METROPOLITAN BOROUGH OF WIRRAL

EDUCATION AND LIFELONG LEARNING SELECT COMMITTEE 12 MARCH 2003

EXCELLENCE IN WIRRAL: ANNUAL REPORT, 2001 – 2002

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.0 This report sets out the successes in the second year of Excellence in Wirral, which has developed in complexity as the government’s policy for the Excellence in Cities initiative, and the rest of its diversity agenda, evolves. Funding has been guaranteed up to 2006, although the detail of the Spending Review will not be known until the Autumn. As a phase 2 Partnership, we expect to receive a primary roll-out, which will bring the 3 main strands (Gifted and Talented, Learning Mentors and Learning Support Units) into a small number of the most disadvantaged primary schools. No details are available as yet. The considerable resources allocated to Excellence in Cities are attached to highly structured programmes and challenging targets. The overall target of 52% grades A* - C at GCSE, with 53.8% of pupils achieving top GCSE grades for 2002, was exceeded. (See Appendix 1 for a full breakdown of Wirral and individual school targets for EiC.)

1.1 The DfES monitors the progress towards targets closely, as well as the progress and activity within the strands, in particular the Gifted and Talented strand, and Excellence Challenge. This annual report outlines the progress made and future priorities in each of the 8 strands, with a clear indication of both internal and external evaluation where relevant. It will be sent to the DfES, as well as forming part of local evaluation. The Select Committee is asked to note this report.

THE SECOND YEAR

Leadership and Management

2.0 The Partnership has been extended, and now comprises all secondary headteachers, mainstream and special; the 2 college principals; a representative of the Primary Heads Consultation Group, (who also sits on the Specialist Strand Steering Group representing all Beacon schools); and 3 LEA officers (the Senior Inspector Secondary, one primary general inspector and the general inspector for Lifelong Learning). The monthly Partnership meetings are well attended. The meetings were chaired in this academic year by the chair of Wirral Association of Secondary Headteachers. Important decisions about allocation of resources, such as the second phase of specialist colleges, including the new specialisms, are taken by this group.

2.1 All the strands have steering groups, supported by EiC team members, which are chaired by headteachers, and the bulk of the debate is done here, and proposals brought to the Partnership for decision-making. As the Partnership matures, chairs of the steering groups, and other members, are taking on a more proactive role monitoring and challenging their colleagues. The two steering groups for Gifted and Talented and Excellence Challenge were combined during the year, as there is so much common ground and overlap between the two strands. Representatives from Connexions and the Learning and Skills Council join others from a range of schools, and the 2 colleges, on the group. A steering group for the 3 City Learning Centres (CLCs) was established during the year, and is ensuring the development of joint working, common principles and working practices, with the 3 CLCs working together where appropriate in order to maximise the benefit to all Wirral schools of this wonderful resource.

MS1725/JM 1 2.2 The Specialist Strand Steering group has grown in size over the year, and its role has developed. Representatives of all specialist schools, CLC managers, EAZ Directors, a Beacon schools representative, the G&T strand coordinator and a primary general inspector attend monthly meetings, chaired by the EiC Manager. Networking, interweaving the strands, and assisting the dissemination and sharing of good practice, particularly across all Wirral secondary schools, are key functions of the group. A major priority is the management of the impact on primary schools as the number of specialist schools grows, the CLCs open, and the demands on colleagues’ time and expertise increases. We want to see as fair a distribution of opportunities for primary schools as is feasible, whilst avoiding overload, and yet to ensure as many Primary Schools as possible gain from EiC.

2.3 Excellence in Wirral is characterised by a strong ethos of collaboration across the diversity of Wirral schools and colleges via clusters and networks in all the strands, and at different levels. This is underlined by EiC being closely integrated into broader LEA structures, such as the School Effectiveness Group and Secondary Team, and the work of specific general inspectors who make a valuable contribution: for example GI Resources in the area of building the CLCs; GI Primary for his work with the EAZ Directors and the Specialist Strand, and GI MFL for leading subject inspectors in the development of strategies appropriate for challenging Gifted and Talented pupils within the curriculum.

2.4 There were opportunities provided by links with the National College for School Leadership’s EiC initiative for colleagues to attend 2 day workshops on building the capacity for leadership within the entire senior management team. 16 schools took advantage of this much valued opportunity, including some special schools. Other professional development, for heads of department, will result from Wirral being invited to join the second phase of the EiC Lead Department initiative, which has been piloted by 5 LEAs. Details of new leadership ‘strand’ within EiC have not been made clear as yet, but it will bring considerable extra funds into Excellence in Wirral. Time for the management of EiC within schools remains a difficulty; it is a complex and demanding initiative which requires coordination and interweaving at all levels to gain maximum impact.

2.5 Establishing monitoring and evaluation procedures which are manageable and provide relevant information has been a priority this year. Both Gifted and Talented and Excellence Challenge coordinators have submitted their annual reports, and school self evaluation (SSE) proformas have been piloted in G&T. DfES requirements for Excellence Challenge are only just finalised, and so their self evaluation documents are still in preparation. In the Learning Mentor and Learning Support Unit strands, we are awaiting national tools for SSE. Local monitoring has happened in the LM strand, with the piloting of a data collection system in the spring term, which delivered a wealth of interesting information (see Appendix 18). Local evaluation of the Learning Support Units followed from an external consultant who evaluated the LSUs in Halton and Wirral (see Appendices 23 and 24). He is also undertaking a longitudinal study of both EAZs; the first part is published here as Appendices 29 and 30. His report on the specialist schools of Halton and Wirral schools is yet to be completed by the addition of 3 case studies on good practice in the more problematic aspects of raising sponsorship, working with other secondary schools and work with the community.

PROGRESS TO TARGETS

3.0 Schools with Learning Support Units (LSUs) were required to set targets related to the number of permanent exclusions, fixed term exclusions, percentage of Year 11 pupils achieving 5 or more A* - C grades, percentage of Year 11 pupils achieving 1 or more A - G grades, average points score, unauthorised absence, and total attendance. All

MS1725/JM 2 schools were also required to set additional targets related to the Gifted and Talented strand, which focused on the percentage of A* and A grades at GCSE, the number of GCSE examinations taken before Y11, and raised standards at KS3. The overall target set in the EDP for all secondary mainstream schools had to be set in the knowledge of the additionality provided by the extra resource of EiC.

3.1 See Appendices 1a – 1d for a complete set of data.

LSU targets 3.2 GCSE targets: this has been another successful year for Wirral. Final figures may amend the details, but the data available at present indicates that the overall target of 52% Year 11 pupils achieving 5 or more A* - C grades for all mainstream secondary schools has been met and exceeded (53.8%). As last year, 10 of the 16 schools with a Learning Support Unit met or exceeded their targets ( the range of those exceeding their targets is between +1% to +9%.) Looking at the figures for all Wirral secondary schools, 14 increased their results for 5 or more top grades at GCSE, in the range of +I% to +9%, and 2 schools maintained their 2001 figure. The overall target for Y11 pupils achieving 1 A* - G was met (95.9%), with 13 schools meeting the target and 4 exceeding it. Of those schools who did not meet their target, the range was in –1% to –9%. Wirral’s target for the average points score of 40.6 was exceeded at 41.2 points per pupil, 9 of the LSU schools met and exceeded their target. The removal of pupils with severe behavioural problems from the classroom into the LSU has clearly had an impact on attainment.

3.3 Figures for permanent exclusions are reasonably positive. The overall figure for permanent exclusions in those schools with a Learning Support Unit was 26, which is an increase in permanent exclusions by one since 2001. The overall target of reducing permanent exclusions has not been met, but schools have maintained the present relatively low figures, in the face of a tiny minority of difficult pupils. 8 of the LSU schools met their targets on exclusion. 7 schools with a LSU have increased their exclusions since 2001; many of the excluded pupils have had no connection with the LSU.

3.4 A total of 93 fixed term exclusions of 6 days or more were given across Wirral; one school was responsible for 25, another 22. 13 schools with LSUs met their targets for fixed term exclusions. There are some concerns about consistency of reporting in this area and work is in hand to improve on this.

3.5 10 schools met their targets for unauthorised absence. The attendance figures are still in need of improvement, with 3 schools meeting their targets, and the figures in the rest ranging from minus 0.5% on the target to –3.6%. 10 of the 16 schools with a LSU do not meet the Ofsted requirement for 92% attendance. Nevertheless, HMI monitoring of schools facing challenging circumstances has praised schools for their strategies for improving attendance. The hard core of non-attenders are not yet responding to the increase in multi-agency working that there is amongst pastoral staff, Learning Support Unit managers, Learning Mentors, Connexions Personal Advisers, and the ESW service, or high profile initiatives such as the Truancy Sweeps. Improving social inclusion through increased attendance remains a high priority for EiC.

Additional targets related to the Gifted and Talented strand 3.6 KS3: 70% of pupils achieved L5+ in English and Maths at KS3, with 66% achieving L5+ in Science. Achievement in individual schools is as follows: 11 schools met and exceeded their targets for L5+ in English, with one school exceeding the target by as much as +25%, and another by +22%. Most schools who failed to meet the target did so by very small margins. 13 schools met their L5+ in Maths target, with 12 schools exceeding it. The level 6+ target in English was met by 14 schools, and 13 of these exceeded it, one by as much as +35%, and another by +20%. The L6+ target in Maths

MS1725/JM 3 was met by 15 schools, and exceeded by 15, one of which delivered +18% on the target, and 2 others who achieved +17%.

3.7 GCSE: The targets apply to the whole y11 cohort, not just these pupils identified as G&T. Of 3879 pupils in Y11 in mainstream schools, 19.8% gained A* or A grades in 3 or more subjects in 2002. 16 schools increased their totals from the 2001 figures, ranging from +0.1% to + 12.77%. This is a considerable achievement. 10 schools met their targets, with 9 exceeding them, in the range of +0.3% to+21%.

Excellence Challenge 3.8 This year’s Excellence Challenge targets have proved problematic nationally as the definition of underachievement requested from DfES has not been forthcoming; the strand co-ordinator is awaiting clarification at a meeting in late November.

