2. Overview of City Year London in Year 2
City Year London
Year 2 Interim Report
May 2012
Institute for Volunteering Research
Contents
2. Overview of City Year London in Year 2 .................................................... 5
2.1 Getting to know the corps members ..................................................... 5
2.2 The City Year experience so far ........................................................... 5
2.2.2 Leadership development training and mentoring ............................. 7
3. The impact on schools and pupils .............................................................. 9
3.1 Do corps members support academic achievement? ............................. 9
3.2 Do City Year corps promote positive behaviours? ................................ 16
3.3 Do City Year corps promote attendance and punctuality? ................... 21
3.4 In what other ways does City Year impact on pupils? ......................... 25
5. Areas of improvement and recommendations ........................................... 29
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to all of the corps members, pupils and teachers who were involved with the survey, focus group and interviews. Thank you for sharing your experiences and views with us. Special thanks to team leaders in schools and programme managers who have helped us collect data from schools for the evaluation.
2
Executive Summary
This report summarises the interim findings from the Year 2 evaluation of City
Year London. Now in its second year, City Year London involves 81 volunteer corps members aged 18 to 25 in a year of full time service in nine London schools and the surrounding community. This interim report draws on research undertaken by IVR between September 2011 and February 2012.
Impact on schools
‘I don’t know how a school could cope without City Year because they are just fantastic. They bring so much.’ (Teacher)
How do corps members support academic achievement?
Corps members committed over 3,000 hours of one-to-one and small group support in schools during Autumn term 2011;
City Year is contributing to the progress of pupils in reading, writing and maths and evidence suggests that those receiving more corps support have higher levels of progress.
How do corps members support positive behaviours?
Corps members play an important role in managing behaviour and promoting positive behaviour in the classroom and playground;
At the individual level corps members have made a difference to pupils with behavioural problems.
How do corps members promote attendance and punctuality?
Schools identify the important role of before school activities such as mathletics and breakfast clubs in helping promote punctuality and attendance amongst pupils.
Impact on corps members
Corps members identified a wide range of personal impacts including:
Personal satisfaction from making a difference to the lives of children;
Personal development including confidence and self-esteem; and
Helping shape career choices and opening up new opportunities.
Recommendations for programme development
For City Year
Consider further developments to the pre-programme training including more training on class subject knowledge, basic teaching methods and how to work creatively with groups of children;
Open up the Friday development days to include employers from the public and charitable sectors;
Continue to promote the one-team City Year ethos.
For schools
Improve the introduction of corps members to schools and staff to further promote integration, for example, through inset days;
Consider whether specialised training could be provided including working with special needs children and how to manage behaviour.
3
1. Introduction
This report summarises the interim findings from the evaluation of the second year of City Year London. It draws on research undertaken by the Institute for
Volunteering Research (IVR) between September 2011 and February 2012 with teachers, pupils and City Year corps members.
The report addresses the following questions:
1. What data is available from schools to explore the impact of City Year on pupils and classes?
2. What are the early findings on the impact of City Year in its second year on pupils, schools and corps members?
3. What are the key areas of development for City Year London and how could the programme be improved?
1.1 Methodology
The evaluation of the second year of City Year London has to date involved:
Case studies with two schools involving:
- Interviews with nine teachers
- Interviews with 13 corps members
- Interviews or group discussions with 17 pupils
Two interviews with school teachers in non-case study schools.
A focus group with nine corps members.
A survey of corps members at the beginning of their service.
Visits to five schools to discuss with teachers and corps members their methods of data collection and how this could be used by the evaluation team.
This report includes case studies of individual pupils and corps members.
Where names are included pseudonyms have been used.
4
2. Overview of City Year London in Year 2
This section of the report provides an overview of who the City Year corps members are and their reflections on key elements of the programme including the training and City Year culture.
2.1 Getting to know the corps members
In 2012 City Year London is working in nine schools across six London boroughs involving 81 1 corps members between the ages of 18 and 25. All team leaders are returning corps members and 25 new corps joined the team in January 2012.
The start of year survey with corps members 2 shows that:
There is a good spread of young people between 18-25 (the vast majority are 20-24) with an average age of 21;
There is an under-representation of young men: Thirty-five per cent are male and 65% female (also 35% and 65% in Year 1 of City Year)
The core members are ethnically diverse with 35% White, 28% Black,
17% Asian, 13% mixed and 5% other ethnicity;
Corps members are also religiously diverse with 42% Christian and 17%
Muslim. Twenty nine per cent are atheist or agnostic;
Five per cent have a disability;
Overall, corps members have a high level of academic attainment with almost two-thirds (65%) achieving a degree or post graduate qualification. Of those, 54% had a degree in a humanities or social science (53% had a degree in Year 1 of City Year);
When asked to choose their most important reason for joining City
Year almost half (47%) said it was to ‘ help other people or perform a community service’ and 87% felt this was important or very important.
The next most important factors were
‘to make myself a better candidate for the job market / college or university ’ (26%) and ‘to develop as a leader ’ (22%).
2.2 The City Year experience so far
An overwhelming majority (95%) were either ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with their City Year experience so far.
When asked to give the number one aspect they liked about City Year, corps members came up with a huge range of answers. Broadly, 26% valued the opportunity to work in schools with children, 25% rated the
1
This is the figure for January 2012
2 These results are based on the corps members start of year survey 2011-12 . The paper questionnaire was completed by 60 corps members out of 62 from the 2011-12 cohort. This does not include the 25 corps members who joined the team in January 2012. The results from these surveys will be included in the end of year 2 report
5
City Year culture of diversity, equality, work and service (amongst other cultural aspects) and 11% relished the team aspect of the programme.
When asked to give the number one aspect they disliked about City
Year, 26% and 17% said that the Friday training sessions felt too long or weren’t interesting enough.
