A basketball academy aims high and primary children rise to the
occasion
London Education Partnership Awards reward innovation
14 June 2011
A community college that boosts opportunity through sport and a primary school that encourages its
pupils to believe in their own futures are among the winners of the fifth annual London Education
Partnership Awards.
The LEP Awards recognise and reward innovative initiatives that work to transform the life prospects
of London’s young people and adults and widen participation in higher education.
This year’s awards ceremony, which took place last night (June 13) at the Wellcome Trust in London,
rewarded eight projects. Judging panel chair John Hall, head of the School and Higher Education
Links in London and Education Links (Shell) unit at London Higher, said:
‘We have been impressed not just by the quality of applications, but by the ingenuity of the
partnership builders. Some customise bright ideas from elsewhere, tailoring them to particular
London circumstances; other entries are entirely home grown. Building these shortlisted projects has
often proved as stimulating for those designing and delivering as for the participating students.’
Another judge, Rob Higgins, head of Charles Darwin School in Biggin Hill, Kent, added:
“At a time when schools are concerned that higher education will increasingly be dependent on social
background and financial circumstances, here are examples of what can be achieved with
cooperation and creative thinking to raise the aspirations of our young people. There are so many
great ideas which schools can (and should) adapt and/or replicate.”
Other winners include a partnership which encourages and advises young people in a disadvantaged
area on getting into university, a mentoring project for refugee children and a creative arts
partnership that uses art, music and drama to inspire the children and challenge low aspirations.
Visit www.lepawards.org.uk for more information about the London Education Partnership Awards
For more information contact James Russell or Paulette Williams [insert details}
NOTES TO EDITORS
The winners in each of the categories are as follows:
CATEGORY: Building bridges: cross-organisational partnership and impact
SPONSOR: KPMG
Organisation: BSix Sixth Form College
Project: BSix Sixth Form College’s Raising Aspirations Programme
BSix College was set up by the Learning and Skills Council in 2002 to raise the achievement and
aspirations of young people in Hackney and the East End of London. It is a sixth form which aims to
prepare young people for the next stage of their lives in further education, employment or
university.
The Pem-Brooke partnership was launched in 2008, with BSix as the lead institution. Pembroke
College guides the academic direction of the programme through advice on study skills, life at
university, mock interviews and subject specific sessions in which parental involvement is
encouraged.
Prospective students from BSix go through a rigorous interview process to be selected for the PemBroke Group. The group participates in university style lectures and debates, and a multi-disciplinary
programme. From this cohort a smaller group is selected to attend an annual residential summer
school at Pembroke College, Oxford. The school aims to replicate the life of an Oxford
undergraduate including lectures, an essay and a tutorial. The students are mentored by Pembroke
undergraduates and postgraduates.
CATEGORY: Supporting journeys: excellent professional practice in student support
SPONSOR: Specialist Schools and Academies Trust
Organisation: Hackney Community College
Project: Sports Academies: A gateway to higher education through sport, specialist support and
success.
The HCC Basketball Academy was established in 2002 and has since developed its provision and
partnerships, to increase numbers and success rates. The academy programme attracts supports and
develops young people with an interest in sport, and also supports them on various college courses
to achieve wide-ranging success in college, on court and in life. The college also has academies for
cricket, football and athletics
Strong advice and guidance at enrolment and in-year helps to recruit students onto the programme.
The college recruits up to 80 sports academy students each year. Standards are high on and off the
court. The ethos of ‘work hard, play hard’ means that the players are closely monitored in their
studies. If they fall behind on their college work, they miss out on Academy opportunities. This
motivation is effective in keeping students on track.
CATEGORY: Inspiring journeys: excellent professional practice in curriculum support for STEM
SPONSOR: Welcome Trust
Organisation: Imperial College London
Project: Imperial College Outreach in partnership with Exscitec for the Reach Out Lab
Providing a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) Higher Education experience
that is a genuine hands-on opportunity for students has been restricted in the main to the HE
vacation period. The challenge that this project was aiming to meet was to find a mechanism for
providing inspirational and aspirational lab based STEM experiences within a HE environment
throughout the academic year to meet the over-demand for summer programmes.
The key target groups indentified were KS2/3 transition; KS3/4 (subject choice and Triple Science
Support) and Post 16 enrichment and subject support. All activities support both teacher CPD and
Public Engagement of the Science (STEM) Research community.
Championed by Professor Lord Winston and supported by Imperial College Outreach the Reach Out
Lab (ROL) is a bespoke schools laboratory and has been constructed at the centre of the South
Kensington campus of Imperial College. Working in partnership with STEM Outreach provider,
Exscitec, it has been possible to develop and deliver a wide range of STEM activities and
programmes across the calendar year rather than just during vacation periods.
CATEGORY: Creative journeys: excellent professional practice in curriculum support for arts and
design
SPONSOR: University of the Arts
Organisation: South West Newham GroupProject: South West Newham Creative Partnership
South West Newham Education Action Zone was established to enable a group of schools in areas of
deprivation, to work together to overcome barriers and raise standards. The director of the EAZ
recognised the importance of schools working in smaller clusters and concentrating on specific
priorities so The Creative Arts Partnership was formed.
The schools involved were either in Special Measures or the Cause for Concern category. Schools
had something else in common; all were being led by head teachers in their first headships.
The heads decided to take a risk, resolving to use the arts as the conduit for raising standards in
writing. They were united in the belief that art, music and drama would inspire the children; they
needed innovative projects to challenge low aspirations. Strategic planning and organisation across
the partnership were essential.
The heads met to determine objectives, success criteria and outcomes for the projects. Behaviour
and self esteem were included in the priorities to promote learning. Budgets and talents from each
school were pooled, creating a new challenge for the group to use their funds effectively and
efficiently.