3.9 The collation of information about the A level average point score has been difficult because we need to improve communication across the colleges and LSC. Problems with the remarking of A level papers have not helped in this matter. For Wirral secondary schools the average point score for summer 2002 was 19.6, a marked improvement on the 2001 average score of 17.8. The percentage of students achieving top UCAS points (AAB) was 13.9% in 2002, an improvement on the 2001 value of 13.3%.

3.10 From Sept 2002 all schools/colleges will need to set their own Excellence Challenge targets in line with the DfES National targets. This means there will be a tighter system in place for next year.

PROGRESS REPORTS ON INDIVIDUAL STRANDS

GIFTED AND TALENTED STRAND

Aim of the Gifted and talented strand, now in the second year of the EiC programme

4.0 This strand aims to provide a special programme which raises education standards amongst the most academically able and talented and extends significantly the range of educational opportunities available to them, and all pupils. In establishing the programme, particular attention is given to providing “inclusive” activities for other students not named in the cohort. This element of inclusion is seen as an integral part of each school’s philosophy.

4.1 This year’s emphasis has been on the teaching and learning programmes in the classroom and the collaborative work of subject specialist teachers, advisory teachers and subject inspectors working to this end.

PROGRESS

4.2 Good progress has been made on all priorities identified in last year’s annual report, as can be seen in the body of this report.

ACTIVITIES AT SCHOOL LEVEL

4.3 · All secondary schools, without exception, have declared they have a policy in line with Wirral LEA’s policy for Gifted and Talented pupils. · 7.5% gifted (academically able), 2.5% talented (in sport, music, art or drama) have been identified in each year group. 4.4 All schools have identified their cohort through a variety of strategies.

MS1725/JM 4 · KS2 and KS3 levels; GCSE grades and point scores · CATS and SATs scores (verbal, quantitative, non-verbal) · Spelling and reading ages · Verbal Reasoning scores, as appropriate · Reference to special needs register and Code of Practice · Teacher assessment, recommendation and comments (all teaching staff consulted, therefore strong pastoral input) · Parental consultation · Information about out of school interests and activities · Generic and subject specific checklists (departmental and whole school sources).

4.5 Underachievers have been identified by some of the above, but also by · Discrepancies in performance across range of subjects, varying staff responses · Non-conformist pupils who show capabilities in unexpected ways (especially in the talented area) · Discrepancies between teacher assessment/ test examination scores.

4.6 All schools have submitted annual reports using the database, designed by the strand co-ordinator, which was sent to every G&T Co-ordinator in the Autumn Term 2001. · 100% of schools have identified their cohort. · 100% of schools now inform parents of G&T activities. · 95% of schools are modifying their schemes of work to address the needs of the more able. Appendix 2 displays a summary of the G&T annual reports from schools for 2001-2.

4.7 All subject areas have been asked to look for evidence of differentiation for gifted and talented pupils in existing schemes of work as well as opportunities to challenge and stretch more able pupils. Each curriculum area has identified a link manager for gifted and talented, who liaises with the G&T co-ordinator. Schools based programmes are planned by the G&T co-ordinators in conjunction with Heads of Faculty/ Subjects, who are invited to bid for gifted and talented funding. The activities are open to the named Gifted and Talented cohort, as well as other students where appropriate.

4.8 Activity record sheets, detailing the variety of enrichment opportunities, form part of the reports. Subject areas keep written and photographic evidence of the gifted and talented projects. Pupils and teachers evaluate and monitor the quality of activities/ projects. In 75% of Wirral schools, staff meet with their G&T cohorts to discuss their progress and produce an IEP.

Financial Procedures:

4.9 Following the agreed process in the Wirral EiC Plan, schools are allocated a budget and the allocation is used for the following: · The cost of the responsibility allowance paid to the co-ordinator · Funding to provide support materials for school G&T projects · Administration/ management costs e.g., printing, postage etc. · Supply cover costs for the co-ordinator/ other staff participating at meetings, training · Supply costs to enable curriculum areas to modify schemes of work · Supporting school or cluster activities.

The issues around G&T are likely to be discussed by the leadership team; curriculum co- ordinators; departments; pastoral teams and the governing body. Minutes from all of the above meetings will reflect progress of the G&T strand within each school. All schools through G&T Co-ordinators, and with the support of SMT are:

MS1725/JM 5 · Undertaking departmental audits of good practice · Supporting subject leaders in the development of differentiated planning for G&T pupils within their schedules of work · Counselling able children and liasing with parents · Working towards the reduction of underachievement of G&T pupils · Creating a local register of expertise regarding provision for extra – curricular activities for the G&T cohort · Improving overall standards and results for all pupils in the school, included in the G&T Annual report is the list of targets for 2001-2002, which is sent to the DfES · Working within the clusters to provide after school, weekend and holiday activities.

Clusters

4.10 The Cluster based programme is organised by the 4 Cluster Co-ordinators in conjunction with the school co-ordinators. The progress made by the cluster co-ordinators’ group during the financial year 2001/2002 has been excellent. They now feel they have a good, pragmatic working approach, with all members of each cluster supporting each other and having the same positive outlook. The cluster groups meet monthly, which allows discussion on topics which arise from Wirral G&T Co-ordinators’ termly meetings, and other related issues. (See Appendix 3)

PARTNERSHIP ACTIVITIES

Steering Group 5.0 There is one steering group for the two strands, Gifted and Talented and Excellence Challenge, as there is clearly so much overlap. Membership includes 5 secondary headteachers, and representation from the LEA G&T Steering Group (a primary headteacher), Connexions, the Birkenhead Sixth Form College, The Laird Foundation, and the Learning and Skills Council. It meets monthly. Schools are both supported and challenged through the work of the group, under the strong leadership of its Chair, who reports to the EiC Partnership on the current issues. See Appendix 4 for details of finances spent at Partnership level.

Secondary Projects 5.1 Twelve activities/ visits have been run centrally for Years 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 across a range of subjects. All schools have taken part in one or more of these activities, involving 333 students and 45 staff. (See Appendix 5).

Primary Projects

5.2 1. Liverpool Museum primary G&T project: Portland Primary School & Greasby Junior School 5.3 This was a highly successful G&T collaborative project devised by members of staff from both primary schools, the Liverpool Museum Education Officer, LEA Advisory Staff for Humanities & the G&T Strand Co-ordinator. 5.4 The agreed project was to produce a trail researched and designed by a group of ten year olds for young people visiting the Greek section of Liverpool Museum, with ideas to develop back in school and at home. 5.5 Two preliminary visits were made by Year 5 classes from both schools. The trial could reference a variety of connected subjects, eg History, Art, Music, Drama, Literature and Natural History. Eight pupils from each school were then selected to develop and produce an impressive interactive package to link with the museum web site. Pupils corresponded by e-mail to develop the project. The web site is www.greasby- junior.wirral.sch.uk

MS1725/JM 6 5.6 One of the aims of this project was to use it as an example of best practice for other primary schools to replicate, possibly with different starting points. A booklet for use by other schools records the development of this dynamic project, which included workshops in Greek, Drama, Poetry and Ceramics, run by artists in residence. The overall cost was approximately £800. Some primary schools are using their Excellence Challenge funding for this type of extension work.

5.7 2. Science Primary Project Twenty pupils from 3 Primary Schools who had worked together on sharing good practice took part in a microscope/ geology workshop in the Natural History Museum (see Appendix 5).

5.8 3. The G&T Strand Co-ordinator is a member of the LEA Gifted and Talented Steering Group, which has responsibility for overseeing the progress of Gifted and Talented in primary schools (without EiC funding). This academic year the following has been achieved: · A Gifted & Talented guide for parents · ‘Meeting the needs of G&T pupils’: a survey of provision in Wirral primary schools · The Wirral Transfer document has been amended to provide information on whether a pupil has been identified as G&T · A cross-phase conference led by David George on 11.6.02 at the WEC (see Appendix 5) · A meeting on G&T issues for the Wirral Federation of Parent – Teacher Associations (attended by over 300 parents) on 12.11.01; in conjunction with GI Primary. · GI Maths addressed WFPTA on ‘The Gifted Mathematician’ 28.5.02. · ‘Our World – A Celebration of Colour’: a celebration event at Pacific Road Theatre included musical, drama and art to display the talents of pupils from Woodlands, Cole Street, Woodchurch Road, Mersey Park and St Werburgh’s Primary Schools.

5.9 Joint work is planned with the STAR EAZ’s eleven primary schools for the coming academic year.

Co-ordinators’ Meetings 5.10 G&T school co-ordinators and Excellence Challenge co-ordinators have met termly to discuss progress in schools, based around the following: Requirements for the Annual Report; Contacts and Web sites; Ofsted and Nord Anglia Reports on G&T; Teaching and Learning Programmes; Phone surgery with DfES; Cluster Activities; Learning Mentor involvement; Celebration Evening; Master classes/visits/courses; Palm House Project; Media Studies Project.

5.11 G&T and Excellence Challenge co-ordinators attended a planning and review day held at Burton Manor on 12.7.02 to celebrate the year’s work and plan for next year. The afternoon session was led by a circus skills group, which was a fitting fun ending to an excellent collaborative year.

Training 5.12 Ten staff from ten schools attended an SFC Conference on How to Challenge, Moderate and Extend more able students (Birmingham). Centrally funded staff Inset (see Appendix 4) has covered the following topics: Able Underachievers, Higher Order Thinking Skills, Thinking in the Arts and cross-phase provision.

DfES National Training Programme : Oxford Brookes University 5.13 Four Cluster Co-ordinators completed the training in 2000-2001 and seven staff will complete the training 2001-2002. The latter have attended 4 training days. Eleven co- ordinators will complete the training in 2002/3, thus completing the training of at least one

MS1725/JM 7 member of staff per Wirral secondary school. This is a DfES ‘non-negotiable’ requirement, which has been the cause of some unease in EiC partnerships across the country.

DfES 5.14 The Strand Co-ordinator has had two ‘telephone surgeries’ (for monitoring purposes) with officials from the DfES G&T team. The first was on 13.02.02 to discuss the development and effectiveness of the G&T strand of Excellence in Wirral. This was a thorough discussion examining the details of the G&T strand in schools.

