Learning community inspection
A report by HM Inspectorate of Education
Inspection of the learning community
surrounding Bannockburn High School
Stirling Council
30 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 Bannockburn High School includes the town of
Bannockburn, Hillpark and Milton and the villages of Plean, Cowie Fallin and
Throsk, collectively known as the Eastern Villages. Under Stirling Community
Planning Partnership, the areas lie within the East Stirling Community Forum.
The proportion of jobless people of working age population at 10% is slightly lower
than the Scottish average of 12% and slightly higher than the rest of Stirling. The
percentage of the population who are income deprived at 17% mirrors the
Scottish average and is significantly higher than the rest of Stirling which is 13%.
2. Particular strengths of the learning community
•
Productive relationships between Community Learning and Development
(CLD) partners and learners and communities.
•
Confident and effective community groups delivering quality services based on
identified need.
•
Effective targeted work with young people, adult learners and learners with
disabilities.
•
Equal partnerships with local people in decision making.
3. How well do participants learn and achieve?
A good range of quality learning programmes is on offer for young people and
adults. The Adult Learning Service is beginning to use information systems such
as GEOlink to better identify emerging patterns of need. Youth Services are
engaged in updating local profile information. Authority-wide targets set by the
three CLD services are being met. CLD services report progress appropriately as
part of quarterly corporate reporting. Funding support to community groups has
increased as has the number of volunteers supporting adult learning. There are
good examples of CLD partners responding positively to identified trends such as
working with young people engaged in wilful fire raising. Effective use is made of
The Duke of Edinburgh’s sectional certificates to record young people’s
achievement. However, CLD providers’ knowledge of potential gaps in provision
could be better informed. Local community profiles are not up to date.
Deprivation data is not being applied consistently. There is no systematic access
to management information to inform decision-making. There is a lack of
outcome-focused, measureable targets. Service plans do not reflect joint working
across CLD services.
1
Young people
Young people experience a good range of well-planned and appropriately
targeted activities. Youth work activities are well-designed to include disengaged
and vulnerable young people. There are very positive, supportive relationships
between young people and Youth Services staff. Youth Service staff contribute
positively to citizenship programmes within Bannockburn High School and local
primary schools. Young people are very well supported through the Get Ready
for Work programmes to develop employability skills and to progress to
employment and further learning opportunities. Young people in the Life Skills
programme have increased confidence, better personal relationships and have
control over their own learning programmes. There are very good examples of
young people’s involvement in planning facilities and activities including Throsk
Youth Space, and the Plean Starlight Girls’ Group. The mobile youth space offers
a welcoming and well-resourced environment that is easily accessible for young
people in rural areas. Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament (MSYPs) are
very well supported to achieve personally, as well as effectively representing
young people locally. Some young people have been supported into volunteering.
Youth Services staff and partners in the police and fire service have worked
effectively together to reduce incidences of fire-raising in Bannockburn. In some
youth work settings, there are good opportunities for young people to participate
in accredited award schemes. Participants in the Get Ready for Work
programmes are achieving a range of awards including SVQ1, First Aid and The
Duke of Edinburgh’s sectional awards. However, in some of the open youth clubs
there are missed opportunities to use accreditation to recognise the achievement
of young people. At a local level there are very good examples of joint informal
working with other agencies including voluntary sector organisations, but there is
no formal arrangement locally for partnership working.
Adults
The range and impact of learning opportunities for adult learners, including adults
with disabilities is very good. Significant number of learners living in this area
regularly access centralised literacy and numeracy provision at the Cowane
Centre. Ten percent of the local adult population are actively engaged in Forth
Valley College learning provision. Learners are encouraged and supported in
their learning and have high levels of respect for their tutors. Learners have
increased confidence, self esteem and are enthusiastic about their learning.
Some learners have achieved accreditation such as SQA Numeracy and
Communications, and European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) award. An
annual awards ceremony effectively celebrates the achievements of participants.
