Inspection of the learning community
Inspection of the learning community surrounding Buckie High School
The Moray Council
13 January 2009
Contents
1.
About the report
2.
The learning community
3.
Particular strengths of the learning community
4.
Examples of good practice
5.
How well do participants learn and achieve?
6.
How well does CLD help the community to develop?
7.
How effective are providers in improving the quality of services?
8.
Do CLD providers have a clear sense of direction?
9.
What happens next?
1. About the report
This report tells you about community learning and development (CLD) activities
in the communities surrounding Buckie High School. It complements a separate
report on the school. We explain how well people involved in community learning
activities do in a wide range of experiences, and the quality of learning activities
on offer to them. We describe how communities can influence decision making
and how they can respond positively to their own issues. We also talk about how
organisations work together and how they improve lives in local communities.
Finally, our report looks at the vision for the area, and how well all organisations
and the community are working together to achieve it.
2. The learning community
The learning community around Buckie High School includes the town of Buckie
and the communities of Cullen, Findochty, Portessie, Portknockie and Portgordon.
The number of jobless people is lower than the Scottish average, but the area has
one of the lowest average earnings and is reliant on seasonal industries such as
fishing, farming and forestry.
3. Particular strengths of the learning community
•
Very well targeted range of provision for adults and young people.
•
The positive impact on young people and the community through Youth
Achievement Awards.
•
The range of local services being developed with partners, for example the
Buckie Skatepark and The Well Project.
•
Some very good examples of adult learning leading to community
empowerment.
•
The enthusiasm and commitment of CLD staff and strong operational
leadership.
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4. Examples of good practice
•
The Buckie Blethers group that have produced learning materials to celebrate
the Doric language.
•
Very good English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision
attracting 215 new learners across Moray since 2007.
•
The Buckie Area Forum.
•
The CLD Youth work team in the area have made very good use of Youth
Achievement Awards in their work with young people.
By visiting www.hmie.gov.uk you can find out more about these examples of good
practice.
5. How well do participants learn and achieve?
Some aspects of services such as ESOL and other adult learning provision are
demonstrating evidence of improvement. There is tangible improvement in
community safety through work with young people. Many participants in adult
learning are increasing employability, becoming more healthy and are achieving.
Whilst CLD are successfully targeting their resources, they do not yet have
agreed and consistent systems in place to monitor improvement. CLD staff have
team and individual plans but these are focusing on outputs rather than outcomes.
Improvements are also needed to track effectively learner progress. CLD are
about to purchase a software package to improve their use of data. There is also
scope to work with staff at Buckie High School to establish a system for
monitoring young peoples’ achievement.
Young people
Staff are well motivated, committed and demonstrate high morale. They are
working effectively with partner agencies in school and community settings.
Individual young people and groups from a broad range of social and family
backgrounds are well supported by CLD and their partners.
Youth work is well targeted. Projects such as After School Groups and Young
People of Buckie (YPOB) engage effectively with young people who require
additional support in school and community settings. The Midnight Football
project has had significant impact on community safety. Young people are
involved in a broad range of community and cultural activities, such as Trash
Bash and Another Music Project (AMP). School pupils are taking part in arts
activities which improve their core skills and employability. They are able to
describe their learning, and the range of skills gained. Peer learning is used
effectively.
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Many young people take part in, and have gained, Youth Achievement Awards.
Positive support is provided by a broad range of staff. There is a strong focus on
celebration of achievement. Almost all young people are able to demonstrate or
articulate how they are becoming more successful learners, more confident
individuals, more involved in their community or more employable.
Adults
CLD staff and their partners support effectively adult learners in Buckie. They
deliver a very good range of provision, including Community Based Adult Learning
(CBAL), ESOL, Adult Literacy and Numeracy (ALN) and Essential Skills. All
learners are very positive about the impact their learning is having on their lives.
Almost all are achieving their learning goals outlined in their Individual Learning
Plans (ILP). They describe effectively their learning journeys and how they can
progress to further learning.
The parents’ literacies group are working towards gaining accreditation through
SQA Communication access 3. Buckie Blethers has its roots in Moray Adult
Literacy Project (MALP) and a DVD celebrating the Doric language has been
produced. With support from CLD staff they are a fully constituted group and are
currently applying for funding to develop their work further. Local volunteers are
well supported to convert the use of an empty newsagents shop into a community
facility called The Well Project. A good range of partner agencies are supporting
them and the facility will open in November 2008.