5.15 The second telephone surgery on 15.7.02 was to go through the G&T Action Plan for 2002/3 (see Appendix 7). The main focus for the coming year is to ensure there are confident subject teachers delivering appropriate G&T curriculum in the classroom. There are twelve actions in Wirral’s plan, which has been placed on the DfES website. DfES has received a sample of Case Studies across a range of subjects from a variety of our schools, including science, art, drama and RE. A further sample of Case Studies was sent off in September, including more examples of good practice in the classroom.

5.16 DfES has also received two articles for the national EiC newsletter from Wirral. One on the talents of two pupils from Wirral special schools and another recording the success of the Palm House Project (a collaboration between Birkenhead Sixth Form College and Park High School, devised with the help of the G&T Strand Co-ordinator). Both articles have been published. A video of the Excellence in Wirral Celebration Evening on 26.6.02, and a newspaper, The Muse, published by a group of G&T year 10 Media students from across Wirral, have also been sent to the DfES.

Networks 5.17 Both the G&T and the Excellence Challenge Strand Co-ordinators attend the meetings of the TransPennine Group of G&T and Excellence Challenge Strand Co-ordinators from EiC Partnerships across the North of England, finding them a useful means of networking and support. The DfES has awarded the group £5,000 to support next year’s meetings, and see the group as an example of good practice for other regions to follow.

Summer schools 5.18 DfES awarded Wirral a grant of £27,000 to fund three G&T Summer schools, to cater for pupils from Year 6-9.

Ridgeway School : Heaven and Earth 5.19 This was a rewarding and exciting week, with 47 year 6 pupils from thirteen primary schools taking part. They stayed at the Peace Centre in Warrington, which proved to be a exceptionally good location for the week, with a quite unique atmosphere. Pupils followed extension studies in humanities, IT, literacy, science, maths, English, MFL, art, music and dance. A visit to the Space Centre in Lancaster formed the foundation of the week. All pupils completed a power point presentation on their ‘Space’ research, and reading and spelling ages were tested before and after the summer school. A parallel literacy summer school took place at the same time. The week was led by a senior teacher at Ridgeway High School.

Wallasey School: Seashore Searches 5.20 36 pupils from 5 Primary schools and Wallasey School took part. The criteria for recruitment was an interest in science and I.T. The pupils involved created a most exciting and stimulating collection of ICT – based resources to support rock pool investigations and their surrounding environments. They conducted fieldwork at three locations; Moreton Shore, New Brighton and Anglesey. The use of the CLC Learning Lighthouse facilities allowed the pupils to collate and present their research in a

MS1725/JM 8 sophisticated, ‘state of the art’ way including the use of digital microscopes, flash animation, stop frame animation, and the use of Acrobat to create worksheets. Their research is also contributing to a CD-ROM of useful resources for Wirral teachers and a Wirral Rangers resource pack. The week was devised collaboratively with school staff and one of the curriculum consultants from the Learning Lighthouse, who led the week. Each pupil was presented with their own CR Rom, recording their week’s achievements.

WACC@Caldy at Pensby High School for Boys 5.21 16 year 7 boys and girls from two schools and 20 primary pupils from 5 schools took part. The summer school offered extension opportunities on the classical theme of the Odyssey, brought up to date through English, drama, navigation, design technology and sport based workshops. Links were made with Hope University, Liverpool University, Yale College, The Sailboat Federation and Young Navigators Awards. On the final day an exciting Water Sports Day was held in New Brighton. Odyssey modules will be delivered to clusters of Wirral primary schools during 2002-2003 for extension or after school activities. A booklet, video and CD-ROM has been produced of pupils’ work. The co-ordinator of the Wirral Able Children’s Centre (WACC) led the week.

Summer Arts School for year 10 G&T pupils, held at Mosslands school 5.22 The school took place for three days and was run for six pupils from the five Wallasey secondary schools. The students spent a day each on different art disciplines: sculpture, textiles, painting. The art work produced was based on the theme of Liverpool architecture: St George’s Hall, the Roman Catholic and Anglican Cathedrals, the Liver Buildings, the Palm House in Sefton Park and the Philharmonic public house. Funding for artists-in- residence and staff came from Wirral’s central G&T funds and the five schools paid for the materials. The work produced was outstanding and will be displayed at the WEC in EiC celebration week, 14 – 19 October.

Warwick University Summer School: the Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth 5.23 Five students from three Wirral secondary schools: Upton Hall School (FCJ), Calday Grammar School and St Anselm’s College, attended the three week residential pilot summer schools at Warwick

Wirral Able Children’s Centre 5.24 The Centre, based at Calday Grange Grammar School, has had an extremely successful year. WACC has achieved almost 6,000 lessons of pupil contact time with both primary and secondary pupils across the borough in 2001/ 2002. The Annual Report is sent to the Steering Group as the EiC Partnership allocates £6000 pa towards their costs.

Celebration Evening 26.06.02 5.25 A celebration evening was held at Pacific Road on 26th June. 250 students represented the talents of students from every secondary school in Wirral. The performance consisted of Music, Drama, Gymnastics, Dance, Poetry, Art and French and was compared by Joe Riley, the Arts Editor of the Liverpool Echo. Every Wirral secondary school displayed examples of G&T and Excellence Challenge activities or projects, which had taken place during 2001/2002. An extremely successful evening was followed next day by a Learning Mentor Conference. Staff from The Learning Lighthouse CLC supported the events with their technical expertise.

Media Arts Project 03.07.02 – 05.07.02 5.26 Twenty four Year 10 Media and English students from twelve secondary schools took part in a three day workshop editing articles contributed from every secondary school in Wirral, (See Appendix 4). The resulting magazine ‘The Muse’ is a credit to the twenty

MS1725/JM 9 four students’ hard work and creativity. The workshops were led by the Head of English at Pensby High School for Girls, I.T Curriculum Advisor to Star EAZ and James Marquand ,freelance film maker. The atmosphere throughout the three days replicated that of a busy newspaper office, the students writing and I.T skills were certainly extended and the team work was outstanding.

5.27 “I thoroughly enjoyed the 3 days. I felt I got a great deal out of the whole experience and it has encouraged me to go into journalism. The course was jam-packed and I enjoyed working with students from other schools. Thank you!”

PRIORITIES for 2002-3

5.28 See the Action Plan which has been approved by DfES. (Appendix 7)

EXCELLENCE CHALLENGE

Aim of the Strand 6.0 The strand aims to increase the proportion of young people entering higher education from disadvantaged backgrounds if they have the ability to do so. It does this by raising aspirations and self-esteem and by reducing underachievement. The strand also extends the gifted and talented programme to 16 -19 year olds in schools and colleges.

PROGRESS

6.1 The strand co-ordinator took up post in September 2001. The Wirral Excellence Challenge plan was amended to include the three conditions specified by the DfES on 5.09.01. It was finally accepted unconditionally on 24.01.02.

6.2 We launched the Excellence Challenge strand in Wirral in November 2001. School co- ordinators attended a range of workshops during the morning, and the Director of Education formally opened the event at the beginning of the afternoon. The keynote address was given by John Knowles, from the University of Lincolnshire, who gave an inspirational talk on Widening Participation.

WORK IN SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES

Co-ordinators 6.3 All 25 institutions had appointed co-ordinators by the summer term 2002; 4 co-ordinators moved on to take on different roles in July and have been replaced. 10 co-ordinators have the dual role of Gifted and Talented (G&T) and Excellence Challenge (Ex Chall) co- ordinator. The time allocation for the role varies hugely from institution to institution. Some co-ordinators have no protected time and others have a full day per week. Inevitably, the co-ordinators that are able to perform best are those with adequate time allocation. All co-ordinators have been provided with a ‘survival disc’ containing useful proforma and information to assist in the recording of progress, for the annual report.

6.4 Joint G&T and Ex Challenge co-ordinator meetings are held termly; these are generally very well attended. Progress is discussed and information shared. Items discussed this year include: the requirements for the annual report; useful contacts; DfES monitoring requirements; cluster organisation; Aim Higher; targets; HEFCE Summer Schools, and institutions’ action plans.

6.5 Most schools and colleges have made good progress this year and this is evident from their annual reports; a summary of their contents can be seen in Appendix 8.

MS1725/JM 10 Gifted and Talented 16-19 6.6 All institutions have identified a G&T cohort using the guidelines agreed by the Partnership. The cohort varies in size from 2% to 20% of the year group in Years 12 and 13, with about 17% of the cohort across Wirral in total. The institution funding for Year 2 of Excellence Challenge reflects the cohort size, ie a per capita sum is allocated. This amendment to the original plan was agreed by both the DfES and the Partnership. . Advanced Extension Award (AEA) Masterclasses 6.7 20 Masterclasses in 14 subjects were arranged between January and April and during July (see timetable in Appendix 9). The Masterclasses have been well received by the students: · 93% rated the delivery as excellent or very good · 82% rated the Masterclass as very valuable · 86% said their enthusiasm for the subject had been increased · 75% said the Masterclass had supported their learning (see Appendix 10). 6.8 Demand was high and places were restricted. Unfortunately, staff from some institutions who requested places failed to send their students, and this meant that spare places were not re-allocated. Headteachers have requested that the Masterclasses be provided during the Autumn term, in July, at weekends or during the holidays. This is to prevent major disruption in the lead-up to exams. This year we will be able to plan further ahead and ensure this happens. 6.9 The Masterclasses are intended to support students taking Advanced Extension Awards but because of their lukewarm reception by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) only 13 students sat the AEA examinations in 2002. The Masterclasses themselves, however, have enhanced and enriched the learning of many students. They have enjoyed studying with students from different institutions and have enjoyed being stretched and challenged. 6.10 The Masterclasses also provide an opportunity for staff development but the take-up by staff has been disappointing so far, and valuable opportunities missed. The staff who did attend the classes were very positive about them.