The health and wellbeing of learners in the Plean 50+ Creative Writing Group has
improved as a result of their engagement in learning. Two members of the Cowie
Men’s Health Group had successfully progressed to become members of Stirling
Older People’s Reference Group. Learners talk knowledgeably about their
learning journey, their achievements, their ambitions and their next steps. Stirling
Quality Action Group committee members are progressing into permanent
employment. Their skills are being used well to deliver frontline training on
disability for other services. Literacy students on the Grundtvig Project, are
learning some German and Spanish to assist them on their study visit to Austria in
2
May. The Adult Learning Team makes effective use of volunteers to increase the
support available to learners. However local access to English for speakers of
other languages (ESOL) and literacy provision is limited. There is a lack of formal
post initial training support for volunteers.
4. How well are communities developing and achieving?
Impact on the local community is very good. Strong, effective community groups
have been very well supported by the Communities Team to identify and respond
to local priorities. Community members are confident, skilled, committed and
active and many provide sound leadership. The skilled community leadership of
the East Stirling Community Forum has allowed community representatives to set
aside local interests and work together on areas of mutual interest. Some
volunteers in the Cowie Credit Union are building self esteem and developing
confidence and have progressed to work. Cowie Credit Union is making a
positive contribution to support financial inclusion. Community organisations are
making a significant contribution to developing facilities, creating employment,
tackling poverty and inequalities, improving the environment and community
planning. Throsk Community Enterprises are actively engaged in the planning
and building of a new community facility. Fallin Community Enterprises has
created a number of jobs and training places for young people. It is also helping
the Council’s waste management services meet its recycling targets in line with
the Single Outcome Agreement. Stirling Health & Wellbeing Alliance is having a
positive impact on the health of older people in the Eastern Villages. Community
groups are actively involved in local decision making as equal partners with public
services. They work well with the local authority and other agencies to make
improvements to the area. There are well-developed local networks that assist in
achieving objectives. Cowie Community Council and Cowie Community Planning
Group are working together using the local community plan to improve the village.
There is a very high sense of ownership and commitment in the learning
community to improving local services and facilities. Volunteers feel
well-supported but are concerned about the future of their groups, and about
wider community participation. To achieve better outcomes and to clarify roles
partnership working would benefit from more formal agreements. There is little
evidence of any formal evaluation of community projects.
5. How effective are providers in improving the quality of services?
CLD providers use an effective range of methods to gather feedback from
learners. Good use is made of podcasts in the Get Ready for Work (GRFW)
project to capture participant’s views. Milestones within the CLD quality
improvement plan are being met. Seminars focused on improving self-evaluation
practice are raising the awareness of both CLD staff and partners. Staff
experience of self-evaluation is shared effectively. Self-evaluation practice is
improving within the Youth Service and Adult Learning Team. The locally
developed QUEST evaluation tool is improving the evaluation of literacies
provision. Opportunities for staff to reflect on their practice is good. Providers
make good use of a range of effective methods such as community newsletters
3
and local press coverage to report progress. However self-evaluation practice
within the Communities Team is less well developed than other teams. The focus
of sessional youth work reflections remains on process rather than outcome.
6. Does the learning community have a clear sense of direction?
There are good examples of effective local partnership working including
supporting young tenants to access benefit entitlements. All three CLD services
are held in high regard by partners. Youth Services links to local primary and
secondary schools are good. The recent Youth Services merger has
strengthened internal partnership working, and improved sharing of practice.
Combined service seminars are encouraging joint working. However, local
partnerships remain informal rather than part of agreed strategic development.
There is a lack of effective joint planning and evaluation between local partners.
7. What happens next?
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.
•
Develop more effective use of management information to improve
decision-making.
•
Develop outcome focused, measureable plans.
•
Improve local joint partnership planning and evaluation across three CLD
national priorities.
•
Better identify the learning needs of the community and develop a more
targeted response.
4
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 Bannockburn High School.
Improvements in performance
Impact on young people
Impact on adults
Impact of capacity building on communities
Improving services
Managing Inspector: Stewart Maxwell
30 March 2010
5
satisfactory
very good
very good
very good
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.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