6. How well does CLD help the community to develop?
Community members are active in their local community and are well supported
by CLD staff. The Buckie Skatepark Group is involving young people effectively
in fundraising and campaigning. As a result, the skatepark is attracting young
people from Moray, Aberdeenshire and beyond. Parents and young people are
gaining confidence and learning new skills. There is good support from local
businesses.
CLD and their partners are providing a strong basis for community involvement.
Buckie Blethers is helping older people to maintain the Doric language and
culture, and record people’s memories. Women attending a maths group are
gaining qualifications to help them get jobs. Others are working towards
accreditation through the John Muir Discovery Award. Some people in the ‘Can’t
Sing, Won’t Sing’ group describe benefits such as improving mental health and
well being.
The YPOB group is having a significant impact on young people’s confidence and
achievement. It is also successfully reducing anti-social behaviour in the
community. The ‘Trash Bash’ is successfully involving young people from several
groups in Buckie.
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The Buckie Area Forum is influential in presenting alternative proposals to Moray
Council about the management of Community Planning at a local level. Members
are becoming more active and gaining a strong sense of ownership in their
community.
7. How effective are providers in improving the quality of services?
CLD and their partners are gathering feedback from some learners and projects
using a variety of methods. However, the impact is limited as they do not yet use
this information to evaluate improvement fully. Learning opportunities are
reflecting the expressed needs of the community. Examples include The Well
Project, the Buckie Area Forum and Tenants Computing classes. Some very
effective partnership working is leading to quality provision such as The Buckie
Haiku Project and the John Muir Discovery award. Celebration of learner
achievement is consistently good.
CLD staff are beginning to use self-evaluation systematically to improve what is
on offer for learners. They use a standardised method for planning (mini Learning
Evaluation and Planning) and this is compiled into good quality ‘Illuminating
Practice’ folders. They are using quality indicators as the basis for self-evaluation,
informing both team and individual plans. Recording of learner activity is good
overall but there is scope to improve how they use the information gathered. CLD
also need to improve how they report progress to their partners and learners.
8. Do CLD providers have a clear sense of direction?
CLD is well led in Buckie. Strong and effective leadership is demonstrated by
operational managers. Staff are motivated and professional and share a clear
vision. CLD and their partners are working effectively in a range of settings to
secure high quality services for the local community. The Buckie Area Forum
provides effective community leadership. The Well Project and Buckie Skatepark
are the result of good partnership working leading to more sustainable services.
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9. 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.
•
Improve performance management systems to demonstrate progression
for learners more clearly.
•
Embed the use of outcomes more fully in the work of CLD and its partners.
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”
The 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
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 Buckie High School.
Improvements in performance
Impact on young people
Impact on adults
Impact of capacity building on communities
Improving services
Managing Inspector: Sheila Brown
13 January 2009
5
satisfactory
very good
very good
very good
good
How can you contact us?
HMIE has responsibilities to evaluate the quality of pre-school education, all
schools, teacher education, community learning and development, colleges and
local authorities. We also publish reports of interest to the public and
professionals about services for children and evaluate child protection services.
From this extensive evidence we are able to give the professional advice needed
to support the development of educational policy.
For more information about the work of HMIE, including examples of good
practice and links to Journey to Excellence, please visit our website at
www.hmie.gov.uk.
To find out more about inspections go to www.hmie.gov.uk. Please contact the
Business Management and Communications Team if you require any of our
information available in translated or other appropriate versions.
If you wish to comment about any of our inspections, contact us at
HMIEenquiries@hmie.gsi.gov.uk or alternatively you should write to Business
Management and Communications Team, HM Inspectorate of Education,
Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale Way, Livingston
EH54 6GA.
Our complaints procedure is available from Rona Littleproud, HM Inspectorate of
Education, Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale Way,
Livingston EH54 6GA or phone 01506 600258 or from our website at
www.hmie.gov.uk.
If you are not satisfied with the action we have taken at the end of our complaints
procedure, you can raise a complaint with the Scottish Public Services
Ombudsman (SPSO). The SPSO is fully independent and has powers to
investigate complaints about Government departments and agencies. You should
write to the SPSO, Freepost EH641, Edinburgh EH3 0BR. You can also
telephone 0800 377 7330, fax 0800 377 7331 or email ask@spso.org.uk. More
information about the Ombudsman’s office can be obtained from the website
www.spso.org.uk.
Want to join us?
In addition to HMI, inspection teams often include people who are not HMI but are
involved directly in education. They are called Associate Assessors and most
work in community learning and development. Most inspection teams also
include a member of the public called a Lay Member. More information about
how you can become an Associate Assessor or Lay Member is available at
www.hmie.gov.uk.
Crown Copyright 2009
HM Inspectorate of Education
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