2.2.1 Preparing corps
The first year evaluation identified that some corps members and teachers did not feel that corps members were sufficiently prepared for their role and recommended improvements to the pre-programme training and better introductions of corps members to schools. Findings from the focus group and interviews with teachers suggest there have been significant improvements in this area between year one and year two:
“I can see a notable difference between City Year this year and City Year last year, it’s huge. There seems to be certainly a greater sense of purpose and awareness of at least what they should be doing.” (Year 5, teacher)
The following aspects have been particularly important in better preparing corps members:
Training and inset days with schools
– the involvement of corps members in school inset days before the start of term has significantly helped corps members better understand the culture of schools, their systems and processes and helped introduce corps to other school staff. Some corps members have attended training on child safeguarding, behaviour management and delivering tutorials from schools:
“My team were at the inset days with the school which meant that we were able to get to know the staff and the sc hool’s culture before the children started.
”
Early start with schools - in the second year of City Year corps members started with schools at the beginning of term rather than mid-way through which helped them feel part of the school and its staff team:
“Last year it felt like we were kind of thrown in the deep end, we didn’t attend inset days and we came like halfway through, like two or three weeks into the school year. A lot of the staff didn’t take to us, whereas this year we feel part of the staff.
”
Improvements to pre-programme training
– returning corps commented on
“massive improvements in terms of being prepared and preparing us for what we could offer to the school or to help us to perform in terms of code and conduct ”. Some corps felt that they already knew some of the material covered by the pre-programme training but that it offered a
“useful recap”. Corps and teachers made a number of suggestions for the further improvement of the pre-programme training (see final section):
6
“There’s still things now that we’re doing on our Fridays, like our leadership development day, that I think would have been so much more handy, or would have been much more useful before we’d gone into school. It is a waste of my time, because I’ve been in school already and I’ve experienced this and I know how to deal with this.”
2.2.2 Leadership development training and mentoring
Reflections from corps members on the leadership development training and mentoring will be explored further in the end of year evaluation report.
However, comments in the focus group and start of year survey suggest that there continue to be mixed views about the usefulness of Friday leadership development training days. For some corps members, it is their favourite day of the week, whereas others find the Friday sessions “too long ”, “too boring” , and not relevant or interesting. This reflects the challenge City Year faces in trying to meet the needs and interests of such a diverse group of young people. However, returning corps noted significant improvements in leadership development training compared to the previous year:
“This year they planned the whole year so the corps and the team leaders know what’s happening so they’re more informed. The ‘why’ is being explained more than last year, and I think that is why more people stay because they understand what they are doing.”
Suggestions from corps members and teachers for the improvement of the leadership development days are shown in the final section of the report.
On the whole, corps members involved in the focus group were positive about their corporate mentors. Discussions highlighted the importance of a good match between corps members and their mentors in terms of their personality and interests:
“I think my mentor is amazing, he’s an awesome person. He’s actually interested in me and he does similar stuff to what City Year does in his spare time, he goes to schools to read and things like that. He wants to find out about me. He wants to help me”
Where mentoring relationships worked particularly well mentors were encouraging, offered useful guidance and meetings were relatively informal.
They were less useful when mentors were seen to misjudge the level and intensity of contact corps wanted with their mentors.
When discussing the role of their sponsors more broadly, some corps members felt that sponsors should be more involved with their City Year teams:
“One of the [sponsorship] guys came into the school last month but it was the first time they’d come into the school since we have been
7
there. I think they need to have a bit more interaction with the team. I really do feel they need to come and see what [we] do in our schools ”.
2.2.3 Culture of City Year
Overall, corps members were more positive about the City Year culture in
Year two compared to the first year of the programme. Returning corps members seemed to feel more comfortable and confident with aspects of the culture and welcomed the toning down or removal of particular elements, for example, the pledge. Commenting on this, corps members noted
“City Year as a model has been translated so much better [ in its second year]”
Aspects of the culture including PT and spirit breaks were adapted to differing degrees in schools in City Year’s second year and this flexibility was we lcomed by corps members. Where elements of the culture weren’t being practised, corps members felt that this was more about the difficulties of fitting them into the school day rather than necessarily a rejection of the ideas behind them:
“It can be a bit disruptive. We’re not forgetting the idea behind it, it’s just the physically getting together and doing this kind of symbolic stuff isn’t part of our day, we don’t do it.”
In City Year’s second year, corps members are significantly less critical of the
City Year culture compared to last year. When asked in the start of year survey what they dislike about the programme only four corps members noted cultural aspects (three of these said the uniform) compared to nearly half of corps members last year, many of whom felt that the programme was ‘too
American’.
When corps were asked to describe the culture of City Year a number of themes came out more strongly than last year (see figure 1 below). Most notably:
‘Change’ . Corps spoke of ‘inspiring change’ and ‘being the change you want to see.’
‘World’ , and making a ‘change in the world.’
Figure 1: Word cloud showing corps members’ descriptions of the City
Year culture
8
3. The impact on schools and pupils
This section of the report summarises early findings on the impact of City
Year’s second year on pupils, schools and corps members. It draws on the evidence from the case studies, interviews, focus group and analysis of data from schools.
3.1 Do corps members support academic achievement?
Key findings
Corps committed over 3,000 hours of one-to-one and small group support in schools during Autumn 2011.
The evidence suggests that City Year is contributing to the academic achievement of pupils in reading, writing and maths.
There is a relationship between the academic progress of pupils and time spent with corps members.
City Year corps members provide a range of activities to support the academic achievement of pupils including one-to-one reading, writing and
9
maths support, literacy intervention and before and after school clubs including pre-teaching maths, breakfast clubs and homework clubs. Corps members work in classrooms with a large number of pupils as well as more intensively with their focus list of children.
During Autumn 2011 corps members delivered over 3,000 hours of support to
300 children on a one-to-one or small group basis.
