Inspection of the learning community
surrounding Chryston High School
North Lanarkshire Council
23 April 2013
Transforming lives through learning
1. Context
Community learning and development (CLD) partners within the area of Chryston
High School were inspected by Education Scotland during February 2013. The
Chryston High School learning community in the west of the North Lanarkshire
Council area covers the areas of Stepps, Chryston, Muirhead, Gartcosh, Auchinloch
and Moodiesburn. A small pocket of deprivation exists in the community of
Moodiesburn. The main industry in the area was coal mining and steel production.
The main employers are now the public sector and food production.
During the visit Education Scotland staff talked to children, young people and adults.
We worked closely with local CLD partners. This included the council’s CLD service
managers, CLD providers, partners, paid staff and volunteers. We wanted to find out
how well CLD partners are improving the life chances of people living in the
community through learning, building stronger more resilient communities and
improving the quality of services and provision. We also looked at how well paid
staff and volunteers are developing their own practices and how well CLD partners,
including schools are working together. The CLD partners asked the inspection
team to look at areas that they had identified as good practice and where there was
an opportunity for further development:
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Information and Communications Technology (ICT); and
transitions.
The inspection team were able to rely upon a self-evaluation document prepared by
the CLD service. This document drew upon the five key themes of the North
Lanarkshire Community Plan prepared by the Community Planning Partnership. The
Community Plan is organised around the following five key themes:
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health and wellbeing;
community safety;
environment;
lifelong learning; and
regeneration.
There are also five cross-cutting themes:
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the voluntary sector;
community engagement;
children and young people;
sustainable transport; and
equalities.
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2. How well are partners improving learning, increasing life chances,
promoting and securing wellbeing?
Community organisations in the Chryston learning community are improving
learning, life chances and promoting and securing wellbeing. Local community
organisations have very committed members who make a significant difference to
their community. These organisations are well supported by the CLD service and
Voluntary Action North Lanarkshire (VANL).
Local residents who are members and volunteers with the Moodiesburn Community
Development Trust, the Alpha Project, the Hope Garden project and Friends of
Stepps Park actively and successfully develop new resources and facilities to help
regenerate their communities. As a result, there are new parks, an improved
environment, a revived community gala and facilities that are both well used by the
community and which also help and support the most vulnerable and isolated local
residents. There is now a need to develop better links with health services to
promote this work and improve the focus on early intervention and prevention. The
Northern Corridor Community Forum successfully campaigns to both retain and
develop local community facilities and engages actively in community planning
processes. The Community Café and Pivot Café in Moodiesburn are run by local
volunteers and provide safe and welcoming community spaces for both young and
old. Almost all community organisations benefit from effective training and support
from the CLD service and VANL. This work now needs to be extended over time to
focus on developing the community development trust and supporting social
enterprises to support sustainable local economies. Young people in Chryston High
School and voluntary youth sports clubs act as volunteers in local dance and boxing
clubs. This work has increased the range of healthy physical activity on offer locally
as well as providing increased opportunities for young people to deliver local
services and demonstrate effective leadership. Taken together, these local groups
make significant contributions to the achievement of the key themes of the North
Lanarkshire community plan. Almost all community groups have active members,
but there is a need to actively involve more young people in these organisations.
Learners of all ages in the Chryston learning community benefit from a wide range of
learning opportunities. There is a strong focus across local learning programmes on
both supporting the most vulnerable and on raising aspirations which aligns with the
North Lanarkshire community plan. The CLD service, local schools and partners are
improving learning, but there is room for further improvement and increased
consistency. Whilst early years facilities, primary and secondary schools work
increasingly effectively with CLD and partners, there is room to improve further the
involvement of CLD and partners to support and enhance the curriculum.
Parents and young children actively benefit from a wide and varied range of effective
learning programmes run by a variety of partners such as the CLD service, libraries
and voluntary organisations. These make a difference in terms of providing a strong
start in early life and supporting vulnerable parents. As a result of these activities,
parents meet new friends, gain confidence and develop their skills as parents and
learners. Most progress to further learning or employment. CLD service staff and
partners work well with local primary schools to support transitions from nursery to
primary. There is a need to provide further support to transitions from primary to
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secondary. Young people from S4 to S6 in Chryston High School perform in line
with comparator schools and national averages in terms of attainment in national
examinations. Learning providers such as local schools, CLD partners and the
voluntary sector make increasingly effective use of local employers to provide
employment experiences. The school has an increasing range of active school
sports opportunities that enables young people to apply their skills and demonstrate
confidence and team work. The number of young people who successfully progress
to further learning and employment post school is higher than comparator areas and
improving. Almost all young people in the XL group, Flexible Learning initiative, the
Hub and 16+ activity agreements gain important life skills in literacy, employability,
group work and self-confidence that are enabling them to move on confidently. This
is particularly notable given that some young people have not obtained formal
qualifications. Older adults actively engage with learning in music, local history and
creative writing in the Moodie Blues Discovery Group and the Pivot, Pen, Poetry and
Performance (4P group). The lack of transport between the communities is a barrier
for many groups and this limits participation to locally based learners. The use of
digital technology could be developed to improve access to learning and to enable
groups of learners to share their work. The CLD service and VANL recognise and
celebrate achievement and attainment. However, some other partners need to
recognise achievements. All partners, including the secondary school need to
extend the number of award programmes on offer.
