Learning community inspection
A report by HM Inspectorate of Education
Inspection of the learning community
surrounding Earlston High School
Scottish Borders Council
18 May 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.
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 Earlston High School covers the A68
corridor from Oxton to St Boswells and East to Gordon. It is a rural area with a
population of almost 12,000. There are five main centres of population; Earlston
Lauder, Gordon, Newtown St Boswells and St Boswells. It also includes a
number of smaller communities and a large landward area. Unemployment is
lower than both the rest of the local authority and the Scottish average and life
expectancy is higher.
2. Particular strengths of the learning community
•
Effective informal networks and relationships.
•
Very effective adult learning partnerships.
•
Commitment of volunteers to deliver local services.
•
Good use of the local environment for learning.
3. How well do participants learn and achieve?
The community learning and development (CLD) service and their partners are
meeting the needs of most learners and participants and are retaining and
increasing learner numbers. Learning provisions and centres are generally of
good quality and well targeted to meet the needs of the local population. Local
learners regularly travel into Galashiels to access authority wide provision.
Authority staff maintain a project file for each piece of work they undertake
containing key planning and evaluation information. Activities are planned using
an Activity Planning and Evaluation tool which encourages the setting of clear
targets and outcomes. Target setting is not yet consistent and limited
performance information across the learning community makes it difficult to
assess the overall impact of CLD services. There is a growing use of
accreditation across programmes for adult learners and young people and
learners are encouraged to progress onto further opportunities.
Young people
Young people participate in a range of provisions targeted at developing their
practical and personal skills. There is a focus on sports and cultural activities in
the area and many young people follow up on specific interests such as drama
through Border Youth Theatre to develop and deepen their skills. There is a
growing use of sports leadership awards and young people are actively
volunteering in local primary schools and passing on their skills. There are some
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examples of good use of Youth Achievement Awards and other approaches to
accrediting and recording young people’s progress. There is a very good range of
specialist services including Face to Face, Penumbra and LGBT Youth. Young
people who use these services grow in confidence and self esteem and increase
their ability to engage effectively in the rest of their lives. Youth clubs in Newstead
and Earlston offer a good range of activities for children and young people.
Volunteers work hard to ensure that programmes offer variety and challenge.
Young people engaged in these clubs would benefit from regular discussion about
their progress and engagement in existing awards programmes to recognise their
achievements.
Adults
Adult learning provision has a very good impact on participants. Learners have
individual learning plans and are clear about their learning targets and
progression. Learners are also very positive about the impact of their learning on
their personal lives, family and community. There is a very good range of adult
learning opportunities. Links between CLD services, Borders Production Unit and
Borders College encourage and enable positive transitions and progression. The
We Care access to industry project supports learners through building confidence,
improving self esteem and increasing skills. Good use is being made of SVQ
Personal Development Units to increase the number of learners achieving
accreditation. English speakers of other languages (ESOL) provision is
supporting learners to access further informal and accredited learning. Provision
is enabling learners to integrate into the community and engage more effectively
and confidently in meetings and everyday activities. ESOL and literacies
provision is offered to individual learners for a few hours each week. However,
access to this provision is too limited and as a result there is a waiting list to
access provision and some learners are not progressing as quickly as they could.
Basic information and communication technology (ICT) learning provided in local
libraries through courses such as ‘Get Clicking and Get Surfing' encourage
learners to learn practical skills in a relaxed environment and many of them move
onto other courses. Celebrations of success and achievement take place
regularly and participants feel very valued through these. There is currently very
limited family learning provision in the area.
4. How well are communities developing and achieving?
Community organisations and community representatives are very active within
the learning community. Community organisations are effectively supported by a
range of agencies including the Bridge, Youth Borders, CLD service and Borders
Forest Trust. This support enables them to develop their own services, support
volunteers and to apply for funding for their projects. There are a number of
projects and groups run by the local community which provide services and
develop the local economy. The Trimontium Museum Trust is a very effective
project attracting substantial tourism and undertaking regular engagements in
education delivery within local schools. The Gordon Community Woodland
Project is a community led project developed when the option to buy neighbouring
woodland arose and was well supported by the Borders Forest Trust. The
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activities offered are very inclusive and the project is well led with strong plans for
future sustainability. Members of community groups are very motivated, skilled
and responsive to community needs. There is limited engagement by young
people in local decision-making and community groups. Opportunities for
volunteers to learn together are run in response to specific issues but there are
limited opportunities for them to share experiences and knowledge.
5. How effective are providers in improving the quality of services?
Staff and volunteers are committed to improving services for local people. Staff
engage well with some key networks and stakeholders to share feedback and
engage in dialogue. The recent authority wide youth futures consultation and
follow up discussions were well received locally. Adult learning partners work
particularly well together and there is very effective data collection and planning
which leads to improved and targeted services. Overall, CLD services and
projects focus on their own targets and priorities rather than planning together and
learning from their data. Planning and evaluation processes are embedded and
CLD service staff use their internal planning and evaluation processes rigorously.
There has been a very positive start in relation to joint work on youth work and
schools and there are opportunities to develop this further.
6. Does the learning community have a clear sense of direction?
Services, organisations and local communities are strongly committed to providing
effective services for the local community. Council CLD staff are developing a
consistent approach to the self-evaluation and improvement and are working
closely with their partners across the authority to develop their awareness and use
of “How good is our community learning and development? 2”. There is a need
for partners to do further work in developing a joint vision and strategy. The
development of Learning Community Boards across the authority area has the
potential to increase awareness of priorities and responsibilities. The
engagement with the voluntary sector with these boards needs to be fully
considered.
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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.
•
Ensure that young people, voluntary organisations and community groups are
able to inform local decision-making.
•
Develop more effective joint planning by local services and groups.
•
Ensure more systematic monitoring and evaluation of the impact of CLD
delivery across the range of providers.
Quality indicators help CLD providers and inspectors to judge what is good and
what needs to be improved in the work of 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 Earlston High School.
Improvements in performance
Impact on young people
Impact on adults
Impact of capacity building on communities
Improving services
Managing Inspector: Maureen Mallon
18 May 2010
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 2010
HM Inspectorate of Education