Judges said the head teachers were totally committed to raising standards in teaching, building
capacity and developing an inspirational curriculum.
CATEGORY: Driving achievement forward: achieving successful outcomes post-16
SPONSOR: London Thames Gateway Development Corporation
Organisation: London South Bank University
Project: City Opportunities
The City of London recognised that it needed to do more to encourage the participation of local
young people in employment opportunities available within the city. Amongst the groups that are
under-represented in the city’s workforce, the most marginalised are young people leaving care. The
City of London Corporation funds a range of programmes which address this issue.
The programme was designed to encourage care leavers to think about continuing their education
and to provide a potential end goal which would help give them the incentive not to give up when
the going gets tough.
This project is innovative in that it is a contracted week-long project which exclusively targets care
leavers with the goal of sparking interest and signposting them into work in the city. The course was
drawn up by utilising the experience of staff who had previously worked in a leaving care team,
feedback from social workers, education workers and advocates of care leavers in education, and
advice from care leaver mentors and co-ordinators.
CATEGORY: Reaching out: third/voluntary sector organisation of the year
SPONSOR: NIACE (THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FO ADULT CONTINUING EDUCATION)
Organisation: Refugee Therapy Centre
Project: The Refugee Therapy Centre’s Mentoring Project
The Refugee Therapy Centre’s central purpose is to help refugees and asylum seekers to feel
empowered to deal with their psychological difficulties through therapy and counselling. They
prioritise children and young families, with many of their clients being school-aged.
The Centre receives referrals of refugee children from GP’s, health workers and social workers and
from our team of bilingual Support Outreach Community Development Workers. While working with
these children and adolescents who may be experiencing bereavement, displacement and loss, there
was an awareness that other issues, such as cultural and language barriers, may still leave these
young people feeling confused and isolated at school, resulting in falling behind and often losing any
sense of ambition or aspiration to succeed. It was recognised that it was important to find further,
more practical ways of helping these disadvantaged children as early as possible as to give them the
best chance at school and prevent them from becoming disaffected and isolated as they get grow
older.
In the course of therapy session, feedback from the children indicated that they would benefit from
further help regarding their school experience, and this was reinforced by refugee parents who see
the difficulties their children face attending a new school in a new country. The challenge was to
find ways of working with children and young people (in addition to the counselling/therapy) to help
them through the process of integration. It was recognised that the children needed an additional
source of support which offered space to raise issues about a strange new school, its culture and
teaching methods; also help with their language skills, and understanding homework, so that they
could rebuild their confidence and self esteem and feel empowered to engage with the education
opportunities in their new society, from primary school through to further and higher education.
The second challenge was to find a reliable, suitable source of volunteer mentors who could provide
support on a regular basis.
Starting the journey: raising aspirations in primary school pupils
Sponsor: Museum of London
Organisation: Falconbrook Primary School
The mantra at Falconbrook Primary school is ‘No Child Left Behind’. The school has high aspirations
and ambitions for their children, and despite being in one of the most deprived areas south of the
river they believe that “it’s not where you come from but where you plan to go that is the difference
between success and failure”.
In 2004 the school was second to bottom in the local league tables and at the 99th percentile
nationally for mathematics. The challenge wasn’t just about raising standards, it was also about the
motivation to learn, to see what was going on in primary school as a part of the stepping stones for
life achievement. Although deprivation factors are very high at Falconbrook, they don’t believe it is
an excuse for not achieving. They have tried to turn it around it into a reason for ‘getting going’ and
making a difference.
For the last two years they have had a programme of inspirational speakers to broaden the
children’s horizons, let them know that there are opportunities and that these are within their grasp.
These speakers came from all walks of life and tried to deliver the same message about making
opportunities happen and working hard so that ‘each day counts’. Speakers have included Rani
Singh, a frontline news reporter; round the world yachtswoman Tracey Edwards and Levi Roots –
who successfully pitched his Reggae Roots Sauce to the Dragons Den in 2007 and is now a celebrity
chef.
There was also an extra award:
The Chair’s Award
Organisation: London Metropolitan University & Cambridge Education@Islington.
Project: Upward Bound
The Upward Bound programme offers an alternative learning environment within a university
setting and is modelled on an American scheme that supports participants in preparation for college
entrance. Their objective was to raise aspirations and attainment of KS4 students from Islington
state schools who have been predicted C/D grades at GCSE. There are currently 155 students from
groups under-represented in Higher Education enrolled on the programme that experience a
program of regular, timed interventions that address their academic, social and cultural needs.
Upward Bound deliver high quality teaching and learning opportunities to ensure that the students
complete secondary school with a minimum of 5 GCSE A-C grades including Math’s and English or
the new English Baccalaureate.
The project is a partnership between London Metropolitan University, Cambridge Education
@Islington, The Dame Alice Owen Foundation, The University of Massachusetts and eight Islington
schools: St Aloysius College, Central Foundation School for Boys, Islington Arts and Media College,
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School, Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Technology College for Girls,
Highbury Grove School, Highbury Fields School and Holloway School.
A study week in partnership with The University of Massachusetts, Boston for the highest Upward
Bound achievers, is often a life changing experience for those involved. Two past students who
attended the study week in 2008 have recently gained full scholarships to American universities.
The intervention has seen 100% of all students achieve 5 or more GCSES at grade A-C and overall
better results on average than the rest of the borough.
The Institute of Education is an autonomous graduate school of education within the University of
London. During the last Research Assessment Exercise in 2008, the IOE was judged to be the best HEI
in the country for education research.
Any Journalist wanting more information please contact the IOE press office: James Russell on 0207
911 5556 / j.russell@ioe.ac.uk or Diane Hofkins on 0207 911 5423 / d.hofkins@ioe.ac.uk