Early findings from the second year of City Year suggest that corps members are making a difference to the academic achievement of pupils. This is best evidenced from data from one of the schools which shows the progress of focus list children in receipt of intensive support from corps members compared to their progress in the previous term when they were not receiving such intervention. Figure 2 shows that pupils who spent more than five hours with corps members one-to-one or in small groups during Autumn 2011 are showing over twice the progress in reading and writing compared to the previous term. It is worth noting that corps worked more intensively with pupils in these subjects compared to maths. This change can be attributable to a number of factors, not least the teaching provided in class; however, corps may have made a contribution to this improvement.
Figure 2: Progress of pupils that have received at least five hours of corps support during Autumn term 2011 compared to progress with less support in summer term 2011
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.46
1.1
0.39
0.89
0.66
0.71
0
Summer term reading
Autumn term reading
Summer term writing
Autumn term writing
Summer term maths
Autumn term maths
Based on 51 pupils (none of these were focus list children in summer 2011)
The evidence also suggests that those receiving more one-to-one or small group support from corps members have higher levels of progress than those who spend less time with corps members. Figure 3 shows, for example, the average progress for those with five or more hours of support in reading is 1.1
APS compared to 0.72 APS amongst those who receive limited or no support.
This relationship will be further explored during the year however this early analysis does suggest a link between time spent with corps members and academic progress.
10
Figure 3: Progress of pupils that have received at least five hours of corps members support during Autumn term 2011 compared to progress of those with limited (less than five hours) or no support
Maths with limited support
Maths with support
Writing with limited support
Writing with support
Reading with limited support
Reading with support
0
0.41
0.71
0.72
0.8
0.89
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Average point score progress
1
1.1
1.2
Based on 104 pupils that receive less than five hours of support and 51 pupils who receive five or more hours of support.
Analysis of the progress of focus list children across three schools shows that nearly two in three achieved the expected one sub-level of progress in writing and similarly in reading and maths during Autumn 2011 (see figure 4). Over one quarter increased by at least two sub-levels in writing. However, over one in three pupils did not make any progress across the three subjects. These progress levels will be tracked over the year as it might be too early to gauge the difference corps members are making to the progress of these children.
Corps members are often working with focus list children because they have fallen behind and so it might be unrealistic to expect that they would progress at the same pace as others with only one term of additional support.
11
Figure 4: Progress of focus list pupils across three schools during
Autumn 2011
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
13%
15%
35%
28%
10%
Reading
8%
18%
38%
30%
8%
Writing
7%
15%
41%
26%
11%
Maths
More than plus two progress
Plus 2 progress
Plus 1 progress
Zero progress
Negative progress
Base: 46 pupils
Early findings from another school show high levels of progress amongst pupils supported by corps members in maths with 2.4 sub-levels of progress in the Autumn 2011. This could be attributable to a number of factors, most notably the teaching provided, however the pre-teaching maths sessions, maths tutorials and maths activities run by corps members may have contributed to this progress.
The qualitative research with teachers and pupils also reveals how corps members contribute to academic performance in schools and provides further evidence of the difference City Year is making to individuals in a number of key areas:
Focused support and differentiation
Teachers identified that corps members enabled more focused support for pupils and improved opportunities for differentiated learning. They gave examples where corps worked with particular groups with specific learning needs and how effective this was in supporting their learning:
‘They can look at one aspect of differentiation, and those children will get that focused support and I can direct my attention to the other children.’
(Teacher)
‘The children respond well to the other person in the class and that helps you with so many things. Because you can give them a group to work with or go off with, or you can just sit them with a pair and they’ll work with them.’ (Teacher)
12
Pupils also clearly welcomed the more focused support they received from corps members:
‘I think it is more easy because when we have one teacher it takes a bit long for them to come to us and there can be more people that need help too.’ (Year 3 pupil)
This could be seen as a less intimidating or embarrassing way of accessing support:
‘When you are stuck on something, and you don’t want to put your hand up and stand in front of the class, you can tell City Year in private what you’re stuck on and they can explain it in private to you, or tell you how to do it.’
(Year 6 pupil)
Facilitating learning
Pupils and teachers described a range of ways corps members supported learning in the classroom. They reportedly helped improve pupil understanding of what was being taught and had a positive impact on the confidence of pupils:
‘We were doing fractions and [the City Year] came and I got stuck and she told me an easier way to do it and now I understand fractions.’
(Year 6 pupil)
‘It helps my reading. I used to get stuck on really long words but now
I’m getting better at them and sometimes I can read long words all by myself.’
(Year 6 pupil)
‘Since I’ve been working with [the City Year] my reading’s really got better. I was struggling with words and when [corps member] come in he helped me and I’m better at reading now.’
(Year 4 pupil)
Commenting on the impact of corps members, teachers noted:
‘Her confidence has improved – she is putting her hand up more in class. She loves the one-to-one attention from [the corps member]!
She talks about it all the time. It’s individual attention, it’s focusing on h er needs and it is building her confidence.’
(Teacher)
‘Since the beginning of the year [the pupil’s] confidence especially has really grown. And that it is definitely partly due to [the corps member]. I think him taking him every morning and having that time with him has been very valuable.’ (Teacher)
Improvements in academic achievement
13
Teachers gave examples of pupils they felt had significantly improved academically, in part due to the support they received from City Year (see case studies below):
‘I know that one of the kids tested at a 1A for reading and he is now at a 3C which is a massive jump. He is comprehending more and paying attention to what he is reading. As a teacher you don’t have time to do that with every kid.’
‘I think his reading is really improved, his writing is also really improved.
He is now able to independently write sentences as before he wasn’t. I think that they are writing sentences every morning together in a small group gets him more independent.’
CASE STUDY
Ali was chosen to be one of the children that a City Year Corps Member would work closely with by the Y4 teacher at one of the City Year schools. Towards the end of
Y3 Ali was diagnosed to be dyslexic. He had persistently been in the lower ability group and struggled with his reading. Additionally, the teacher had observed that Ali found it often hard to control his temper and didn’t have a great deal of selfconfidence.
