Excellence Through Inclusion New.Indd
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Excellence through inclusion - Collaboration in action Evaluation of the pilot project May 2003 to August 2004 message from CLLR. PHIL DAVIES, Cabinet member for Education and Cultural Service and Chair, Wirral Learning Partnership Board “One of the key priorities for Wirral Learning Partnership in recent years has been to encourage greater cooperation between schools, colleges and providers of work-based learning. In 2002 the Partnership published a record of collaborative projects and in 2003 we sponsored an investigation of good practice in this style of curriculum delivery in Wirral. At the same time the Partnership supported the development of the pilot phase of Excellence Through Inclusion. The ETI pilot project aimed to provide appropriate curriculum options and personal support for pupils who were disaffected and/or at risk of exclusion. The partners who developed the original ideas and supported the pilot phase comprised the Pupil Access Support Service; Pensby High School for Boys; Wirral Metropolitan College; the Laird Foundation; and the Connexions Service; led and co-ordinated by the local authority. This project received generous support from the Greater Merseyside Learning and Skills Council and the European Social Fund. We were able to build on what had been learned from the research which WLP had previously sponsored. This report illustrates the success of the pilot phase both in terms of hard statistics and through the personal stories of some of the trainees. In addition, we have produced a fi lm which allows the voices of some of those concerned with ETI to speak directly to a wider audience. Also included in the fi lm is a commentary on a parallel scheme the “Increased Flexibility Project”. The project title “Twelve out of Ten” is a phrase used by a teacher from one of the participating schools. These were the “marks” awarded to the ETI project for the work of the ETI Learning Mentors during a project debrief in July 2004. In the same evaluation, the marks for administration and organisation were eleven out of ten, and for the work of the Connexions secondee ten out of ten. Other evaluations from partners were equally positive, if not so succinctly put! On behalf of the Board and members of Wirral Learning Partnership I would like to extend thanks to all the partners in the ETI project including parents, teachers and trainers and to wish the project well in the delivery phase in 2004-05 and beyond. But most of all, our best congratulations must go to the young people who, through great efforts often against major obstacles achieved enormous success for themselves through the project. P.Phil DaviesDavies contents INTRODUCTION 2 BACKGROUND 4 THE COHORT 7 SCHOOLS 7 PUPILS 8 ENGAGEMENT 10 DISENGAGEMENT 11 QUALIFICATIONS 12 DESTINATIONS 14 COSTS AND FINANCE 16 We built this . Excellence through inclusion Collaboration in action Evaulation of the pilot project May 2003 to August 2004 INTRODUCTION “(The) ETI project seems to have been a saving grace... my daughter has thrived on the ETI.”1 During the academic year 2003-04 two hundred and seven young people took part in a pilot project for disaffected/disengaged/disruptive pupils in Wirral. Pupils were identifi ed as facing or experiencing exclusion, and/or were referred to the project when their school attendance was at or below 50%. The extent of personal problems within the group stretched from what was described as “extremely challenging” to “shy and withdrawn”. Some young people displayed signifi cant problems with drugs, alcohol abuse and criminality. Others were normal well-adjusted individuals who, for one reason or another, had lost the knack of fi tting in with mainstream education. By the end of the pilot project, of the 126 eligible to leave school, 12 entered full time employment, 18 had progressed to full-time education and training, and 47 had been placed into the E2E programme of further vocational education and personal support. That is 61% successfully continuing in education, employment or training which is not far behind the average in Wirral, a remarkable statistic given the nature of the pupil cohort From the group of 126, 53 achieved at least one GCSE on the scale A – G when the expectation of schools at the start of the year had been that few would have attended suffi ciently regularly to warrant being entered for any examinations. Further, this group gained a total of 97 vocational awards. Parents, teachers, staff from work-based learning providers, and the young people themselves expressed surprise, delight and pleasure at the progress made. This report seeks to evaluate the successes of this signifi cant project. Steve Tasker Work-related Learning Ltd. - December 2004 1 Quote from parental questionnaire page 2 CASE STUDY ROBBIE’S TALE 1 “School just wasn’t the thing for me. I got on OK was dead hard but I just read what I had written with the other kids and the staff but I just didn’t and got my head down and did it.” like going to school.” “When I fi nished Year 11 I went on to E2E. The “I liked PE and ICT a bit but didn’t much like Maths people at Cornerstone and the ETI project helped and History and Geography.” me to move on and I ended up getting my CPE booklet and my passport.” “I didn’t seem to have the patience to sit there all day and concentrate. So I just started messing “I was looking out for a placement and around.” Cornerstone said I could go back as a “peer mentor”. “I told my mum I wasn’t happy but she said I should go to school, so we used to argue about “I work with the younger lads helping them with that. I kept going to school but was just messing some of the basic stuff on plastering but I also about and not doing anything and getting into like working with them. You can put something trouble.” in their heads that if you get your head down and crack on you can do OK like I did.” “It got worse about half-way through Year 9 and I talked to my Learning Mentor about it. She knew “I also help organise things like games of footy my Mum and we all kind of agreed that I should with the other sites. We just lost 12 – 2 the other go out of school on placement. I would probably day, but they had a big 40 year-old defender have ended up getting kicked out if it wasn’t for against our striker who was 14 and 4ft-nothing so that. It was great that Rock Ferry (High School) I don’t think that was on.” could do something for me.” “Keeping the lads busy is important at dinner “I fi rst started going to Heritage Skills for three times otherwise they start messing about. Some days a week but that scheme closed down.” of the older lads think they can get away with things but you can tell them – don’t waste what “When ETI came along I was out on placement you’ve been doing by getting chucked out now, most days, Jane used to bring me work on Maths just think of all that you’ve done in the last year, and English and stuff and I was able to keep up you don’t want to lose it. with some of my school work that way.” Things are different to what they were when I “I have done some joinery and brickwork but fi rst went on placement two years ago. It’s more mostly I like plastering. It’s good, you can just get organised now.” your head down and crack on with it.” “My E2E placement has just fi nished and “I wasn’t entered for any exams but I got Cornerstone have put me on the payroll as some certifi cates for the work I had done at a learning mentor so I have a real job now. I Cornerstones. I don’t think you need much in the am building up my plastering experience and way of bits of paper in the plastering trade. But I have done some jobs for people I know. It’s the do need more experience.” experience that counts, I think.” “At the end of the year we had a big do when they “The last two years have been great with ETI and presented all the certifi cates, my Mum and Dad before. I really enjoy the way I’m working now.” were there and my youngest sister. I did a speech to this big hall of people including the Mayor. It page 3 BACKGROUND “The key question is – do we go with it (ETI) at this late stage, or postpone it until next year and risk the funding going to another project?”2 The Excellence Through Inclusion project (ETI) was developed as a discrete project during 2001. The Greater Merseyside Learning and Skills Council (GMLSC) gave outline approval for funding for the project in the spring of 2003 and work began on the project in May of that year. 3 A critical decision was taken at that early stage about whether it was possible to introduce a new option for Year 11 pupils at a point when school curriculum plans and programmes for individual pupils had already been set (see above quote). The project began as collaboration between schools in Wirral and Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council through the LEA. Wirral Metropolitan College and the Laird Foundation, two established providers of work-related learning opportunities for school pupils in Wirral, joined the planning team at an early stage.