to implement Curriculum for Excellence. There is a strong
and effective focus on working with parents and families and in supporting
transitions. CLD and partners have further scope to improve how they share
information about prior learning, recognise achievement and to plan with a focus
on the six learner entitlements of Curriculum for Excellence
Young people
Young people of all ages benefit from an extensive programme of learning
opportunities and support in the Bellshill area. Young people of primary school
age learn new skills and challenge themselves in the Beactive and the Home
School Partnership programmes. Young people progress from these
programmes to an impressive range of effective youth-related learning
opportunities by CLD, Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), Focus Youth
Project and other partners. Almost all young people who participate on these
activities make significant learning gains in areas such as active citizenship,
teamwork, health and wellbeing. CLD staff make increasingly effective use of
some of the Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes to support their
work. Disadvantaged and vulnerable young people in the Activity Agreement
Learning Hub develop their confidence, overcome adversity, learn new skills and
achieve very well. Almost all young learners successfully progress to college or
employment. There is a strong and increasing focus on youth citizenship through
the Member of the Scottish Youth Parliament work with local schools. As a result
of this activity, young people increasingly engage as volunteers with community
organisations. Young people have their successful achievements recognised
through an increasing range of award programmes offered by CLD. Effective
Easter and summer programmes offer further opportunities for learning during
holidays. Young people from some of the most disadvantaged areas in the
community are now successfully included and participating in a range of
community activities. There is further scope to continue to develop the use of
Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes and to extend this to partner
agencies.
Adults
High quality adult learning provision has been developed across the learning
community which is well targeted at priority groups. There is a strong focus on
improving adult literacy, numeracy and basic skills. This enables adult learners to
support their children’s learning and find employment. Almost all learners are
clear about their next steps in learning. Work with parents of younger children in
the Bellshill area is well designed and developed and enables parents to support
both their children’s learning and their own needs. Learning programmes are
appropriately based on needs with many parents being referred via health visitors
and other agencies. Parents attending the Parenting Puzzle group are learning
important skills to help them manage their stress levels and their child’s
behaviour. As a result, most members of the group have progressed to other
learning. Parents attending Motivated Playground, and the Messy Club are
2
learning how to play with their children and now have a greater understanding of
how children learn. In addition, parent helpers in homework clubs are now able to
better understand and support subjects in the school curriculum. Those attending
adult literacy and numeracy groups achieve very well. Almost all gain appropriate
accreditation. English for speakers of other languages participants improve their
reading and writing and become more confident in everyday situations. Older
learners aged 60 and over achieve very well through the Discovery Award
Scheme. Almost all learners on this programme have improved their confidence
and self esteem. A few go on to lead learning in other programmes such as the
Keenagers computing class. Almost all improve their levels of mental and
physical wellbeing by undertaking physical activity and participating in learning.
Work with partners such as Orbiston Neighbourhood Centre and the local mosque
is particularly strong. There is scope to develop networking groups to share
practice across the learning community.
4. How well are communities developing and achieving?
Active community groups with confident and skilled volunteers deliver very
effective services which are highly valued by the community. Community groups
are very well supported by CLD, Voluntary Action North Lanarkshire (VANL),
Social Work and other partners. The local voluntary sector also delivers important
services. Bellshill YMCA, Orbiston Neighbourhood Centre, Focus Youth Project
and The Mosque deliver effective and well-judged programmes in response to
local needs. These include childcare, day care, youth work, learning interventions
and a well-attended community Café. These programmes have a positive impact
on the lives of members of the community. The Jack and Jill Support Group,
Time 4 Us and Moonlight Group all make a significant impact on the lives of
members in relation to health, wellbeing and countering feelings of isolation.
The Viewpark Conservation Group has made a positive impact on the
environment through the preservation of a greenbelt area and other amenity
improvements. A very strong volunteering base supports the learning community
area with 50 active voluntary organisations and over 600 volunteers registered
with VANL. Community groups provide effective support and development for
volunteers. As a result, some have progressed to employment. CLD staff should
continue their work to strengthen engagement through the establishment of the
Thorniewood Engagement Model and the re-establishment of Tenants and
Residents Associations. This will provide community groups with a range of
avenues to raise issues and priorities. Community groups would benefit from
additional support to develop further services and to reduce the impact of ongoing
service changes.
5. How effective are providers in improving the quality of services?
Almost all CLD staff regularly reflect upon their work to improve their practice.
Youth work, adult learning and capacity building staff are increasingly sharing
learning approaches and make very effective use of the views of learners to
support their planning. CLD staff use a number of effective means to gather
learners’ views and report regularly to stakeholders. Both CLD and voluntary
3
sector organisations such as Focus Youth Project and Reeltime Music produce
good quality publications containing helpful case studies of learners with a strong
focus on the difference that learning makes to participants. Learners are routinely
involved in evaluation. Joint self-evaluation with primary and secondary school
staff is at an early stage of development. There is further room to improve joint
evaluation between CLD, partner agencies and schools.
6. Does the learning community have a clear sense of direction?
All staff in CLD and partner agencies consistently demonstrate very high levels of
leadership of learning. Very effective leadership within the CLD team, builds upon
the very strong approaches of former managers. All staff are very committed to
their local communities. As a result, learners from disadvantaged areas make
significant gains in their learning, their health and wellbeing and achieve their
goals. A strong focus on work with local schools is helping to raise young
people’s aspirations and levels of achievement and attainment. Given the strong
focus on effective partnership working, there is now an opportunity to further
develop joint leadership around a shared vision for Bellshill.
7. What happens next?
The inspection team was able to rely on the high quality self-evaluation provided
by 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. During the
inspection, we identified aspects of innovative practice which we would like to
explore further. As a result we will work with the learning community and
education authority in order to record and share more widely the innovative
practice.
We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the local authority and
its partners.
•
Continue to develop CLD and partners approaches to implementing
Curriculum for Excellence, particularly in profiling, the six learner entitlements
achievement and attainment.
•
Increase the involvement of young people within community organisations.
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”. Education Scotland evaluates five important quality indicators
to help monitor the quality of learning communities across Scotland. Here are the
results for the learning community surrounding Bellshill Academy.
Improvements in performance
Impact on young people
Impact on adults
Impact of capacity building on communities
Improving services
Managing Inspector: Philip Denning
12 June 2012
5
very good
very good
very good
very good
very good
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.educationscotland.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 enquiries@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk or
write to us at BMCT, Education Scotland, 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 or alternatively you can
contact www.educationscotland.gov.uk to our Complaints Manager, at the
address above or by telephoning 01506 600259.
Crown Copyright 2012
Education Scotland