Wirral Sixth Form Bursaries 6.11 4 Year 12 students were awarded ICT and Business Studies Bursaries using the successful Nuffield scheme for able young scientists as a model. They were paid £65 per week for the 4 week placement in a local firm or HEI, where they are given a ‘real- life’ research problem to solve. This local innovation has proved most valuable, and we hope to extend it. For a full list of activities see Appendix 11.

Widening Participation (WP) 13-16 6.12 All schools have identified their cohorts. The size varies from 10% to 50% of the year group. Inevitably, a large cohort means that tracking pupil progress is difficult, especially in schools where co-ordinator time is limited. 6.13 Some extremely rewarding work has been done with this cohort. In total 760 pupils/carers participated in Partnership funded WP 13-16 activities this year. There have been numerous visits to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs); in particular, the residential experience at Liverpool Hope was very highly regarded by both staff and pupils. There can be no doubt that aspirations have been raised. 6.14 The Excellence Challenge central budget paid the annual subscription to Education Extra for all secondary schools; useful study support material is regularly sent in to schools.

6.15 The DfES Aim Higher Roadshow visited 6 schools and Birkenhead Sixth Form College (BSFC). Feedback was very positive. The Roadshow returns in October to visit Wirral Metropolitan College (WMC) and BSFC. In January the Roadshow will visit another 14 schools. A progression activity for Year 10 has been organised locally for Spring 2003.

MS1725/JM 11 IMPACT, a theatre company, has been commissioned by the Greater Merseyside Excellence Challenge Strand Co-ordinators to tour GM schools. Their 35-minute production identifies and addresses the barriers to HE entry of pupils in this cohort in a humorous and sensitive way.

6.16 Postcode analysis of some activities show a high proportion of pupils participating are not from Pathways areas. For the residential at Hope in July only 33% were from Pathways areas. However, this does show an increase from the 25% who visited Oxford in March, 15% who went to Leeds and 24% to Sheffield, both in May. We are concerned that some schools are not selecting true WP pupils because of anxieties around behaviour. This will need addressing in the coming year. (see Appendices 12,13)

6.17 Parents/carers were invited to visit Liverpool Hope for a tour, lunch and a session on the Internet. 5 carers made their first visit to an HEI and found the whole experience very worthwhile. It is hoped more parents will take up the invitation this year.

6.18 Only one event organised by an HEI proved to be disappointing, a “Get Ready for GCSE” day. All staff and pupil evaluations were highly critical.

6.19 280 pupils from 23 schools attended the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) Summer Schools at 23 HEIs during July and August 02. An individual questionnaire was sent to each pupil. Initial feedback shows that the Summer Schools were very popular and that aspirations had been raised.

6.20 The Aim Higher Greater Merseyside Achiever’s Awards at the Philharmonic Hall hosted by Johnny Ball in June saw pupils from 11 Wirral secondary schools presented with awards.

6.21 The five 11-16 schools in Birkenhead will form a WP cluster from September 02. A cluster co-ordinator has been appointed. BSFC and WMC will be involved in providing transition activities for them. In addition, colleagues from the 2 colleges will have a regular planning meeting with the strand co-ordinator in order to maximise opportunities for better links and smoother transition between schools and colleges. (For all WP activities see Appendix 14)

Widening Participation 16-19 6.22 Students from Birkenhead Sixth Form College and Wirral Metropolitan College were award winners at the Aim Higher Greater Merseyside Achiever’s Awards at the Philharmonic Hall in June.

The Palm House Project 6.23 This deserves special mention. The G&T strand co-ordinator organised this excellent project. It has been noted by DfES as an example of good practice and was the first from the north-west to be put on the Excellence Challenge website launched by Margaret Hodge in July www.dfes.gov.uk/excellencechallenge). The DfES were excited about it because it showed an improvement in grades at sixth form level linked directly to work done via Excellence Challenge. The strand co-ordinator disseminated this good practice to modern foreign language heads of faculty from all over the North-west at a conference in Formby. She was accompanied by the teacher responsible for the organisation of the Palm House Project who outlined how the students had tackled the project then showed the video produced.

6.24 Apart from the above example, progress with this cohort has been limited. It has proved difficult to generate activities for these students. One reason has been the reluctance of teachers to release them from school/college. Many of the cohort might be deemed as

MS1725/JM 12 underachievers and therefore unhappy to take on any extra load. Also, many students who stay on post 16 have already decided to go on to Higher Education (HE) and their needs are met by helping them apply for the appropriate course etc. The financial summary reflects the difficulties in spending the allocated funds usefully (see Appendix 15).

HEI LINKS 6.25 The strand co-ordinator has spent a fair proportion of her time networking with representatives from local HEIs and ones further afield. Good working relationships have now been forged with University of Liverpool, John Moores, Liverpool Hope, Oxford, Leeds and Sheffield universities. The Mathematics department at Warwick also provided an excellent Masterclass for Wirral students, the first such activity they have put on in 20 years! 6.26 Schools have also arranged independent visits to local HEIs. There have been 20 reported visits for 888 pupils this year.

INSET

Able Underachievers, 22.11.01 6.27 Ten Excellence Challenge co-ordinators joined G&T co-ordinators, Learning Mentors, Advisory Teachers and General Inspectors for the afternoon session with Professor Diane Montgomery. As this was their first input on tackling underachievement, they found it very valuable. Creative Thinking, 22.03.02 6.28 This joint day for G&T and Ex Challenge co-ordinators at the Tate Gallery in Liverpool was well attended. The evaluations for Matthew Boyle the facilitator were, without exception, excellent. Thinking Corner, 27 and 28.05.02 6.29 The group provided staff in service training (INSET) for 25 staff from 20 schools. Four Learning Mentors were included. On each of two days they delivered thinking skills to 25 Year 8 pupils from 2 secondary schools while the staff watched and participated. This was followed by twilight INSET for staff. The staff were given a CD-ROM of materials to use as they wished. All the pupils thought the days were excellent. 83% of staff rated the pupil sessions as excellent or very good and 96% rated the twilight INSET as excellent or very good. A few schools are recommending Thinking Corner for use in school. They have been invited back to deliver Creativity training in October. Moving Forward Day at Burton Manor, 12.07.02 6.30 26 G&T and Ex Challenge co-ordinators were present. Gwen Goodhew (on secondment to the DfES) gave an extremely useful and informative talk on provision for G&T pupils. There followed an example of good practice from Wallasey School and staff then spent time in workshops sharing good practice and looking for ways to move forward. Villiers Park 6.31 Schools were offered places on 3-day residential courses for AS and A2 teachers aimed at addressing the teaching of Gifted and Talented students in the sixth form. All fees and supply cover will be paid from Excellence Challenge central budget. 9 staff applied for places.

DFES MONITORING

6.32 The strand co-ordinator had a ‘telephone surgery’ (for monitoring purposes) with a member of the specialist DfES team on 10.04.02. This was a frank discussion and positive feedback was received. The complete Masterclass programme and the Palm House project were considered as being particularly successful.

MS1725/JM 13 6.33 The requirements for the annual report to DfES are in the process of being clarified; a detailed report will need to be completed for submission in January 03.

Working with other strand co-ordinators 6.34 Greater Merseyside strand co-ordinators meet once a term to discuss progress and share concerns, ideas and good practice. The group also works closely with Greater Merseyside Aim Higher and useful Masterclass contacts have been made. 6.35 TransPennine strand co-ordinators meet monthly, these meetings are joint Gifted and Talented and Excellence Challenge meetings.

Primary Excellence Challenge 6.36 In Year 2 the Wirral Excellence Challenge plan allocates funds to be used with primary schools in our most deprived areas, in order to raise aspirations. An initial meeting was held in July with the Headteachers of these schools to outline possible ways of using the extra funding of £1000 per school. Headteachers have been very positive, and creative, in their plans.

6.37 The strand co-ordinator has also liased with Liverpool Hope on behalf of the Headteacher at St. Werburgh’s Roman Catholic Primary School who has been seeking some English language support for female Bangladeshi carers (including ex-pupils). One of the carers is a support assistant in the school and has the potential, with some extra support, to go on to take a teaching qualification.

Excellence Fellowship Award 6.38 Teachers were invited to apply for Excellence Challenge Fellowships with local HEIs. A member of staff from Wallasey School was successful. She will be seconded for the equivalent of a term to work on a project with the University of Liverpool. She intends to do some work on parental involvement.

EXCELLENCE CHALLENGE PRIORITIES for 2002–3

6.39 Strand Co-ordinator · Ensure correct students are being targeted for Excellence Challenge activities · Ensure monitoring and evaluation takes place in line with DfES requirements · Develop better links with Connexions · Identify the role of LSC and develop a closer working relationship with them · Ensure all institutions have action plans in place that are updated and amended regularly · Ensure all institutions with sixth forms set additional Excellence Challenge targets as set out in the plan · Revise plans for use of WP funding post 16 · Develop cluster activities for primary schools · Look at progression and transition.

6.40 School co-ordinators · Ensure correct students are being targeted for Excellence Challenge activities · Identify WP and G&T cohorts efficiently, including underachievers · Track pupils in cohorts · Working with SMT, set Excellence Challenge targets for sixth form · Ensure Action Plans are written, adapted and kept up to date · Oversee the provision of a distinct teaching and learning programme for all cohorts · Provide colleagues in school with up to date information and INSET as required.

6.41 11-16 Cluster co-ordinator · Organise cluster activities aimed at supporting transition from Year 11 to Year 12.

MS1725/JM 14 · Organise cluster activities to raise aspirations of pupils and parents · Offer support to other 11-16 school co-ordinators

6.42 Details of all Excellence Challenge activities can be found in the Action Plan in Appendix 16. A financial breakdown of Excellence Challenge can be seen in Appendix 17.

LEARNING MENTORS

PROGRESS

Aim of the strand

7.0 The aim of this strand is to remove the barriers to learning which prevent many young people from fulfilling their potential at school and within society. Mentors work within the school, on a one to one basis with the identified cohort, or sometimes in a small group situation. Sometimes mentors work with families or carers, teachers, or appropriate outside agencies in order to remove barriers, and raise expectations and aspirations of pupils.

