Inspection of the learning community
Inspection of the learning community surrounding Girvan Academy
South Ayrshire Council
16 June 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 Girvan Academy. 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 Girvan Academy includes the main town of
Girvan and the villages of Dailly, Barr, Barrhill, Colmonell, Pinwherry, Pinmore,
Ballantrae and Lendalfoot. The area is known as South Carrick. The population
of the area is 10,500.
The area is generally more deprived than other parts of South Ayrshire. Poverty,
unemployment and ill-health are all worse than the average for the Council area.
There is a relatively high number of adults with learning disabilities.
3. Particular strengths of the learning community
•
Strong sense of collective responsibility amongst staff and volunteers to meet
the needs of the community.
•
Very good use of local information and networks to develop new programmes
and relevant opportunities.
•
Very good range of accessible learning opportunities effectively targeted at
hard to reach and vulnerable learners.
•
Learning opportunities that are tailored flexibly to meet specific circumstances
and individual learning needs.
•
Positive impacts on individuals and families.
•
Strong community groups that deliver effective services and influence
improvements in communities.
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4. Examples of good practice
•
Mellow Parenting programme to develop parenting skills.
•
Girvan Women’s Health Group.
•
Girvan Family Connections, part of the voluntary organisation Stepping Stones
for Families, providing a range of local services.
•
Ailsa Horizons and the Carrick Community Councils Forum (CCCF).
•
Employability course with Girvan Academy.
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?
CLD partners have gathered information about provision over a number of years
and use this to identify trends in participation. For example, increasing numbers
of young people are engaging with services and gaining accredited achievement
awards. There is a good range of information being collected and partners are
arranging to have a more comprehensive approach to consistent gathering and
analysis of participant information. Adults make good progress once they have
entered or returned to learning. Increasing numbers of participants are getting
involved in a range of family health activities which increases health awareness
amongst all age groups. The CLD partnership is making very good use of
regeneration and other external funding to provide and support activities operated
through the voluntary sector and other partners to increase learning opportunities
and participation. The overall quality of learning and development activities is
high. Partners need to continue to improve how they collate and report the
outcomes they are achieving.
Young people
Young people get a lot out of the activities and projects they participate in. They
grow in confidence and self-esteem and develop transferable core skills. CLD
partners deliver a wide range of youth work with young people who face
challenges in their lives. Young people are learning new and important skills.
Partners are working well together to reduce the number of young people not in
education, employment or training. Young people are very well supported to
make informed choices regarding their future housing needs and options, and to
make smooth transitions to independence, through the First Home project.
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The Girvan Youth Trust had recently opened a Youth Centre, Z1 Bar, in the town
to further develop the range of learning opportunities available to all young people
from 14 to 18 years in the area. The use of awards to recognise the
achievements of young people is growing in youth groups and in Girvan
Academy. An innovative programme of youth engagement, Big Foot, is underway
in Girvan and South Carrick, and is ensuring young people’s voice is heard in
community planning and in future service developments. Partners should now
develop and implement the priorities identified in their local youth action plan and
improve further how they evaluate the impact of their work.