Before [Ali] had the opinion that he just c ouldn’t do it. He’d often say “I can’t do it, I can’t do it.” He wouldn’t even look at the task!
Y4 Teacher
When Malik started as a City Year Corps Member, he and the Y4 teacher sat down to discuss what the best way forward with Ali would be. Malik explained that he too had found out recently that he is dyslexic, and the teacher felt that it would be great support for Ali to have someone, who understands how he is feeling and what he might be going through.
I noticed straightaway that he was so much like I was when I was in school. Things he says and thin gs he does is the sort of things that I was like. He’s recently been diagnosed with dyslexia. That’s something I’ve got. I didn’t realise till I had left school. I’m pleased he found out now and I can give him the extra push that I didn’t have in the class . I was always told that I’m just the one who’s just being silly, but I wasn’t, there was this other side to it. I realise where he is coming from and I’m there to give him that extra push, that extra bit of motivation.
Malik, Corps Member
It took a little while for Ali to drop his reserve and attitude. Malik had to work quite hard to ‘earn’ his trust – Ali wasn’t going to give him an easy ride. But Malik persisted with their daily reading sessions and wasn’t phased by his obnoxious behaviour.
Malik belie ves that Ali first needed to figure out that he wasn’t going to just give up on him.
The first time I met him he looked up at me and he turned around to his friend and said a comment about my hair and just walked away! I think he thought that I was just going to leave. He has a lot of people from the family side of things, who come along and then just go. I think he was expecting that from me. When he realised that
I was just sticking around and I wasn’t just going to give up, that I was going to sit
14
there and drill it into him. He realised after two or three weeks and he started to enjoy coming out of the classroom when I was doing one-to-one work with him.
Now every morning he says “hello” and in the class he smiles at me and comes up to me. I’ve also noticed that in the classroom if he does something right, he will look up to me to sort of say “look what I’ve done! I’ve done well!” and he’ll give me a little smile.
Malik, Corps Member
Malik does literacy-based work (reading, writing, forming sentences etc.) with Ali and two other children for 15 minutes in the mornings and another session just with Ali in the afternoons. Malik mostly sits next to Ali in the classroom. This small-group and one-toone work has had a noticeable impact on Ali’s reading and writing but also on his confidence in taking part in classes and generally engaging in learning. Ali himself recognises his improvement in reading:
Since I’ve been working with Malik my reading’s really got better.
And you’ve noticed that yourself?
[nodding]
And what was it like before you started with Malik?
I was struggling with words and when Malik come in he helped me and I’m better at reading now.
And how do you feel about that?
Good.
Ali, Y4
Since the beginning of the year Ali’s confidence has really grown. And that is definitely partly due to Malik. I think his reading is really improved, his writing is also really improved. He is now able to independently write sentences as before he wasn’t. Now I don’t hear “I can’t do it!” from Ali at all, actually, and he does have a go. I think he has a lot more belief in himself than he used to, and Malik’s time with him has really helped with that. Generally, in many areas there has been a real improvement, but confidence especially – which is lovely.
Y4 Teacher
But it is not just Ali, who is taking a lot away from working together with Malik. It is clear that Malik too has greatly enjoyed his City Year experience because he feels that he has made a real difference to Ali’s life.
One thing that stood out for me was that the other day his mum came up to me and said “oh, so you’re [Malik].” And I thought “what has he been saying?” And she turned around and said that “he talks about you all the time at home.” It is such a great feeling knowing that I have gone from him not wanting to talk to me and now him being the way he is and looking up to me for appreciation and seeing me like the big brother. I love it! Hopefully when he starts Y5 he can pick up where I left him.
When I leave, if I find out that he’s been doing really well, for me to think that I’ve changed and hopefully improved his life… well, I can’t think of anything better than that.
Malik, Corps Member
15
A note on the collection of attainment and progress data
To date four schools have provided the evaluation team with either attainment or progress data for maths, reading and writing for classes supported by City Year for the Autumn Term 2011.
We have not been able to collect data from the other schools for the following reasons:
Concerns about sharing data, particularly around how it could be used to compare schools and their progress
Difficulties within City Year in setting up meetings with schools to collect the data.
The number of hours corps members spend with each child has been recorded in two of the schools by corps members. This has been invaluable in exploring the relationship between academic progress and
City Year.
There is some disagreement amongst schools about the best indicators to use to demonstrate pupil progress. Some schools prefer to use individual level targets to measure progress rather than the national expected levels of performance. However, others do not use numerical targets for individuals and use either group or national targets for measuring progress.
It is difficult to isolate the impact corps members are having on pupil progress. This would only be possible with a control group which is beyond the scope of this evaluation. Any change in academic performance will be the result of a complex range of inter-related factors. The support provided by City Year corps members within class and the wider school environment is only one such factor.
3.2 Do City Year corps promote positive behaviours?
Key findings
Teachers highlighted the role of corps in managing behaviour in the classroom and playground.
At the individual level corps members have made a difference to pupils with behavioural problems.
Corps members play an important role in helping to manage the behaviour of pupils through targeted one-to-one support (see case study below), classroom support and in the playground. The qualitative evidence from teachers and pupils best demonstrates the difference that corps can make in this area.
Teachers in particular noted the ability of corps members to:
16
Address behavioural issues to prevent disruption to the class;
Monitor behaviour and use the in-class traffic light system to show how pupils are moving up and down the behaviour chart;
Manage and speed up ‘transitions’ between class and playtime;
Oversee and encourage playground activities to help minimise behavioural problems outside.