Priorities from previous year 2001-2002

7.1 Good progress has been made on all the priorities from last year as can be seen in the body of the report, with one exception. The Senior Learning Mentor had very little opportunity to access volunteer Mentors from voluntary agencies, the community or industry. Her workload has prevented progress in this area. With the increase in numbers of Learning Mentors now employed in schools (56 in July 02, and a further 8 starting in September), it is unlikely that a group of volunteer mentors could receive the extensive training and support they require, from the staff within the central EiC team.

Senior Learning Mentor Post 7.2 In order to respond to the training and support needs of the increased number of Learning Mentors the Senior Learning Mentor post became full time in April 2002.

MONITORING AND EVALUATION

NFER 7.3 The NFER are undertaking the national evaluation of EiC. They have included Wirral in a study of the Learning Mentor strand involving 6 partnerships. They were particularly interested in the fact that we are using Learning Mentors in grammar schools. They wanted to visit two contrasting schools, and Wirral Grammar School for Boys and Park High School volunteered. The evaluation visit included interviews with Learning Mentors, co-ordinators, two pastoral heads of year, two form tutors, the Learning Support Unit Teachers (if appropriate) and four pupils from different year groups. They also interviewed the EiC Manager and the Senior Learning Mentor. The final report is not expected until the end of the autumn term.

Partnership Monitoring 7.4 We have devised a monitoring and evaluation system to meet the national requirements outlined by the NFER.

7.5 It was piloted as a paper-based system to gather data on each Learning Mentor’s caseload during the spring term 2002, in order to monitor the reasons for referral, time allocated for support, and success rate. We asked all Learning Mentors to use the same

MS1725/JM 15 format in order to ease the collation of the data from the twenty-seven schools involved (23 mainstream and four secondary special schools). Several problems were encountered during the trial, including incorrect completion of the forms; difficulties in designing a data base spreadsheet; collecting the Unique Pupil Numbers (UPNs), which proved to be a very difficult task for some Learning Mentors where schools did not have access to SIMS. Appendix 18 provides a summary of the evidence collected, giving a broad indication rather than a totally accurate picture of all activity.

7.6 Future Monitoring and Evaluation data will be collected electronically, once every term, using PULSE, with the support of the LEA management data section. It is envisaged that each school will receive its own figures, presented both as a total for all year groups and each year group’s separate figures. These can be compared to the average Wirral figure, and those of similar schools. It is intended that a relatively simple electronic Monitoring and Evaluation data collection be put in place, but prior to this there will be an appropriate training programme to support Learning Mentors, particularly for those who are not confident with computers. It is also recognised that not all Learning Mentors have access to a computer. This needs to be rectified. In order to gather information on the “soft targets”, Learning Mentors from each school are required to submit two anonymous case studies from different year groups and types of problems on an annual basis. Some excellent case studies were received this year. They make powerful reading, and are a vivid reminder of the disordered and often bleak family circumstances many of our pupils have to cope with day to day. A selection of Case Studies, and a Selection of Poems, written by Learning Mentors and the pupils they support, was produced for the Celebration Conference in June 02 (copies available from EiC office, WEC).

7.7 For those Learning Mentors who work with pupils in year 11, a predicted and actual grades form has been devised, using SATS, CATS and/or YELLIS in order to identify improvements in outcomes. The work of Learning Mentors is only one, albeit important, factor in the whole raft of support available to pupils. . TRAINING

Learning Mentors 7.8 Training has remained the top priority for the Senior Learning Mentor during this period. A central training database has been established in order to manage completed training and the future training needs for individual Learning Mentors, whichever cohort they are in. (The third cohort came into post in September 02.)

National 5 day Learning Mentor training 7.9 All Learning Mentors from the first two cohorts completed the five-day National Training and have now received their certificate of attendance. A third cohort of Learning Mentors, funded from the additional funding released nationally to the Learning Mentor strand, started in September 02. 7.10 DfES no longer have a contract with Rotherham College to deliver the national training; their expectation is that it will be delivered locally, using on-line learning as well as local expertise. 7.11 We have decided to employ Assata Owen, a freelance trainer who helped to write the Learning Mentor National Training programme, to deliver some of the training in Wirral. The EiC Manager and Senior Learning Mentor will also have an input into the training, which will remain in its usual tried and tested format, that of group work and discussion to aid sharing of best practice and support networking, with on-line training kept to a minimum. There may be opportunities to join with other neighbouring Partnerships in order to share the costs.

MS1725/JM 16 NVQ Level 3 Portfolio (Qualification) 7.12 DfES are in the process of doing a mapping exercise to look at other forms of accreditation. In the meantime NVQs are no longer being financed by DfES; therefore, it is expected that LEAs pay £160.00 course fee and £12.00 registration fee for Mentors wishing to follow this route.

Local training 7.13 There continues to be an intense local training programme that runs alongside the 5-day national training. This training is organised in direct response to the expressed needs of the Learning Mentors. The majority of Learning Mentors reported that training sessions have been extremely informative and supportive. (See Appendix 19)

Co-ordinators/line managers 7.14 The training and support of Learning Mentor co-ordinators was identified as a priority last year, as well as the need to identify and disseminate good practice in management of the strand at school level. Representatives involved in the Learning Mentor strand from all EiC areas agree that providing adequate supervision and support for Learning Mentors continues to be problematic. Practice varies widely. We have explored potential training packages with both private providers and the National College for School Leadership, but neither was considered suitable. The DfES consultant, Anne Hayward, recommends that appropriate supportive supervision/line management comprises structured management supervision, which should ideally take place for one hour at least twice a month; and an agreed written record kept.

7.15 We have decided to hold an annual one day conference for co-ordinators, and hope to establish a termly twilight network meeting, which will celebrate and disseminate good practice. Prior to the initial conference we will ask coordinators to undertake their own skills analysis.

7.16 Sessions during the Spring Conference will include · a review of roles, with LMs and Coordinators, highlighting training needs for both; · benefits of effective LM support for School, Manager, Mentor and pupils; · developing effective management styles; emotional literacy; communication; relationships.

7.17 Participants will be encouraged to set a personal action plan.

Cluster Groups 7.18 Originally meetings took place sporadically between training sessions. At the outset, the four Cluster groups met separately, but this was not efficient use of the Senior Learning Mentor’s time; therefore, meetings now take place once a month, with the four cluster groups attending the same meeting. 7.19 The first half of the meeting is taken up with Senior Learning Mentor disseminating recent issues and then taking feedback from the Learning Mentors, and identifying training needs. Learning Mentors then meet in their respective groups. Scenarios are used to encourage discussions and sharing of best practice. Cluster groups are also used as a forum for training input from other agencies, local trainers and/or Learning Mentors.

Special Schools Project 7.20 A special schools grant of £72,000 is allocated annually from the Learning Mentor strand budget. Four Special schools, Clare Mount, Kilgarth, Meadowside and PASS have Learning Mentors. The Hospital School has yet to appoint a Learning Mentor, but plans to do so in April 2003. The Headteacher at Foxfield decided the initiative was not appropriate for his school. Reports from the Special Schools project show that this has

MS1725/JM 17 been a very successful initiative. The schools have used their own funds to supplement the cost of Learning Mentors, who do a varied and highly valued role in the schools involved. (See Appendix 20 for Special Schools reports.)

Additional Learning Mentor Funding 7.21 DfES confirmed the amount of additional funding for the Wirral’s Learning Mentor strand at £181,629 in 2002-03; £311,353 in 2003-04. 7.22 The process undertaken by the Partnership in order to decide how the additional funds should be spent is outlined in Appendix 21. 7.23 Gaps in provision were identified and the Partnership agreed that the funds should be allocated on the same formula as in the original plan. Headteachers were asked to complete a financial plan proforma provided by the steering group. Three schools did not submit plans, and there was some confusion over staffing costs; support assistants’ job descriptions; the percentage spent on non-staffing costs in 2 cases; and travel costs. These will be pursued by the steering group.

Learning Mentor Celebration 27.6.02 7.24 An exciting and stimulating celebration took place at Pacific Road Theatre, with a range of guests. The keynote speaker was Anne Hayward who is a consultant to DfES and was commissioned by them to write “Best Practice Guidelines for Learning Mentors” and “Best Practice Guidelines for Learning Support Unit Teachers”, (copies of which were handed out). Year 11 pupils from South Wirral High School devised their own excellent drama piece about the role of a Learning Mentor. A pupil from Bebington High School, who previously had been mentored, choreographed and danced his own dramatic and powerful piece. As a consequence of this he was offered a place on the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts Summer School. One of the Learning Mentors from Park High School gave an extremely informative presentation on the range of extra curricular support activities that she and her colleagues provide. The EiC Manager gave a presentation on the range of evidence from across Wirral Schools using the information from the trial Monitoring and Evaluation process that had recently been collated. 7.25 The three afternoon workshops were very useful: Partnership with parents and out of school agencies; Looked after Children in Education; Mental Health. 7.26 Learning Mentors’ comments after the event were extremely positive about all aspects of the day.

Connexions Wirral Guidance Network 7.27 Connexions on Wirral started in September 2001. Personal Advisers, like Learning Mentors, work in schools, and have a very similar job description to that of a Learning Mentor; therefore, there is a possibility of duplication of their roles. In order to broach this potential waste of resources, the Senior Learning Mentor approached Connexions to set-up, on-going, multi-agency meetings. These meetings include Personal Advisers, Learning Mentors, ESWOs and School Nurses and will take place three times a year. The meetings are to enable the sharing of each other’s practice, to look at case-loads, and to discuss ways forward that do not over lap. This will enable the Learning Mentors and Personal Advisers to maximise their resources and effectiveness.

Work with other members of the central EiC team in order to maximise interaction with other strands. 7.28 It was agreed that G&T co-ordinators, Excellence Challenge co-ordinators and Learning Mentors would work across the strands at school level and that they meet each other once a term. The central EiC team continues communication via twice-monthly EiC team meetings to support any initiatives that might develop from localised networking.

MS1725/JM 18 Learning Mentor budget breakdown 7.29 (See appendix 22).