3. How well are partners working together and improving the quality of
services and provision?
CLD partners are improving learning, increasing life chances, promoting and
securing wellbeing through an increasing range of effective programmes and
projects. The CLD service is at present able to demonstrate their impact in these
areas effectively. All CLD service staff make effective use of management
information and recording tools to demonstrate impact, particularly at the level of the
CLD service north area which covers seven secondary school catchments. CLD
service staff plans are clearly linked to appropriate service and council priorities,
including the North Lanarkshire Community Plan. CLD service staff engage
effectively in self-evaluation activities on a regular basis. However, the plans of
other partners are not so clearly linked and for these organisations, this is a missed
opportunity. Partner organisations do not regularly self-evaluate at this point in time
and are less clear about their impact. CLD partners need to develop systematic joint
evaluation of the impact of their services in the Chryston learning community, where
the majority of partners are based. The CLD service and VANL should consider a
training focus with partners on joint self-evaluation and the use of management tools
which they are using to evaluate, plan, and measure impact.
There are increasingly effective training programmes for CLD service staff. A strong
and appropriate focus on training supports daily practice and community
organisations. As a result, there are examples of strong training partnerships. CLD
service staff development is increasingly planned on a collective basis by the
Locality Planning Group. The Youth Planning Group have established joint training
programmes that have improved a shared understanding amongst partners.
Collaborative approaches have had a positive impact in raising awareness of health
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issues and addressing emerging issues. The Locality Planning Group brings
together key council services to develop joint working and planning to support
vulnerable children and young people in the area. Emerging work with housing and
the Multi-Agency Support Teams in local schools is supporting early intervention and
this work should continue. However, staff and volunteers in community
organisations who work closely with particularly vulnerable young people and adults
would benefit from further training and support. Equality and diversity training with
young people should be rolled out to other groups in the area.
CLD partners recognise that improvements are required to gather and share
information across partner organisations. Although there are some examples of the
use of a shared management information tool, a lack of collective performance data
that can be measured is limiting progress. For example, while community groups
have obtained significant amounts of external funding, there is a need for trend data
on this to become used and analysed. Joint planning by partners with a focus on
quantitative and qualitative data, shared outcomes and impact on participants would
further improve performance across CLD partners. There is a need to develop more
joined up approaches to collectively reporting progress to stakeholders using ICT,
community media and social media.
This inspection of learning and development in the learning community surrounding
Chryston High School learning community found the following key strengths.
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Active and highly motivated community members of all ages who contribute
positively to life in the community.
Very effective community organisations who are making a positive impact.
A strong and proud community identity.
Committed staff who are seeking to re-design their services and professional
approaches to remove barriers and improve their impact.
We discussed with partners how they might continue to improve their work. This is
what we agreed with them.
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Further develop collective approaches to joint training, self-evaluation and
planning for improvement in the Chryston learning community.
Further develop and extend the use of award programmes to recognise
achievement.
Continue to develop links between schools and CLD partners to help deliver
Curriculum for Excellence.
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4. What happens at the end of the inspection?
There are some improvements needed, but because partners 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 local authority. Our Area Lead Officers
along with the education authority will discuss the most appropriate support in order
to build capacity for improvement and will maintain contact to monitor progress.
Philip Denning
HM Inspector
23 April 2013
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Additional inspection evidence, such as details of the quality indicator evaluations,
for this learning community can be found on the Education Scotland website at
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/inspectionandreview/reports/othersectors/com
munitylearninganddevelopment/ChrystonHighSchoollc.asp.
Please contact us if you want to know how to get the report in a different format, for
example, in a translation. 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.
If you want to give us feedback or make a complaint about our work, please contact
01506 600200, or write to us at the above address or email:
feedback@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk.
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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 2013
Education Scotland
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