Commenting on the impact of corps on behaviour, teachers noted:
“She has clearly established a rapport with the kids. She pulls them up and they listen. Sometimes I don’t even notice, she will say something and it is stopped before I even pick upon it.” (Year 4 teacher)
“They get away with more if there is not that extra person in the classroom watching.” (Year 4 teacher)
The City Year schools monitor school behaviour in different ways and only generally formally record serious incidents. Only one of the City Year schools has a formalised system for recording and monitoring the behaviour of all children. Consequently, corps members in two other schools are tracking the behaviour of focus list children to help schools and City Year measure behaviour change. This system involves rating and recording the behaviour of pupils at the end of the day, rating it from 1 (fighting, swearing and racism) to
10 (well-behaved, went that extra mile), producing weekly averages for each focus list child. Overall, the analysis did not suggest significant changes in patterns of behaviour of focus group children as a whole over the term.
However, the graph below shows how this data could be used to track the behaviour of individual children over a period of time. Figure 5 shows how the rating of four focus list children with the poorest behaviour ratings at the beginning of term changed over the following nine weeks. At an individual level the behaviour of some of these children has improved significantly and these pupils will be tracked over the year to assess the extent to which corps members may influence any behaviour change.
Figure 5: Behaviour rating for pupils during Autumn term 2011
9
8
7
6
5
Pupil A
Pupil B
4
3
Pupil C
Pupil D
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Week
17
Another school uses a system of ‘payslips’ to track behaviour. Pupils are awarded merits in the form school pounds for good behaviour and demerits for poor behaviour. At the end of each week all children are given a summary of their payslip. Corps members are tracking the payslips of pupils supported by corps members. Figure 6 below shows that there has been some improvement in behaviour during the first half of Autumn term 2011 3 .
However, tracking this over the course of the year will provide a more comprehensive picture of the possible impact of corps on behaviour.
Figure 6: Average payslips of pupils supported by corps
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Week
1
Week
2
Week
3
Week
4
Week
5
Week
6
Base: 83 pupils
3 During the second half of Autumn term the payslip system was changed and so it is not possible to compare or combine payslips from the two half terms.
18
CASE STUDY
It is fair to say that Daran has extreme anger management issues. On Nicola’s first day in school she experienced the full spectacle of Daran loosing his temper.
The very first day we came into school, I think he had an argument with somebody about football or something, and he managed to get back into the classroom but then someone upset him in the classroom again. So he got angry. He kicked down the bin in the classroom and knocked down the chairs and the tables as he was walking out, and he ran out to the playground and knocked down all the bins there and then he jumped the fence. I’d never seen anything like that before!
That behaviour was very repetitive for the first few weeks. He’d got angry and knock down the chairs regardless if there were people sitting on them or not or grab a bunch of pencils and throw them at people in the classroom, and always end up jumping the fence by the end of it.
Nicola, Corps Member
Daran’s short fuse and exceedingly disruptive behaviour kept him out of the classroom and made him fall behind with his work. He felt frustrated with this himself and when Nicola began to work with him he responded really well to just having someone to talk things through with.
I was struggling with my work and everything and struggling with getting it all done but some of it I was late finishing and when City Year came I got my work done and before they were here I was getting into trouble because I wasn’t doing my work.
What were you struggling with before?
Work and how to stay calm and my maths as well.
And how does it help to stay calm to have City Year here?
They tell me to take ten deep breaths or just sit down or just talk what happened or just read a book or something.
And does it help to have someone to talk to?
Yeah.
And what’s good about that?
When City Year wasn’t here I couldn’t focus and then they helped me, getting me back on track and ask and every time I ask they’re there to help me to calm down.
Daran, Y4
Nicola saw Daran truly trying with the anger management methods that she suggested to him, for example, taking himself out of the situation and counting to ten.
He soon began to notice when his temper was dangerously rising and he was able to control it without it getting out of hand.
I let him know that his behaviour was keeping him out of the classroom and meant that he couldn’t do his work. So that was the main issue, to get him to review what was going on and talk about it and find different ways to deal with that. I started by giving him different methods like counting from one to ten and just removing yourself from that situation and calming down. And if you are not calm by the time you get to ten, then count to another ten. About a week after we first started trying that he was coming into class, he said “oh miss, can I just stand here for a minute, I’m feeling angry, I just want to calm down”, and I thought “OK. That’s progress.”
Nicola, Corps Member
19
When Daran was able to work through his anger he could focus on staying in the class and fill the gaps with his learning. Nicola has shown real resilience and ability to set his own goals confidently. He also seems motivated to stay on track and keen to learn. Academically he has progressed, moving up one sub-level in reading and maths during the autumn term.
He said he wanted to focus on his maths because he wanted to go up at least two levels and his reading. He has a younger sister in Y3 and he said that her reading is better than his and he feels that his should be better because he is older, so we agreed on that.
I’ve just explained the methods of times tables, and he picked that up really well. He is showing more improvement and has moved up in his maths level and his English level as well, which is been really good. He is more confident in the class and he will go up and answer more questions now, so that’s excellent.
Nicola, Corps Member
From Nicola’s point of view what was important for Daran was building their relationship on trust and understanding, where Daran himself could take responsibility for his behaviour and his work.
I think that the trust impacts quite a lot on the ways that the kids behave and the way that they’ve responded. Instead of everything turning into a conflict and there being a big fight at the end, they will come and tell one of us about what is going on. They’ve told you before, so it is a continuation of a story, so you know what is going on, so you’re more like a friend but you have that authority there as well.
In the classroom they know that you know where they are academically so they can come to you with their problems and they know where you are picking up from. They know what they need help with and what they can do by themselves as well.
I think that it’s a kind of all-rounded thing, that’s the best way I can put it.
Nicola, Corps Member
A note on the collection of behaviour data
Class behaviour is generally monitored through ‘stay on green’ or
‘traffic light’ systems and is only formally tracked and recorded if pupils go onto red or for more serious behaviour problems. In some schools these incidents are infrequent.