Priorities for academic year 2002-2003 7.30 Ÿ Improve social inclusion for pupils, in particular through working to improve attendance through the dissemination of good practice in this area. · To continue support for the Co-ordinators. To ensure training takes place, which will enable them to share best practice and to gain effective Line Management skills. · To continue supporting Learning Mentors with appropriate training, information and support. · Senior Learning Mentor to complete the Diploma for Personal Advisers - Connexions Services training; attend training that is appropriate to her role.

LEARNING SUPPORT UNITS

Aim of the strand 8.0 The function of a Learning Support Unit (LSU) is to create space within a school to provide short term, positive help for students whose disruptive behaviour is creating problems in mainstream classes, both for themselves and their peers. Placing such pupils in an LSU enables their peers to concentrate on their own work, thus raising attainment. Work within the LSU aims to engage the pupil, to work with families, carers and other outside involved agencies to address any issues which may be causing barriers to learning. The aim is to keep disaffected young people in school, to increase self-esteem, to develop skills which enable them to manage their emotions, to raise their educational attainment, to improve attendance and to reduce exclusions. LSUs should be seen as short-term intervention with the end result being reintegration back into the classroom or into an alternative appropriate educational placement. Learning mentors are often used to aid the reintegration process.

8.1 The DfES has produced Good Practice Guidelines for Learning Support Units this year. The teachers in charge of the LSUs in each Wirral school attended an initial training session promoting this guidance. The guidelines focus on good practice throughout the country, offering specific examples which can be customised in order to facilitate continual improvement in schools. Critical success factors are embedded in a whole school approach and understanding of the purpose of the LSU, with clear lines of communication, referral and reintegration procedures. Time for planning and evaluation should be given priority as should opportunities for training in behaviour management, both for LSU staff and all school staff. Support of senior management is vital, as is the commitment to the ethos of the LSU by the whole school.

Progress 8.2 16 Wirral Schools have opted to develop Learning Support Units.

8.3 All but one of these schools now has an LSU in place and operational. In one school the LSU has been part time in 2001-2002 but plans to develop full time provision in the next year. It is inevitable that these LSUs will differ in practice, as each school has developed their LSUs taking into account a variety of factors. The geography of the school may dictate which key stage the LSU applies to, if, for instance the school is on a split site. If the available room is small, or is in a separate provision within the school grounds this will have a bearing on the management of the unit. Staff availability, teaching commitment and timetabling will affect the staffing of the LSUs.

8.4 The LSUs are designed to fit with the ethos of individual schools and will need to operate within the existing pastoral systems. All LSUs serve those pupils who are disaffected or for whom mainstream classes present a difficulty although the operational management of the units differs from school to school. Schools differ in how they mange the LSU, for MS1725/JM 19 example one may provide full time placement in the LSU for a fixed period of a half term; a second school provides all part time negotiated placements in the LSU for variable lengths of time; a third school provides a mixture of provision, both full and part time across the age range. Although there is of necessity a divergence of practice, there is a common commitment to the pupils served by the LSUs and a consistency of approach across all schools.

8.5 In 2 Wirral schools the LSU is focussed on the lower school, with alternative curriculum placements for the Upper School, while the other schools use the LSUs to cater for pupils across the age range. It has been noted that while the age mix in the units does not present a problem, the dynamics of mixing particular individuals should be taken into account.

8.6 It is also noticeable that more boys than girls spend time in LSUs.

Training 8.7 During the year there have been several opportunities for training which have been attended by the staff of the LSUs. Wirral Child and Family Health Service facilitated a day discussing mental health issues and behavioural problems such as ADHD.

8.8 A colleague working in a Knowsley Area LSU facilitated a session in which the model used in Knowsley was explained and issues arising from this were explored. The Co- ordinators of LSUs attended a one day conference by Ann Hayward, consultant to DfES, on good practice in managing LSUs. This linked in with the DfES publication of Good Practice guidelines, written by Ann Hayward. Staff of LSUs were also offered places at workshops available at the Learning Mentor conference. Workshops covered such issues as: Looked after Children Education; Partnership with home and other agencies; and Mental Health. Solutions Focussed Brief Therapy training (which aims to look at future actions which will help, rather than explore the past for reasons to explain behaviour), has been offered to LSU staff on two occasions.

8.9 It should be noted that any courses offered during the school day are not as well attended as those after school. Problems of day to day management of LSUs mean that teachers are reluctant to take time out of school for their own personal development and training. This is an issue that is to be addressed in the coming year, through developing the training to be offered in twilight sessions.

Monitoring and evaluation 8.10 The consistency within the diverse LSUs’ practice was highlighted in a positive, independent evaluation of LSUs in Wirral and Halton carried out in 2002 by Phil Mervyn, the external consultant employed by the Greater Mersey Phase 2 EiC Partnerships. (Appendix 23) 8.11 Within Wirral, the Inclusion/Reintegration Officer has dedicated time of half a day each week to oversee the monitoring and evaluation of the LSUs. This involves visits to the schools, a questionnaire monitoring exercise, ongoing training programme and the co- ordination of network meetings for the staff in LSUs. 8.12 Without doubt the LSUs contribute to the overall achievement of the schools. Recent evaluation (Appendix 24) provided evidence that the LSUs have prevented exclusions. Qualitative evidence has been gathered from the questionnaires and from feedback at network meetings from the staff involved. It is evident that work in LSUs has not yet fully contributed to a reduction in exclusions, or improved attendance in the school as a whole, but it has been successful in re-engaging many pupils who would otherwise have not attended school or who would have spent their time being disruptive, adversely affecting both their own and others’ education. Improved relationships, completion of course work and entry for examinations, improved post 16 engagement and correct

MS1725/JM 20 identification of needs have all been cited as evidence of the ongoing success of the LSUs in schools. 8.13 The LEA evaluation also highlighted the following areas for improvement: · Reintegration back into class is often difficult and needs to be supported by the philosophy of the whole school. Teaching staff need be aware of any ongoing issues for pupils, and not expect a miracle ‘cure’. · There is a need to address the issue of dependency. · Some pupils feel protected and secure in the LSU, and reintegration into mainstream class can be difficult. · All Senior Management must wholly endorse the ethos of the LSU. · Curricular support and the collating of information is difficult for some LSUs. This is important to ensure the relevant subject matter is available to the pupils in the units. · There is a further need to build up multi agency links and support, and opening up networks of communication between the agencies working with young people. 8.14 The good practice referred to and the difficulties experienced by schools mirror the national picture cited in the DfES Good Practice Guidelines. They will form the basis for ongoing training programmes for the staff of the LSUs.

Funding 8.15 Funding of the LSUs comes from a variety of sources, with most schools using not only EiC money but also Social Inclusion Pupil Support Grant (SIPS) funding and vireing monies from other sources to make further provision, including from their Learning Mentor allocation. This is the only vireing which EiC allows.

Future priorities 8.16 Ÿ The development of tools for self evaluation will enable schools to identify their own strengths and highlight areas for improvement. · The dissemination of good practice across Wirral to support improved behaviour management as part of a whole school strategy to promote inclusion. · Training needs for staff of LSUs identified from evaluation and network meetings will be given priority in future training. · Network meetings to be re-established half-termly, both to share good practice and to provide time for some training. · Greater Merseyside Area Network meetings will be arranged on a termly basis. This will widen the identification of good practice and will facilitate the possibility of area training. A conference to celebrate the work done in LSUs across the Greater Merseyside region is to be arranged for the end of 2003.

Future Training 8.17 Ÿ There is no central funding for training of LSU staff. In Wirral, money will be vired from the central funds in the Learning Mentor strand to provide for some of the necessary training. 8.18 The training programme will include: · Independent assessment · SEN issues, including the new Code Of Practice · Self evaluation framework · Indicators for baseline assessment · The importance of a whole school approach to behavioural management · Reintegration issues · Emotional literacy · Multi agency working; clarification of the roles of other agencies.

MS1725/JM 21 SPECIALIST STRAND

SPECIALIST SCHOOLS

Aim of the Strand

9.0 This strand aims to increase the range and diversity of schools by allowing them to build on particular strengths in one of eight specialisms in order to raise standards as part of whole school improvement. The specialisms were originally technology, sports, languages and arts. To these have been added science; engineering; maths and computing; and business enterprise. The good practice and expertise which schools develop will enable them to become a source of enrichment for neighbouring schools and their pupils, in both the secondary and primary phases. Funding includes an amount for an initial capital programme and revenue guaranteed for four years in the first instance, 40% of which must be spent on a community programme. If the schools meet their targets, they can re-apply for a further four years of funding. Before EiC, Wirral had two specialist Technology Colleges, at Calday Grange Grammar School and Plessington Catholic High School, and one specialist Language College at Wirral Grammar School for Girls.

9.1 In September 02, the DfES announced that all secondary schools in our EiC area could now apply for specialist status, even if they were for example, already hosting a CLC. Schools will still need to meet the demanding criteria, and be able to provide £50,000 in sponsorship. The Partnership’s original plans have been amended. See Appendix 25a for a table of the intended specialisms.

Progress

9.2 There has been considerable progress this year in terms of disseminating the good practice developed in the established specialist schools amongst all Wirral’s secondary schools. This has been largely the result of the networks established through the Specialist Strand Steering Group, and through the collaboration of their directors with subject inspectors. This dissemination remains a priority for development, especially as more specialist schools come on board. Finding the sponsorship money remains extremely problematic; it will be made increasingly difficult as more schools seek sponsorship. The management of the web of links with primary schools is becoming more demanding, as the strand grows in size and complexity. See Appendix 25a for all named partner schools.

