Learning community inspection
A report by HM Inspectorate of Education
Inspection of the learning community
surrounding Denny High School
Falkirk Council
29 March 2011
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.
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 Denny High School encompasses the towns of
Denny and Bonnybridge and a number of smaller settlements. The population in
the area is around 25,600. The employment history of the area includes
significant paper making, iron foundries and brick works. Today, most
employment is in the public sector and in small businesses. Good transport links
make the area attractive to commuters to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling and
Falkirk. The area faces a number of challenges. These include pockets of high
unemployment, higher than average numbers of single parents and younger
families, low educational attainment, older people experiencing poverty, and
higher than average uptake of income support and incapacity benefit.
2. Particular strengths of the learning community
•
High levels of volunteering and community participation.
•
Significant improvements in participants’ confidence.
•
Aspects of provision are well focused on meeting priority community needs.
•
Strong capacity for income generation.
3. How well do participants learn and achieve?
Young people and adults are accessing a range of high quality learning
opportunities in the Denny area. They are developing in confidence, improving
their skills, developing helpful social networks and many are contributing well to
their communities through volunteering. Participants are also benefiting well from
increasing opportunities to have their learning accredited. Local authority
community learning and development (CLD) staff roles have recently been
reorganised to deliver services based on the geography of the learning
community. Planning and evaluation within this learning community now needs to
be developed. Staff and other stakeholders would benefit from having a clearer
understanding of the relationship between priority community needs, planned
outcomes for CLD, and higher level strategic outcomes being pursued by
community planning partners. Staff now need to develop arrangements to
capture the outcomes of the work of partners in the learning community and to be
able to demonstrate improvement over time.
Young people
Young people and youth work staff work together very well. Almost all young
people are well supported by staff to participate in programmes and to become
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involved in planning for activities and events. Young people feel safe and
respected in the youth work environment and they feel valued, included and
listened to. They describe youth work activities as an alternative to anti-social
behaviour and a place where they can spend time with their peers to relax and
discuss their own matters. Young people involved in youth activities are
improving their skills, knowledge and confidence and this is having a positive
effect on other aspects of their lives. In most youth work settings, staff use
accredited youth awards effectively to recognise achievement. Young people
welcome and value these opportunities. Young people involved in awards
programmes are developing a good range of skills and are confident about trying
new activities. Commendably, nine young people in the area are working towards
Platinum Youth Achievement Awards. A few young people are progressing well
from participating in youth activities to acting as volunteers, taking on leadership
roles and moving into employment. Staff have the skills and capacity to increase
the numbers of young people involved in groups and broaden the range of
opportunities available to them. Three local young people have recently been
nominated as candidates for the Scottish Youth Parliament. However, too few
young people are involved in local planning discussions or other forms of
community voice. Young people’s involvement in decision making in their
community needs to be further developed. Curriculum for Excellence presents a
good rationale for closer collaboration between community providers and Denny
High School to increase opportunities for young people’s accredited achievement.
Adults
Most adult learners report improvements in their confidence and their social,
emotional and mental wellbeing through a good range of local programmes.
Almost all adult learners described how improved confidence has made a positive
difference in their lives. Adults in the area benefit from a well-established and
well-regarded voluntary adult learning organisation, Wider Access to Schools
Project (WASP), located in Denny High School. Over 400 adults access WASP
courses each year. WASP and other adult learning groups in the community
contribute well to developing supportive friendships and social networks. Adult
learning partners are effective at creating opportunities for volunteering and
community involvement. For example, a relatively new historical society in
Greenhill had already made an impact in the community by organising local
events. Some adult learners had been very well supported to overcome mental
health needs. The range of courses they had attended had helped them to
rebuild their confidence and lead more fulfilling lives. This involvement had also
helped to improve their parenting skills and relationships with their children.
Some learners had been effectively re-engaged in learning through involvement in
community provision. They had gone on to either obtain jobs or work towards the
qualifications now required for their employment. All learners involved in
computing programmes reported progression from initial courses to a wide range
of certificated and non certificated courses at appropriate levels. Many have
progressed from a basic level to become volunteer buddies and a few to become
tutors. Learning provision for adults whose first language is not English is poorly
attended. Providers need to work more effectively with partners to identify and
recruit adults to these programmes. They also need to build on current good
practice to increase learning opportunities that meet priority needs.
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4.
How well are communities developing and achieving?
Confident, skilled and active community members volunteer in the community and
provide valued local services. Volunteers demonstrate high levels of energy,
enthusiasm and commitment. Community members, including young people, are
members of groups and committees that are making a positive difference in the
locality. These include considerable environmental impact through Communities
Along the Carron and proposed improvements through the Denny Town Centre
Regeneration Plan. Community groups have established and run local services
including a Credit Union and programmes for community members in
community-managed buildings. A few community groups produce helpful
newsletters providing information on services, activities and progress. The
Community Green Initiative has established effective working relationships and
partnerships with a range of community members and local primary schools.
These environmental projects have had significant impact on the physical
environment of the River Carron. Many community groups are well managed.
However, most of them would benefit from receiving support to improve planning
and evaluation and to secure additional funding. Community groups have too few
opportunities to network with other groups, agencies and organisations to further
improve working relationships within the community. They are also unclear about
who can provide them with support with different issues.
5.
How effective are providers in improving the quality of services?
Staff are developing well as reflective practitioners. Helpful practitioner’s plans
are now being used more consistently across the area. Training has developed
their confidence and knowledge of self-evaluation for improvement. The majority
of activities have individual or group evaluations which help inform future planning
at a local level. Some participant feedback is systematically analysed. Links
between self-evaluation, planning documents and reporting performance to
stakeholders are evolving. Too many targets, however are focused on outputs
rather than outcomes. Not all staff are sufficiently clear about the difference
between outputs and outcomes. The current performance management system is
not being used effectively across the full range of CLD provision. Joint
self-evaluation and planning for improvement with CLD partners requires further
development. CLD service staff and partners require to improve further joint
performance reporting to stakeholders.
6. Does the learning community have a clear sense of direction?
The inspection took place relatively soon after a significant reorganisation of the
CLD Service in Falkirk Council. This reorganisation provides a good foundation
for establishing local strategic direction for the learning community. Positive
relationships with schools, nurseries and community and voluntary sector partners
provide a useful context for change and improvement. The impacts of current
work are good. This context now needs to be used to further develop
opportunities for partnership work that is clearly focused on achieving outcomes
that are based on priority needs in the communities.
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7. What happens next?
There are some important improvements needed, but because CLD providers
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 education
authority.
We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the education authority
and its partners.
•
Continue to develop opportunities for learners to progress in their learning.
•
Establish effective partnership working around the geography of the learning
community to improve outcomes for learners and community groups.
•
Establish joint needs-led and outcomes-focused planning and evaluation to
improve monitoring and reporting of outcomes.
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”.
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 Denny High School.
Improvements in performance
Impact on young people
Impact on adults
Impact of capacity building on communities
Improving services
Managing Inspector: Jim Rooney
29 March 2011
4
satisfactory
good
very good
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 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 2011
HM Inspectorate of Education