Some schools also use other methods such as the payslips system described above, ‘golden tickets’ or team points for good behaviour.
The behaviour data collected by corps members is useful and should be continued across schools. Having a standardised approach across schools will enable data to be combined across sites. This is only currently possible in two schools.
The link between behaviour and City Year is particularly difficult to demonstrate quantitatively as poor behaviour can be caused by a host of factors in and out of school.
20
3.3 Do City Year corps promote attendance and punctuality?
Key findings
Teachers highlighted the important role of before school clubs in helping to promote punctuality and attendance amongst pupils.
The positive school environment promoted by corps members including PT may help to promote punctuality and attendance but it is difficult to evidence this link.
Before school clubs including pre-teaching maths, mathletics and breakfast clubs as well as the PT sessions run by corps members are activities that could play a role in promoting attendance and punctuality. Commenting on this, teachers said:
“Mathletics attracts people earlier to school, it has incentivised school.”
“The PT is awesome in the morning, its gets the kids focused, it gets them ready and it draws them together before we go in and it sets the tone for the day. They are all enthusiastic, it is a great start to the day.”
Teachers noted how attendance at these corps run clubs had increased significantly since City Year but described how it was difficult to attribute this entirely to the corps members:
“The breakfast club four years ago had four children now they have 30. Has
City Year increased numbers? We have new sponsorships, more advertising to parents. All things co-incided.”
Registers from the before school clubs indicate relatively high levels of participation. In one school twenty-two children attend the corps-run breakfast club during Autumn term 2011, spending over 180 hours in the club. Two thirds (64%) attended at least 10 of the 23 sessions.
In another school forty children spent over 230 hours in corps run mathletics club. Half of these (50%) attended at least ten of the thirty-eight sessions during Autumn term 2011.
Data collected from schools shows that attendance across classes involving
City Year corps members in Autumn term 2011 was between 93.5% and 97%, with most classes over 95% and some variation between schools. Attendance rates will be collected in June/July to track any change during the academic year.
Data collected from schools enables comparison of attendance rates between years. However, these results should be treated cautiously as school environments as well as the lives of children can change significantly from
21
year to year. Comparing attendance in one City Year school for Autumn term
2010 (when corps members started mid-way through the term) and Autumn
2011, across all year groups, the total level of unauthorised absence fell from
2.7% to 1.5%. The proportion of unauthorised absences decreased from fortysix per cent to thirty-four per cent. A host of factors can affect attendance both in and out of school and comparing attendance levels between years is difficult; however, corps members could have made some contribution to this change and the potential of this will be further explored at the end of the year.
A similarly positive story from another school points to a change in attendance from 95% in 2010 to 98% in Autumn 2011 for one year group heavily supported by corps members in 2011/12. Reflecting on this improvement, the
Head Teacher noted a number of factors that could help to explain this change including improvements in teaching and the school environment.
Commenting on the role of City Year, he noted that:
“Attendance is better than any other year group but we can’t prove that City
Year caused attendance. [However] their presence is correlated with attendance and punctuality.”
These difficulties in attributing positive change in attendance and punctuality to City Year have been echoed by a number of teachers, notably because of the complexity of issues which can cause a child to not attend school or to arrive late. As these issues are particularly complex in the primary school context the evaluation team will look to work more closely with secondary schools in exploring any link between City Year and attendance and punctuality this year. However, teachers in primary schools have noted individual cases where they believe corps members have made a difference in this area (see case study below):
‘It has actually had a good effect on her punctuality. She used to be very late…It’s had an impact that she knows that [the corps member] is going to be there waiting for her, therefore they’ve really, really improved. I don’t know whether it is directly due to that but it certainly has had some sort of impact.’
”
(Teacher)
22
CASE STUDY
Tasia was picked to work with City Year by the Head Teacher. Tasia’s attendance has consistently been very poor and because of this, she has great gaps in her learning and is behind with most of her work. The fact that she misses so much also affects her confidence to participate in class. The head teacher believes that it is important to take your time in matching the right Corps Member to the right child.
I chose [Kelsey] to work with her in particular because I felt that the building of her confidence would have the biggest impact on her. Also, her gaps were quite specific
– they were easy to pinpoint. [I felt that Tasia] as a character would respond well to
[Kelsey] and that kind of [one-to-one] support.
Head Teacher
Kelsey had a conversation with the Head Teacher about the reasons Tasia was picked. She also seems to have naturally been sensiti ve to Tasia’s feelings and understood ‘the bigger picture’.
I feel that with her it wasn’t that she didn’t understand or that she wasn’t capable, I think she had just given up on herself. It was a bit of both – she was a bit behind but she’s one of those children that needs that extra push and that one-to-one attention that they want but they can’t get.
At first she was quite difficult. She was like ‘ I don’t want to do this!” “I don’t get it!”
The most common thing you hear is: “I can’t!” or “this is boring!” After a while she started to get into the flow of it. The head teacher came to me and said that she might be moved up a booster class. She said that “it must be something that you’re doing.”
With Tasia she probably needed [the attention] a lot. Now that she has it, she is doing really well. I think with her, her confidence was the key thing, not the maths or the English or anything else. Once you get them more confident, they can pretty much do any subject.
Kelsey, Corps member
Kelsey begun to work with Tasia from October. The Head Teacher had set some goals and milestones for Kelsey. They were to focus on maths and, in particular, bringing Tasia’s times tables up to speed.
I did say that I’d like to see her getting by the end of the year 100% in three mental maths tests. She has actually got 100% in 11 out of 13 maths tests already! So it is having a big impact and it is particularly linked to her confidence with the times tables just having somebody to go through those with her.
Head Teacher
Confidence seems to have been the key to Tasia’s learning and enjoyment in school.
