Education Scotland
Foghlam Alba
Learning community inspection
A report by HM Inspectors
Inspection of the learning community
surrounding Wallace Hall Academy
Dumfries and Galloway Council
27 March 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 learning community surrounding Wallace Hall Academy encompasses the
communities of Thornhill, Closeburn, Carronbridge, Durisdeer, Auldgirth, Penpont,
Moniaive, Dunscore and Tynron. Unemployment within the Wallace Hall learning
community area is lower than other parts of Dumfries and Galloway and Scotland
as a whole. The main employment in the area is based around land-based
industries, agriculture and forestry. The area is not a priority for the community
learning and development (CLD) service. The CLD service has recently
undergone a period of organisational change.
2. Particular strengths of the learning community
•
Active and highly motivated community members from all ages who contribute
positively to community life in Nithsdale communities.
•
Strong and increasing focus to support vulnerable young people in the
community.
•
Innovative approaches to re-design learning in CLD and its partners,
particularly in work with young people.
•
Highly committed staff who have very positive relationships with learners.
3. How well do participants learn and achieve?
CLD staff and community-based organisations offer high quality learning
experiences and activities that make a significant difference to young people’s
and some adult’s lives. Levels of participation by young people in youth work
activities is increasing. Almost all young people successfully progress to further
learning or employment. The number of youth achievement awards is increasing,
but there is room to improve the use of award programmes to recognise the
achievements of young people aged 11 to 15 years. CLD staff in youth work
clearly relate their work to council and national priorities for young people. They
participate actively in programmes such as Operation Resolve and Youth Alive
that successfully address alcohol and substance abuse. Staff in youth work
effectively address issues in relation to health and wellbeing, discrimination and
exclusion. They work very actively in partnership with a range of organisations to
successfully address these issues in a number of innovative programmes. Youth
work staff make effective use of information from participants and increasingly
make use of relevant research to plan their work. There has been a decline in
participation in adult learning and this requires to be addressed. While staff can
clearly identify trends in youth work, there are significant gaps in adult learning
1
and Community Capacity Building (CCB). There is scope to improve the use of
management information systems to record learners’ progress and achievement
across the CLD service.
Young people
Young people play a significant role as volunteers to support their communities in
Mid-Nithsdale. Young people who participate in The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award
make a positive contribution to the life of their rural communities. They contribute
actively to the work of voluntary sector youth organisations and help improve
quality of life for some older and vulnerable adults. As a result, the young people
gain confidence and learn valuable skills for life. Young people with additional
support needs in the Super Mondays group now help to deliver their youth
activities by helping staff to support very vulnerable young people. Some young
people who participate in the innovative Queensberry Initiative learn rural skills
that help them to find local employment and contribute to the sustainability of their
community. They are now seeking to develop their own social enterprise. These
projects are still at the early stages of development and should continue to extend
their work. Young people also volunteer in a number of organisations that provide
local services for them such as the Youthbeatz events team and the Rock Solid
group. Young people involved in organising the Youthbeatz community music
festival demonstrated highly effective leadership skills. They contributed
successfully to decisions made about the event and undertook specific work roles
during the festival. Young people are now actively involved in developing highly
innovative services such as Download and Wonderland. These services focus on
health and wellbeing using peer learning approaches and make very effective use
of social media and drama to engage young people. Vulnerable young people
make significant gains in their confidence, self-esteem and learn new skills
through their work in Download and Wonderland. Further work is required to
ensure that the young people’s learning in youth work is better linked to the
experiences and outcomes in Curriculum for Excellence. This would offer more
young people a wider range of learning opportunities.
Adults
The majority of adult learners are more confident, less socially isolated, physically
and mentally healthier and more outward looking as a result of attending adult
classes. Some adult learners make effective use of informal learning
opportunities provided by the community such as Thornhill Crookmakers,
Glencairn Local History group and book clubs. Learners improve their fitness on
weekly walks by Nithsdale Walking Works. A few learners successfully attain
computing awards and vocational qualifications in care. Partners in the Nithsdale
Lifelong Learning Partnership (NLLP) provide the majority of provision for adult
learning. There are opportunities for the NLLP to work together more effectively
to identify need, share resources and expertise and systematically plan provision
in order to increase both the range and quality of adult learning. There is a limited
level of adult learning provision within the locality, as a result the majority of
learners travel to Upper Nithsdale or Dumfries to take up a range of opportunities
such as First Step and Next Step computing and art. This restricts learning
opportunities for those adults who do not have access to transport. The tracking
2
of learners’ achievements is at an early stage of development. Arrangements for
tracking learners’ activities and achievements needs to be developed to ensure
breadth and depth of learning.