Adults
The CLD partnership provides highly accessible learning opportunities that are
well targeted on vulnerable and hard to reach learners. Almost all learners feel
very well supported by warm, committed and welcoming staff who listen and
respond to their concerns. There is very good provision of child care to enable
women with child care responsibilities to participate in learning. Many
programmes are flexibly tailored to take into account the specific circumstances
and needs of learners. The timing of courses is negotiated with participants. The
content of programmes and learning opportunities is closely linked to learners’
experiences and as a result is seen as real and relevant to their lives. Learners
are encouraged to recognise the value of their life experience and the
transferability of their skills to other contexts. Almost all learners are
demonstrating greater independence, reduced social isolation, increased self
confidence, and an eagerness to take on new challenges. Some students are
clear that their experience in adult learning had been life changing. Mothers who
had recently completed the Mellow Parenting course reported that they were
much more able to manage positively their children’s demanding behaviour. Adult
literacy learners are now able to write letters, read newspapers and menus, send
e-mails and use the Internet. English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)
students were better able to ask for help and understand instructions at work,
organise medical appointments, use the telephone and communicate better with
their children’s school. Participants at the Girvan Women’s Health Group
identified the benefits to their mental health and well being and were fully
empowered to develop and implement their ideas for the benefit of themselves
and the wider community. Many learners have developed a thirst for learning and
have progressed into further education, volunteering or employment. Men are
under-represented in community-based provision and there is room to extend the
range of learning opportunities to reach a wider base of learners. Some of the
students who expressed a desire to progress into mainstream further education
were put off by the practical difficulties arising from the location of colleges. The
retention rate of learners in a few aspects of provision is low.
6. How well does CLD help the community to develop?
The South Carrick area has a good range of active and vibrant community and
voluntary groups. They contribute well to improving the quality of life in
communities. Community members are skilled and confident. Where necessary,
groups are well supported by development staff. Voluntary and community
3
groups are well managed and deliver high quality services. For example, the
Glendoune Community Association has raised funding for a multi use games
facility; the Make It Happen Group is developing a community garden and support
for early years literacy; The Girvan Youth Trust has recently opened an £800,000
youth facility; and Travel Connections, a part of Girvan Family Connections is
supporting people from the rural communities to access services and
employment. Groups in the area work very well together. The community
councils in the area have come together through the Carrick Community Councils’
Forum which is supported by Horizons, a community development group. This
Forum has developed a promising economic development strategy for the area.
However, they have not yet been able to engage fully with the South Ayrshire
Community Planning Partnership to take this strategy forward. CLD partners in
the area are well placed to contribute to raising aspirations in the communities.
This should include working imaginatively with Girvan Academy to raise
achievement and attainment amongst young people.
7. How effective are providers in improving the quality of services?
Good systems are in place for project planning and evaluation. Staff make
effective and consistent use of a straightforward self-assessment tool, Catching
Confidence. Action planning is well linked to CLD Service and partnership
outcomes. Commendably, local partners jointly self-evaluate the quality and
impacts of their services. Systems are in place for gathering information over
time, which helps to inform future planning and service improvements. This is
likely to be improved further once a new management information system is fully
operational. Very good networking amongst CLD partners maximises the use of
local intelligence to identify needs and gaps in services. For example, the work of
the tracking group for young people who need more choices and more chances
has led to creative problem solving and effective interventions.
8. Do CLD providers have a clear sense of direction?
CLD partners work very well together and pursue common, high level outcomes.
Most groups and organisations work well together to achieve these outcomes.
The area benefits from good collaboration between community councils in the
Carrick Community Councils’ Forum which is well supported by Horizons. This
group has produced a broad and well-considered economic development strategy
for the area. The link between local and strategic level thinking and action to
improve communities is not yet fully made. Relationships between CLD providers
and primary schools and nurseries are well developed and beneficial to children
and families. Some CLD partners work very effectively with Girvan Academy.
The school and the community would benefit from more joint, imaginative and
holistic approaches to raising community aspirations and young people’s
attainment and achievement.
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9. What happens next?
Due to the high quality of the self-evaluation processes within the CLD
partnership, we disengaged from structured and comprehensive inspection
activities in the course of the inspection week.
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.
•
Build on existing strengths to extend partnership work with Girvan Academy to
raise community aspirations and young people’s achievements and
attainment.
•
Work with community planning partners to secure strategic commitment to the
Carrick Economic Development Strategy or similar approach to local
community planning and development.
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
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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 Girvan Academy.
Improvements in performance
Impact on young people
Impact on adults
Impact of capacity building on communities
Improving services
Managing Inspector: Jim Rooney
16 June 2009
6
good
very good
very good
good
very 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