Inspection of the learning community
Inspection of the learning community surrounding Caldervale High School
North Lanarkshire Council
31 March 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 Caldervale 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 Caldervale High School includes the eastern part
of Airdrie and the villages of Longriggend, Caldercruix, Plains and Chapelhall.
The proportion of workless people is above the Scottish average and slightly
higher than the rest of North Lanarkshire Council.
3. Particular strengths of the learning community
•
Highly committed and effective staff and volunteers.
•
Very effective partnership work.
•
Coherent arrangements for adult learners to progress in their learning.
•
A number of primary schools that are proactive in their communities.
•
Participants who are very enthusiastic about their learning.
•
Community groups that are active in improving neighbourhoods.
•
Community groups that influence public services.
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4. Examples of good practice
•
Primary schools that engage parents and build community capacity.
•
@Home Flexible Learning and Airdrie Music Project.
•
PHACTS, Airdrie young people’s health project.
•
Systematic approaches to building community capacity.
•
A community development approach to creating new play parks.
•
Parent Support Group, a support group for parents of 0 to 3 children.
•
Time for You, a support group for young mothers.
•
Young parents’ group, a multi-agency support group for teenage mothers.
•
Look Closer Project, parents creating curriculum materials about museums.
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?
Individual centres, projects, schools and community groups are providing high
quality learning and other activities. Staff in the area are improving the ways in
which they assess the impact of their work, including some particularly effective
examples. CLD Service managers and partners are continuing to improve the
way they measure and report performance. However, not all staff fully understand
the difference between output and outcome measures and indicators. This
means that the significant difference that the services make are not fully reported
or understood. Managers need to continue to ensure that staff plan their work to
achieve the results that the Council and other services are looking for.
Young people
Almost all young people are increasing their confidence as a result of their
engagement with learning opportunities. For most, they could see how this helps
them in other aspects of their lives and improves their capacity to make informed
decisions. A majority of young people are becoming more successful learners
which is helped by their achieving accredited awards. A significant number of
young people are actively involved in their community. For example, some deliver
personal and social education lessons with younger pupils in schools, while others
volunteer in youth clubs. Almost all young people feel safe within youth provision.
However, for many, there are still territorial conflicts that result in them feeling less
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safe in their communities. A majority of young participants are improving core
skills, particularly communication and working with others. All participants feel
very well supported by youth workers, especially staff in the CLD Service. Almost
all participants are achieving well which is reflected in the wide range of
accredited learning awards achieved. Staff also make very good use of
certification where formal accreditation is not available. They celebrate young
people’s successes very well.
Adults
Adult learners are able to access a very wide range of positive learning
experiences from first step learning to college and university. Learners are
encouraged to progress to appropriate new learning as part of a regular process
of reflection and review. Learners show an increased level of confidence and
self-worth, leading many to pursue further education or employment. A majority of
learners also report that they have improved the quality of their contribution to
family and community life. Some are contributing very positively to activities
within their local schools. Most adult learners obtain very positive results from
their experiences such as improved parenting skills, healthier lifestyles, helping
within local schools, establishing community projects and youth activities. Staff
use a range of approaches to successfully remove barriers to learning. For
example, the Dads Can Do programmes in some primary schools attract
unusually high numbers of adult men into family learning programmes. Adult
literacy provision, SureStart work with young families and adult learning Access
programmes are also very successful in engaging adults who are least likely to
become involved in learning. Parents and children from a local primary school
had worked with museums and CLD staff to produce Look Closer. This is an
educational DVD and workbook to promote the museum services across North
and South Lanarkshire to schools, families and community organisations.
6. How well does CLD help the community to develop?
The communities surrounding Caldervale High School are particularly active. For
example, an unusually large number of community organisations had worked with
council services to develop high quality play facilities within East Airdrie
neighbourhoods and surrounding villages. Primary schools are particularly
proactive in working with parents and local communities. Skilled and confident
community members are very well supported by staff to improve communities.
Local authority and voluntary sector staff work very well together to support
community organisations. Community groups help to secure significant
improvements in local services and facilities. For example, groups had secured
improvements in traffic calming, play facilities, provision for young people,
community facilities, footpaths, parking and signage. CLD staff used high quality
processes to support the development of community groups. Almost all
community groups contribute well to developing community cohesion. However,
relationships within and between some groups need to be improved to maximise
their impact.
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7. How effective are providers in improving the quality of services?
Staff in the area are dedicated to providing high quality services and regularly
reviewed the quality of their work. Some focused particularly well on evaluating
the impact on participants of their learning. These approaches needed to be used
more systematically in other aspects of work. Managers are continuing to support
improvements in how the outcomes of services are measured and reported.
Services use a range of effective methods to communicate to stakeholders about
their work.
8. Do CLD providers have a clear sense of direction?
Providers work very well together in the area and have a clear sense of direction.
There are particularly effective relationships between CLD providers and primary
schools which brings significant benefits to individuals, families and communities.
There is also an active and vibrant range of community groups that contribute well
to improving communities. The local authority service has recently changed its
structures and some aspects of staffing. These improved arrangements have
many strengths to build on to achieve continuous improvement.
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.
•
Use more systematic approaches to support young people to self-assess their
progress.
•
Continue to improve outcome measurement in order to capture fully the
difference that services make to individuals and communities.
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”.
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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 Caldervale High School.
Improvements in performance
Impact on young people
Impact on adults
Impact of capacity building on communities
Improving services
Managing Inspector: Jim Rooney
31 March 2009
5
good
very good
excellent
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