4. How well are communities developing and achieving?
Skilled and committed local people lead a wide range of effective community and
volunteer led organisations across Mid-Nithsdale. They receive high quality
support from an effective council for voluntary services. The community awards
scheme effectively raises awareness of the impact of volunteering. Young people
participate actively in volunteering. Community councils have strong links to
elected members. As a result, local community groups now provide high quality
services that meet local needs across the age range. The Moniaive playcare
project successfully enables young parents to access affordable local childcare.
There are a number of effective local community transport schemes that provide
transport between villages. Both the Glencairn Gazette and the Moniaive Action
project provide engaging local news media and cultural activities. Local people
also provide and support well-used friendship clubs which reduce isolation of
older residents. Local residents effectively manage village halls in Penpont,
Closeburn and Tynron. Local residents in Thornhill and in the Moniaive Action
project are particularly innovative. These organisations now provide a wide range
of social activities which promote a strong sense of community and mutual
support through galas and other events. These organisations offer an example of
effective practice of rural development which could assist learning in other local
communities in Nithsdale. The Allanton Centre is an effective local learning
resource for global development education, fair-trade, environmental sustainability
and peace education. There are opportunities to develop better understanding of
and engagement in all community planning partners decision making processes.
This would help community organisations to more effectively relate to current
topics such as rural health service, local housing and wind farm developments
and funds. There are some organisations which require further direction and
support to help them develop further. The Thornhill bequest fund, the Nith Valley
Trust and Moniaive Playcare all require targeted support from the CLD service.
5. How effective are providers in improving the quality of services?
CLD staff regularly report on progress to their stakeholders effectively using print
and online media. There are regular events to celebrate community
achievements such as the Nithsdale Community Achievement Awards. Youth
work staff actively and regularly consult with learners on the services they provide.
Staff use a range of effective methods to gather feedback from young people.
This feedback is used actively to make improvements to their services. A few
staff used the Youthbeatz event to pilot approaches to evaluation that focused on
the broader impact of their work. There is a need to extend the effective
engagement approaches used in the area of youth work to other areas of CLD
work. All staff receive regular support and supervision with opportunities for
professional reflection. All staff use a national evaluation and planning tool to plan
their work. Further work is required to improve approaches to self-evaluation for
3
improvement. There is also scope to improve self-evaluation with partners which
is still in the early stages of development. This is particularly important with
regard to the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence. The work of staff
involved in evaluating The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award offers a good example of
how partners can successfully contribute to the experiences and outcomes of
Curriculum for Excellence.
6. Does the learning community have a clear sense of direction?
Youth work staff demonstrate effective leadership for learning in their areas of
work. Staff are confident and constantly seek to improve their approaches to
engage with young people. As a result, there are strong and effective working
relationships between youth workers and partner agencies to support vulnerable
young people. Working relationships between staff from CLD, partner agencies
and local schools are increasingly effective. This work should continue to develop
and link to the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence. Community based
organisations effectively lead the development of their communities and provide a
range of services. Further work is needed to improve the focus and strategic
leadership of adult learning staff after a period of organisational change. There is
a need to develop and deliver more focused continuous professional development
for CLD staff and partners to meet the challenges in Mid-Nithsdale.
4
7. What happens next?
There are some improvements needed, but because CLD providers have an
understanding of their strengths and areas for improvement, and communities are
achieving well, 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 local
authority in order to record and share more widely the innovative practice.
We will monitor progress through our regular contact with the local authority. Our
District Inspector/CLD Link Inspector along with the local authority will discuss the
most appropriate support in order to build capacity for improvement and will
maintain contact to monitor progress.
We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the local authority and
its partners.
•
Improve further adult learning and CCB activities based upon an audit of
learner’s needs with a clear focus on learning.
•
Continue to develop the links between the school, CLD and partners in
relation to Curriculum for Excellence.
•
Develop further, extend and embed approaches to continuous professional
development.
5
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 Wallace Hall Academy.
Improvements in performance
Impact on young people
Impact on adults
Impact of capacity building on communities
Improving services
Managing Inspector: Philip Denning
27 March 2012
6
satisfactory
good
satisfactory
good
satisfactory
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 ww.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