Learning community inspection
A report by HM Inspectorate of Education Inspection of the learning community
Dunblane School

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
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 Dunblane High School includes the town of
Dunblane plus the main villages of Ashfield, Kinbuck and a number of rural hamlets and farms. Over the last ten years, Dunblane’s population has grown by over 22%. Qualification levels are high. The 2001 census indicates 41% of the working age population having degrees or higher qualifications. In general, population health is very good relative to Scotland averages. Crime levels are low. The percentage of the population who are income deprived at 8% is lower than the Stirling average at 13% and significantly lower than the Scottish average which is 17%. The Dunblane area is not an area of priority for the Council’s community learning and development (CLD) services.
2. Particular strengths of the learning community
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Vibrant, active community organisations.
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Enthusiastic staff and volunteers.
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Skills and knowledge base of community organisations.
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Community organisations’ success in securing external funding.
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Well targeted and inclusive provision.
There is a good range of high quality youth work programmes and activities available to young people. A recently introduced corporate management information system is improving senior manager decision making. CLD services plans clearly link to and are informed by the Single Outcome Agreement national outcomes. CLD services regularly report progress against agreed performance measures as part of corporate reporting. The information gathered, helps to inform improvement planning. Youth Services staff make effective use of a comprehensive electronic planning system. This is complemented by an evolving, flexible electronic management information system. The number of young people engaged in modern apprenticeships and life skill programmes has increased.
English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) learner numbers are up 6.5% on the previous year. A wider range of youth accreditation opportunities are being taken up. CLD service managers are not yet able to fully access and utilise the corporate performance system. CLD services plans do not clearly reflect joint working across the three services. The quality and use of management information varies across the three CLD services. There is no systematic sharing
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of data. Improved access to and use of management information by the
Communities Team whilst planned is not yet in place.
Young people
Young people access very good youth work programmes and activities. They actively build their confidence, and develop skills for life, learning and work.
They contribute effectively to their community through high quality volunteering opportunities in a range of contexts. Young people develop leadership skills and provide effective peer learning and support. Voluntary organisations demonstrate a strong commitment to improving young people’s lives. There is a strong ethos of inclusion. The Hot Chocolate Club encourages young people to become volunteers offering peer support to others who attend the drop-in facility.
Dunblane Young People’s Project helps young people develop confidence and skills including planning, organisation and leadership. The Plus organisation ensures that young people with additional needs are included and participating.
Young people progress onto other learning opportunities. Many become volunteers moving on to employment, further and higher education courses and other opportunities. Achievements are regularly celebrated by staff and volunteers. Good use is made of praise and encouragement. Some young people are successfully gaining a range of accreditation awards. Dunblane Youth
Centre supports young people to develop skills in sports, art, music and drama.
Voluntary providers, Youth Services and Police work well together to ensure that young people are offered support, information and advice at times when they may be particularly vulnerable. Learning providers from across organisations would benefit from increased opportunities to share information, further develop partnership working and joint training. Dunblane High School links to youth work providers could be further strengthened. Further development aligning programmes for young people to Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes would be beneficial. Opportunities for young people in the 15 + age group are limited.
Adults
Dunblane library provides many valued adult and family learning opportunities.
Learners enjoy the courses and are developing a strong sense of achievement.
There is a strong commitment to inclusion across all providers with good support and positive engagement for learners with additional needs. Learners with complex additional support needs in the Have Your Say project are successfully progressing through Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network accreditation. Learners in the ESOL programmes are positive about their learning experiences and receive very good support from staff. Staff use the arts imaginatively in their engagement with learners. Learners with additional support needs are developing self esteem, confidence and communication skills. They are positively applying improved communication skills gained in other parts of their lives. Local voluntary organisations actively involve participants in good learning and skills development opportunities. Sustainable Dunblane provides good opportunities for family learning. Dunblane Museum make good use of local volunteers to deliver quality intergenerational programmes with local primary schools. There is a high level of volunteering in local authority and voluntary
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sector activities. Both the Stirling School of English and The Adult Learning Team have successfully achieved Investor in Volunteers status. Participants are encouraged to continue their learning. However, Adult Learning Team programmes are limited and involve a small number of participants. There is a lack of suitable progression opportunities for learners particularly those with additional support needs. Local accredited learning opportunities are limited.
4. How well are communities developing and achieving?
The learning community has a good range of active, vibrant, self supporting community organisations. Community members are articulate, confident, and skilled. They deliver a wide range of quality services through a number of effectively managed community organisations. Volunteers actively identify and address community need and are committed to improving their community.
Dunblane Development Trust consulted the wider community to determine local need and presented their findings within a local community plan. The trust has purchased a ‘gap site’ in the town centre and is developing five flats and a restaurant for let. Ashfield Village Association effectively manages and maintains their village hall and other parts of the village. Dunblane Community Council is effectively engaged with the Council and other partners on a range of planning, policing and amenity issues. Sustainable Dunblane has successfully developed cycle path mapping, cycle training within local schools and an energy efficiency project. Dunblane Library provides an effective community information hub. The
Museum Trust has developed an independent, self managed, volunteer supported tourism and learning resource. The RSVP project supports housebound and older people. The Victoria Hall and Braeport Centre are effectively managed by local people. Some groups have been very successful in securing external funding. Not all groups have planning and evaluation systems in place. Groups would benefit from additional support to improve their ability to monitor and evaluate the impact of their work more effectively. Links to the Council’s CLD provision could be strengthened to ensure mapping and planning of provision is more effective.
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 made of a portable video facility to gather evaluation and feedback from recent family learning and youth consultation events. Some staff regularly evaluate outcomes and the impact of programmes. Youth Services staff make good use of the Rickter scale model with Activity Agreement participants to measure the difference made. The internal CLD Quality Steering group acts as a positive driver for improvement. A set of agreed common themes form the over arching priorities across all three CLD services. Some progress has been made with areas identified for improvement in other learning community inspections in the area. Staff self-evaluation practice is improving. Regular joint training events help raise staff awareness and confidence around reflective practice and self-evaluation. Recent joint training events are helping to highlight the value of reflective practice and self-evaluation across non traditional CLD partners. The
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recent introduction of a CLD Awards ceremony helpfully supported this approach.
Sessional youth work staff regularly reflect and record issues in a constructive manner. Partners make good use of a range of effective methods such as quality reports, publicity materials and positive press coverage to report progress to stake holders. Whilst self-evaluation is clearly in place in some areas it is not yet fully established or leading to improvement in others.
6. Does the learning community have a clear sense of direction?
Youth Services operate an effective neighbourhood based approach which positively engages with and supports partners such as Dunblane Centre. Good and informal localised networks operate across a number of community groups.
Youth Services links to Dunblane High School are improving. Local community groups are engaged in ambitious projects which benefit the Dunblane community.
Networking opportunities for local youth practitioners and partners could be improved.
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 local authority and its partners.
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Improve use of management information within the Adult Learning and
Communities teams to improve data sharing and decision making.
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Ensure more consistent self-evaluation for improvement at an operational level.
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Improve networking opportunities for local youth work practitioners and partners to better share information, training and good practice.
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Improve links between Communities Team and local community organisations within the Dunblane area to better support and capitalise on local skills and knowledge.
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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 Dunblane High School.
Improvements in performance
Impact on young people
Impact on adults
Impact of capacity building on communities
Improving services
Managing Inspector: Stewart Maxwell
24 May 2011 satisfactory very good good good good
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This report uses the following word scale to make clear judgements made by inspectors. very good satisfactory strengths just outweigh 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