Kelsey recognised this and has made a real effort to make the maths sessions as fun for Tasia as possible. She also allows Tasia sometimes to bring a class mate with her and gets the children to work together, where Tasia can teach the others on areas that she is fully on top of now. A particularly successful idea from Kelsey was
23
to create “Tasia’s Times Tables Cards”. Tasia is very proud of her cards and also has responded beyond expectations to the one-to-one sessions. She is now very eager to learn.
She is here at 8:45am when we are supposed to start at 9 o’clock or ten past. She is always there! And her mum’s there as well. I guess it is consistency with her, I guess she knows that I will be there.
Now she actually loves maths. She loves the times tables. And now we do this thing when they have to write their answers within a minute onto the laminated cards. Now they are ‘racing’ each other and it is really good.
Kelsey, Corps member
The Head Teacher, Kelsey and even Tasia herself credit the academic improvements to her newly discovered confidence and self-belief.
Is school a bit easier with the City Years here?
Yeah. Because during class if you don’t understand something they will come and they will help you and they’ll make you confident in what you are doing. They go over it with us and they do examples. It helps us really.
Tasia, Y6
Kelsey has also observed that Tasia is devoted to paying forward the help she has received from Kelsey.
I love the way when she finishes, she then helps the person next to her. She’s understood that it is important to help. She’s probably worked that out by having a
Corps Member always helping her and now she wants to help everyone on her table and getting them involved with maths as well.
Kelsey, Corps member
The Head Teacher tributes a great deal of the success with Tasia to Kelsey - her character and ability to relate and empathise with children. In her view, it pays in the l ong run to think carefully about ‘the matching’ of the Corps Members and the children.
Kelsey’s strengths are that she can be relied upon religiously to do the support. She is dedicated and committed. She uses her own initiate and takes her support role seriously. She understands that the more she puts into it, the more she is going to get out of it and the more the child will benefit. For example she didn’t ask about those times tables cards: she said to the child “should we do this?” and maybe putting herself in the child’s position and think what would I want if I was that child.
And you can tell that they are loving it. She has hit that “ooh these are mine and I want everyone to know about it.”
It is [Kelsey] specific, let’s put it that way, because ultimately it depends on the adult working with the child; So, with [Kelsey] being who she is, which is fantastic, I’m not surprised. Because children, who get the right one-to-one attention will do really well.
Head Teacher
24
A note on the collection of attendance data
Schools are legally required to take an attendance register twice a day, in the morning and during the afternoon and data includes information on the number of authorised and unauthorised absences.
Data was provided by three schools in different formats including breakdowns according to year group, sex and am/pm attendance.
Schools felt strongly that absence from school was due to a host of factors outside the control of schools and corps members, such as illness and family issues and that analysing attendance records was not a useful way to assess the impact of City Year.
3.4 In what other ways does City Year impact on pupils?
Key findings
City Year makes a difference to pupils in a wide range of other ways including positive role modelling and providing pastoral care.
As identified in the year one evaluation, City Year makes a difference to pupils in a number of additional ways, including:
Enjoyment of school
– pupils agreed that school is more enjoyable with corps members: “
They make it more fun. They make you laugh and everything.” (Year 6 pupil)
Pastoral care for pupils - “[the City Year] helps me and when I get hurt and stuff she comes and helps me and takes me to the side and when we play football and when we have less team players she always swops them out.”
(Year 3 pupil)
“A couple of the City Years I’ve seen have developed really positive relationships with the children. There is that trust there. If they hurt themselves or there was something they would approach that City Year. I have seen City Year deal with that really appropriately”.
(Teacher)
Role modelling – teachers felt that this was a key role for corps members and that on the whole they did this effectively.
“The kids know that the city years are an adult but not quite a teacher so they are another role model in the classroom. It is another adult to talk to. They are young but they are still taking responsibility, they have finished school.”
25
CASE STUDY
In some schools the City Year Corps Members have more involvement in picking their own ‘focus children’. The City Years do small group work on Maths and English and guided reading with specific children. The Corps Members observe the children in class and also have a conversation with their class teacher. The corps members have a lot of ownership of these intervention sessions and need to use their own initiative and imagination in organising them.
They are very much in control of those and they take ownership of them. It isn’t something that they just get told to do. It is theirs and they will really work hard at it.
They will do that extra little bit, which hasn’t even be asked of them because they take that ownership of it.
Y3 teacher
Sarah works closely with another Corps Member, Zach and together they run sessions with two girls from Y3. Korah who is in Sarah’s class, hasn’t spoken at all in her years in the school.
At the beginning of the year, on my first day, the teacher asked the children to stand up and introduce themselves and Korah was beside herself and completely burst into tears. She hadn’t spoken throughout the whole of reception and Y1 and 2 – no one had heard her voice!
[Zach] and I take her and another girl, whose English isn’t very good and we’ll set up and do stuff like we’ve done posters and we’ve done a treasure hunt. So, we get them talking and we get them to write about it. So they’re both benefiting from it.
Sarah, Corps Member
This ‘strategy’ of working with the girls together has seen Korah really coming out of her shell, so much so that she is now talking in class. Against all expectations she also spoke during her interview commenting on how the City Years had helped her to speak.
And what is it that makes learning easier having the City Years here?
When y ou can’t talk they help you to talk.
Korah,Y3
The Y3 teacher acknowledges Sarah’s part in this step forward and is impressed in the short timescale it took for the intervention work to have such results.
Korah will now speak in class. That has taken a term, and she has actually spoken in class. She does explain in class her own views, her own opinions now, she will answer questions aloud, which was not the case when she started, was not the case at all last year. At all! There was no vocabulary, no communication. So that is a major break-through and that is, in part, really down to Sarah.
Y3 teacher
Now that Korah has broken through her speech barriers she has begun to engage in her learning and participating in class.
With Korah I’ve seen amazing progress, because she is starting to speak in class.
And now she’ll talk in class, she answers to register and she’ll answer questions and
26
even go up to the board. The teacher tends to get the children to go up and do stuff and she’ll do that.