Progress in individual specialist schools

LANGUAGE COLLEGE

Wirral Grammar School for Girls

9.3 Our activities last year focused on raising the standards of achievement in modern foreign languages. Pupils from our own school, or partner schools, and other local schools were therefore offered opportunities to enhance their language learning: · Twilight classes: Pupils studied the ABC Practical Languages course in the following languages: Spanish/ Russian/ Welsh/ Mandarin Chinese/ Italian · ICT facilities: We have new language software to support pupils’ learning · Lunchtime clubs: clubs where pupils can improve their language skills through games, songs, etc. We run these clubs jointly with Wirral Grammar School for Boys · Clinics: lunchtime clinics where pupils receive individual help

MS1725/JM 22 · GCSE Revision Sessions: a series of after-school classes for Year 11 pupils, which were attended by pupils from other schools as well · Links abroad: We have formed links with schools in France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain so that pupils can participate in exchange visits. Pupils e-mail their partners in advance to begin contact and to develop their language skills. · Staff INSET: MFL staff from our own school and partner schools have been able to attend training to update their skills. · Fast-track GCSE: 16 pupils followed a fast-track Spanish GCSE course, entering a year early. This allows them to take up another language (Italian) in Year 11. All 16 pupils gained A/A* grades.

9.4 We have developed cross-curricular projects to encourage cultural awareness: · Comenius Project: We have accessed funding to link with schools in Germany, Denmark and Poland. Pupils e-mail each other, exchanging information about their daily lives. This will develop into an on-line magazine, with an international editorial team. This project will enable many departments to become involved, and it helps to develop pupils’ ICT skills. · Grammar Guide: A visit to Germany helped to inform the writing of the school’s Grammar Guide, which every pupils now has. · RE: The RE department has developed links with a school in The Gambia. · Art: We provided an Italian teacher to team-teach in Year 9 Art. The pupils also attended twilight Italian classes. · Graphics: We teach a joint course: GCSE Graphics with GNVQ Language units in German. We took pupils to Germany as part of this course. In 2002-2003 we will extend this to teach Spanish. · International Telescope project: Through this link with Liverpool John Moores University, we have formed an Astronomy Club, and 1 Year 9 pupil gained a place on a visit to Japan for 2 weeks.

Community Links:

9.5 As a Language College, we run language clubs in 7 local primary schools, and Lyndale Special School: French and Spanish. Pupils from these schools have had the opportunity to use the software. Our 6th form pupils help to run these clubs. We have organised training sessions for primary teachers, and we have also run a European day for primary schools. We hosted 7 of the LEA’s language INSET sessions. We provide resources for local MFL teachers, and primary teachers. We offer a full programme of evening Adult and Community classes: French; Italian; German; Spanish; Russian; Mandarin Chinese; Japanese; and the European Computer Driving Licence. Last year, 350 adults were enrolled on our courses, and many are returning to continue with their language learning. We provided Spanish tuition for the Liverpool Navigators last year, and we have also worked in collaboration with the Wirral Town Guide Service.

Priorities for 2002-2003:

9.6 Ÿ Italian: We have now placed Italian within the curriculum, teaching at year 8, and also Year 11 (ABC Practical languages). · Japanese: We have a Japanese Internship student this year, who will team-teach to encourage pupils’ cultural awareness. She will also run twilight, staff and adult classes. She will contribute to Citizenship and PSE, and work for one afternoon a week in a primary school. · Food technology: This year we are linking French with food Technology. · Greenbank High School, Sefton: We have gained £20,000 funding from the DfES for a joint project to enable pupils to work together. They will learn Italian, and will work to develop a joint performance through Art and Drama classes, which will be

MS1725/JM 23 performed in Wirral, Southport and Italy. Pupils will have access to improved on-line resources to support their language learning. · Partner secondary schools: This year, we will focus on developing links with South Wirral High School. Year 7 pupils will start e-mailing each other and will develop contacts. We will also develop further links with our other partner schools: Ridgeway, Woodchurch and Wirral Boys. · Teacher training: Again this year, we will mentor 2 PGCE students through John Moores University, and provide a day’s ICT training for PGCE students from Liverpool Hope University.

SPORTS COLLEGES

Bebington High School 9.7 Bebington High School gained designation as a Specialist Sports College with effect from September 2001 late in the previous academic year, as a result of this late designation progress has been slower than anticipated. The management structure was completed in December 2001 with the appointment of a Director of Sport, an Assistant Director and a Community Co-ordinator to start from January 2002. Effectively the operation of the Sports College began in January this year and it is from the January baseline that the final report will offer comparatives.

Community Action

Primary Family 9.8 At the initial Sports College management meeting, Head teachers and PE co-ordinators from our four named primary ‘family schools’ (Higher Bebington, Brackenwood, Stanton Road and St Andrews) expressed their support for the project. Ten hours per week were dedicated from the Bebington staff allocation towards developing sports within this family of schools to meet identified need. 9.9 The process of co-ordinating this outreach work and the training of the Sports college staff in KS2 programmes was completed by Easter and in the summer term we ran a very successful series of curriculum support programmes with staff visiting primary schools to teach junior classes during curriculum time and primary groups visiting Bebington High School for lessons with sports college staff and Junior Sports Leaders. Sports college staff (supported by Community Sports Leaders Award students from our sixth form) also ran a series of extra curricular coaching sessions for our primary partners. 9.10 A planned commonwealth festival was our only disappointment as dates offered could not be mutually agreed (this was due to some extent to poor communication on our behalf) and as a result the planned festival could not be staged. The disappointment of this was lessened somewhat as we staged instead a series of school based Yr 5&6 TOPS school Sportsday events. 9.11 A number of our Yr 10 &11 JSLA students have helped to officiate at the series of junior athletics tournaments organised by the Wirral sports development officers. 9.12 n anticipation of furthering our impact on our primary partners all of the sports college staff have undertaken training in TOPS courses and this year we have allocated twelve hours of staff time to primary partnership, including 2 hours per week for a Dance specialist requested specifically by a number of our partners. 9.13 We are also focussing on the development of a transitional reporting system to which end we are investing £3000 in a research project over the next three years and through which we hope to produce a simple school pack to aid reporting on pupil progress at KS2 in all schools within the authority.

Secondary Partnership

MS1725/JM 24 9.14 The onset of our building project has had a huge impact on our ability to offer much of the support and facilitation intended in our first year. The capital grant from DFES has been used in conjunction with our PFI project to enable the building of a full size sports hall, fitness suite, dance studio and an ICT suite for PE students. We have successfully gained Seed Challenge funding to equip the fitness suite. In order to accommodate this, however, we have had to lose a gymnasium and in the intervening period our on site facilities have been severely incapacitated. We have also been seeking to gain extra funding to develop an almost un-useable gravel area into an astro-turf pitch to further improve our on site facilities. Despite this we have been actively continuing to increase our levels of participation in inter school sport and we have facilitated INSET for TOPS football and run a series of girls football festivals inviting not only our family schools but schools from across the authority. 9.15 Staff from the Sports College have also offered support to colleagues in ICT in PE, baseline assessment and fundraising for sport, in curriculum time, in a number of schools within the authority.

Wider Community 9.16 Staff from the Sports College have forged close links with the sports development officers and now sit on development groups in a number of sports. We are actively recruiting a range of coaches to support the continuing development of sport in the area. 9.17 We have worked closely with LEA officers (whose support has been vital and much appreciated) to help in developing policies and working towards a Wirral plan for sport. 9.18 We have developed close links with John Moores University and particularly Liverpool Hope University with extra mentor training and a partnership training plan. We are also in the process of building links into the Hope University web site to create a database of teaching and learning resources that will be accessible to all teachers.

School Action 9.19 Staff within the PE department have experienced a series of training courses aimed at developing their skills in particular areas of the curriculum including KS2/3 development, Examination preparation and, Junior Sports Leaders Award/Community Sports Leaders Award, Citizenship and a range of sport specific courses. This, alongside our continuing relationships with ITT institutions, has helped to extend the range and style of learning experiences available to pupils. 9.20 The PE department has been instrumental in the development of a number of initiatives including the facilitation of residential courses for disaffected pupils. 9.21 Our commitment to out of hours learning has literally exploded with a vast range of opportunities for pupils and staff to become involved in extra curricular sport. We now run morning clubs, lunchtime clubs and after school clubs which are open to pupils of all ability as well as the traditional school team fixtures and practices. 9.22 We have also introduced a specific PE mentoring programme and an after school study group and in the run up to the summer exams we ran a series of Saturday morning study clubs. This year we have already run a series of residential courses for our GCSE students at Oaklands Outdoor Centre where we have been building a framework for a subject support course which will soon be offered to partner schools. 9.23 As a result of this we were pleased to see 79% of our GCSE PE students gain A*-C grades with 100% gaining A-D. 9.24 The Sports College staff have also lead whole school INSET in learning strategies and have contributed to a wide range of cross-curricular projects including producing T-shirts for PE with the Technology department and interviewing foreign footballers in their native tongue at Liverpool FC with the Languages department. 9.25 We regained the Sportsmark award in September 2002. 9.26 We are proud of the enormous efforts of our learning support team in the provision for disabled sport. Our disability sport club has frequently represented the Wirral in disabled

MS1725/JM 25 swimming; Boccia and Wheelchair Basketball, sweeping the sheet clean in the Merseyside Youth Games.

PRIORITIES 9.27 Ÿ Increased staffing to enable more primary support. · One member of our team has been seconded to the authority to act as a School Sports Co-ordinator within the Wallasey area, to share good practice and to form stronger links across the authority. · We hope to appoint a Community Sports Development Officer for 17.5 hours per week to coincide with the completion of our facilities with an aim of increasing our community and out of hours programmes even further. · We are constantly seeking to improve the quality of provision and of teaching and learning within the school and have included a transitional programme for year 7 pupils based upon what we have learned from our primary links, to try to overcome the much reported KS3 slump in attainment · A revised assessment, recording and reporting structure which we hope to disseminate within the year · The development of the ‘Step into Sport’ programme as a natural extension to the current pilot scheme will be underway now that we have staff qualified as teacher trainers · The development of a joint KS2-3 transitional summer school in partnership with STAR EAZ · The development of an academy structure to host a Junior Athlete Education project with gifted performers from across the Authority in a range of sports in conjunction with Tranmere Rovers and a range of governing bodies and Authority personnel. Park High School Participation and Uptake 9.28 This has increased significantly both on a curricular and out of hour’s basis. A researcher has been appointed to collate and analyse data of frequency of participation, uptake and drop out and factors affecting this. Information and data will be used in curriculum planning so as to ensure the engagement of pupils in Physical Education, Sport and Dance. An extensive out of hour’s programme has been implemented with an increase in the quality, accessibility and diversity of activities. All pupils undertake accredited courses in either GCSE Physical Education, and GCSE Dance or GNVQ Leisure and Tourism. All pupils undertake JSLA Sports Leadership qualifications. 9.29 Examination Targets TARGET SET ACHIEVED TARGETS DESCRIPTORS (Year 1) (Year 1) % 5 or more A*-C 27% 35% % pupils achieving 5 A*-G 77% 90% % pupils accessing GCSE PE Increase 5% 25% % pupils attaining A*-C GCSE PE 27% 45% % pupils attaining A*-G GCSE PE 80% 96% % Attendance 80% 87.4%

9.30 Coach Education and Development An open door policy exists to enable community access. Teachers, parents, coaches and sports development officers have assessed a wide range of sport/activity related courses. A more extensive programme is planned for

MS1725/JM 26 year 2 to include gymnastics, aerobics, disability coaching, rugby and non-specific sport such as AOTT’s courses, sports administration and Child Protection courses. Networking with community groups has resulted in an increasing demand for training opportunities, as well as amongst groups wishing to increase employability.