Sarah, Corps Member
Another development, perhaps most significant for Korah, is that the two girls have become friends during their sessions.
At the start of the year they were walking around by themselves on the playground.
Now they’re inseparable those two girls, which is really good, because it has helped to bring on her speech and helped the other one to improve her English, and they are not by themselves on the playground anymore, which is nice.
Sarah, Corps Member
Korah’s case illustrates very plainly what a significant impact one-to-one support can have on children who have very little self-esteem and who find the social side of school life painfully difficult. It also appears to have made a difference to her academically. During the Autumn term, Korah achieved two sub-levels of progress in reading and one sub-level of progress in writing compared to no progress the previous term.
If we weren’t here I don’t think they would get as much support as they are getting now. We’ve all got intervention going on and we take them out. If there’s something going on in class, we’re there, so we can deal with it and not disrupt the lesson. If a child is ill, or they are upset about something, we’re there to pull them out. The TAs are great but I don’t know whether it is because we’re in uniform, but the children seem to be more comfortable with us. It’s friendly but there is still that level of respect, I think it works really well. I think it is good for children to have that inbetween. Obviously their teacher is their tea cher but we’re there to help and teach them but we’re also there to help them socially.
Sarah, Corps Member
4. Impact on corps members
The end of year report will explore in more detail the impact of the City Year experience on corps members. However, early findings in year two suggest the following are important to corps members:
Personal satisfaction
Corps members spoke of the satisfaction of feeling they made a difference to the lives of pupils and schools. This made the City Year experience highly rewarding:
‘It is such a great feeling knowing that I have gone from him not wanting to talk to me and now him being the way he is and looking up to me for appreciation and seeing me like the big brother. I love it!’
(Corps member)
27
‘I think working with children is rewarding and I find it a once in a lifetime experience, so I will remember these experiences for the rest of my life.’ (Corps member)
Personal development
Personal development was identified as one of the key impacts of City Year for corps members. They frequently reflected on the journey they had come on since joining City Year, with a number suggesting the experience had been transformative:
‘I know it sounds cheesy but the person I was at the start is nowhere near the person I am now. I ’ve learned so much. I’ve learned more about myself this year than in three years in uni.’ (Team leader)
‘It’s made me a more open person. I was quite closed person before. I wasn’t really quiet but I just wouldn’t share.’ (Corp member)
Some corps members spoke of gaining a new structure, meaning and direction to their lives. The most significant developments appeared to be around confidence and self-esteem, with individuals describing how the experience had challenged them, in a supportive way, to attempt the things that intimidated them:
‘It’s nice that it has completely taken me out of my comfort zone and put me somewhere new.’ (Corps member)
‘I owe the fact that I can talk in public to City Year. If I didn’t do City
Year I probably would still be a very quiet mouse, would have been afraid to talk.’ (Team leader)
Focusing career choices
The City Year experience has helped corps members reflect on their career choices and opportunities. In many cases their experience has confirmed their intention to move into teaching and has given them practical experience that they could not gain at university or elsewhere. In other cases, however, it has helped shape their aspirations and opened their eyes to new possibilities:
‘Before I went to university I always wanted to be a teacher. And coming to school and doing a year here has made me not want to be a teacher but want to focus more on children with specific needs.’
(Corps member)
28
5. Areas of improvement and recommendations
Overall, teachers, pupils and corps members were positive about their experiences of City Year and the impact it was making. Those who were involved in the programme last year noted significant improvements.
However, the evaluation in year two has identified a number of key areas for development:
For City Year
1. PRE-PROGRAMME TRAINING : teachers identified potential training areas that would help to better prepare corps for their role, including:
Basic subject knowledge such as decimals, percentages, fractions, and phonics
‘Many of the corps members have said ‘”we’re not confident with decimals, we’re not confident with multiplying or division”. And
I’m organising them to be trained, but we’re in February now.
’
(Teacher)
Teaching and learning methods (for example answering a question with a question)
How to work creatively and confidently with groups of children
Educational policy and its wider context, the national curriculum, and learning levels within schools (although it was recognised that regular policy changes might make this difficult)
RECOMMENDATION: Explore whether some of the above suggestions could be incorporated into the pre-programme training, possibly delivering it in partnership with schools
2. LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT TRAINING : corps members would welcome more training and talks from non-corporate agencies, including employers from the public sector, charities and the arts.
RECOMMENDATION: Consider expanding the training offer for corps to include talks, training and work shadowing from more diverse non-corporate industries and organisations.
3. THE ONE-TEAM ETHOS: some individuals said they felt isolated in their schools and separated from the rest of the City Year team:
“Just remind everyone that we’re one big family. When you spend time in your own team an d in your own school, you forget that we’re actually a corps of 80.”
(Team leader)
RECOMMENDATION : Continue to stress the collective nature of the City
Year movement and ensure this reaches all individuals across teams.
29
4. DIVERSITY OF THE CORPS MEMBERS : Whilst it was recognised that corps members are ethnically and religiously diverse, some corps identified that there is an under-representation of males and those from different social backgrounds (many corps are highly educated and study similar fields)
RECOMMENDATION : Explore new avenues and approaches for attracting and involving a more diverse body of volunteers, for example, through partnerships with organisations and agencies at a local level
For schools
5. INTEGRATION OF CORPS MEMBERS : There is further scope to improve the introduction of corps members to schools and staff. Teachers noted that it could take several months for staff to properly meet corps members and learn their names.
RECOMMENDATION : Work to improve the integration of corps into schools through, for example, corps involvement in inset days
6. SPECIALISED TRAINING: While responsibility for the majority of training provision lies with City Year, some corps members felt that schools could play a role in providing specific elements of training including working with children with special needs and managing poor behaviour.
RECOMMENDATION : Consider the training currently on offer to corps members and how this could be improved to better prepare them for their role.
30