Early Years – Top Start 13 Refresher Trampoline for Teachers 15 Coach Level 1 Trampoline 49 Golf Leaders Course for Teachers 5 Primary Sports Day Tool Kit Training 8 JSLA / CSLA – Tutor training (Leadership) 22 ICT for PE teachers 15 Total No. of Teachers / AOTT’s / Parents 127

9.31 Having completed training to coach level. AOTT’s are registered on the Wirral Register of Coaches. As part of our commitment, we are administrating this register to ensure quality assurance in terms of CRB clearance, references and insurance and the verification of qualifications. At present there are 180 coaches being registered and the number is increasing. We work with the LEA and Sports Development Unit to ensure that this registration is strategic and corporate.

9.32 Leadership. This has been assimilated into the PSHE curriculum and all Year 10 and Year 11 pupils will undertake the course, on a rolling programme. This has also been promoted within the community. As a result pupils acting as leaders have organised events such as the Commonwealth Baton Relay, a trip to the Games for a primary school and the Grosvenor project has taken leaders to Romanian Orphanages. Leaders are then deployed in community settings.

9.33 Early Years. Successes to date include the formation of an Early Years Steering Group. A Saturday Drop and Shop at Portland Primary (14 families – activities, numeracy and literacy qualifications), Pre-School Gymnastics Programme at Wirral Gymnastics Centre (4 schools catering for 100 children and increasing to 6 schools in Year 2), Working in partnership with Star EAZ we piloted an induction activity programme for nurseries at Barnston Dale Centre. Uptake across Birkenhead and Rock Ferry nurseries was 100 children with 100 parents. There have also been many individual successes from each of these programmes. The Saturday Drop and Shop is now run by parents who have been trained and accredited through various training programmes. Parents have also accessed training and through partnership with Active Communities other activity groups are being launched in Bidston Avenue Primary School. Other successful projects include a minibus loan scheme for schools and clubs, out of hours support for partner schools, transition 6/7 clubs, transition schemes of work and coach support.

9.34 Family of Schools. The family of schools have benefited by accessing a variety of initiatives. Staff from Kilgarth school have used our facilities and expertise on both a curricular and extra-curricular level, and a member of their staff team teaches with our PE department one afternoon a week. Pupils from Claremount School have integrated for leadership courses, and leaders have assisted on the summer activity programme at Foxfield. Other schools have accessed Inset, the minibus loan scheme, pre-school

MS1725/JM 27 gymnastics, teeny tots activity days, and all schools utilize the coach register which we administrate.

9.35 The Out of Hours Programme has expanded to include many of the traditional team games and sports, as well as minority activities such as martial arts, handball, and street dance. The programme offers numerous activities all nights of the week and is very popular.

TECHNOLOGY COLLEGES Phase 2 Year 1

Plessington Roman Catholic High School: phase 2, Year 1 9.36 This has been another very successful year as Phase 2 Year 1 has provided us with new opportunities to enhance the teaching and learning opportunities for our staff and pupils and also for an increased number of our partner primary schools and non-specialist secondary school partners.

Whole School Community 9.37 The sharing of excellence in Mathematics, Science and Design Technology amongst our partner primary schools has been very successful this year with similar dissemination via ICT scheduled for this term. The foundations for annual Gifted and Talented inter-school programmes are in place though this will develop further over the next two years as part of the rolling programme. The literacy support programme for six Year 6 pupils has been arranged for the summer term involving St John’s and hopefully extending to St Anne’s and the link with a non-specialist secondary partner (Rock Ferry High School) is being developed through Design and Technology.

Science 9.38 The partner schools’ and Community Targets have all been met and delivery will continue through to July. In addition to providing the First Aid Course for the community, scientific investigation work has been done with pupils in our partner primary schools where they were involved in planning, implementing, analysing and evaluating scientific investigations. 9.39 We continue to maintain strong links with Unilever (Community Scientist), John Moore’s and Liverpool Universities (visiting lecturers) and the Nuffield Bursary Scheme (Gold Crest Award).

Design and Technology 9.40 Within the Community phase the first targets have been successfully completed; the third link with our partner schools started in January 2002. To date we have received some excellent feedback concerning the use of the cam machine and the training/support provided. Links have been established with Rock Ferry High School to work together to develop schemes of work for KS3 pupils. This link will be developed further through the summer term and into next academic year. ICT 9.41 A number of Year 9 pupils have been acting as on-line mentors for weak and disaffected Year 6 pupils in our partner schools. Additionally all pupils in Years 9 and 10 now have access to a full GNVQ qualification via multimedia/on-line delivery with two-thirds of the cohort taking the Intermediate Level. The CISCO Challenge Day is scheduled for June 14th 2002 with half-termly CISCO Academy Days to enhance practical skills of teachers and motivation of students. Partner primary pupils are scheduled to attend Plessington on three Saturday mornings during this term and the specialist equipment loan system is now operational.

MS1725/JM 28 Calday Grange Grammar School: phase 2, Year 1

Primary Links 9.42 Calday has been successful in its bid for Technology College Funding for the next four years. The school will continue its work with Maths, Science & Technology with its link primary schools. The expertise and equipment that the school can provide for primary school children has been much appreciated by these link primary schools. During the last few years specialist Maths, Science and Technology teachers from Calday have each devoted one afternoon per week to teaching in one of the link primary schools. The activities undertaken have been diverse -ranging from extension work for the able students, after-school Mathematics Clubs, projects involving the use of ICT, video and sound. Much specialist equipment has been purchased by Calday for the benefit of primary school students. The school has also run a problem-solving day for primary school pupils - Calday & the Community Technology Initiative (CACTI). Pupils from the primary sector have travelled to Calday to spend an afternoon in the ICT rooms and have been taught by Calday 6th form students. The school web page (www.secondaryschoolsonline.co.uk/caldaygrange) hosts regular Mathematics problems for pupils from the primary sector to attempt. It is hoped that over the course of the next few years much more useful material for all sectors of education will be hosted on our website. It is also hoped that evening ICT classes can be run on behalf of Hoylake Holy Trinity School and West Kirby Primary School. 9.43 Further links need to be developed with the secondary sector. The school has already hosted INSET training in Design Technology and hopes to continue this. As [email protected] develops secondary links, there are obvious opportunities for co-operation between us and the CLC in the areas of science & technology. It is hoped that further links can be developed with Hilbre High School in the area of science and technology. Talks have already begun on the need to develop collaborative processes in the 16-18 age group. As a British Aerospace partner school, we hope to further develop expertise in systems engineering which can then be shared with both primary and secondary schools. 9.44 Through EIC & the Wirral Able Child Centre based at Calday enrichment activities in maths, science and technology will continue, for gifted and talented pupils across the Borough. 9.45 As a Technology College specialising in Maths, Science, Technology & ICT, the school continues to set targets to improve and develop its own performance and expertise in these areas.

NEW SPECIALIST COLLEGES: SEPTEMBER 02 START

MEDIA ARTS SPECIALIST COLLEGE Weatherhead High School

9.46 Weatherhead High School became a Media Arts Specialist College in September 2002. It is the first Arts College of any type on the Wirral, and the first on Merseyside to specialise in Media. 9.47 Weatherhead’s aim is to ensure that the new media technologies are available to everyone associated with the school, that they are able to receive advice and training in their use, and that they are able to apply them in any creative way which may be appropriate. 9.48 An extensive team has been appointed to deliver the aims, including two media technician/demonstrators whose job will include working directly with people to support them in filming and editing digital video, sound recording, the creative use of IT and so on. 9.49 Already the school has met with partner schools to discuss the projects in the Community Plan and to offer support in a variety of ways. Weatherhead’s partners are

MS1725/JM 29 Mosslands, Foxfield, Elleray Park, Egremont, Greenleas, Liscard, Mount, Poulton and St George’s. A project involving research into the application of cutting edge computer technology in the classroom is under way with The International Centre for Digital Technology at John Moores University. Teachers from all of our partner schools will also be invited to work with an Artist in Residence in the Spring Term to produce, with pupils, artwork created through the use of contemporary technologies. This will combine work from a Director and Company in Residence to form the basis for a celebration in June. 9.50 Amongst other projects planned for this year, The University of Liverpool is running Creative Arts courses for adults in Weatherhead as part of their programme for Continuing Education. The Royal National Theatre is taking up residence in the school for a week in February when pupils from a number of schools will have the opportunity to see a special production of ‘The Tempest’ followed by masterclasses in Shakespeare aimed at Year 9, 10 and sixth form pupils in English and Drama. Pupils from the school will be contributing to the Technology Colleges Trust’s Arts Conference in Manchester, producing two workshops on sound technology in conjunction with the Ariel Trust, and Wirral’s Buzz FM radio station. 9.51 Alongside this year’s activities, many other innovatory aspects in the school’s Media Arts Development plans will be prepared for implementation in the new school in Breck Road from September 2003.

ENGINEERING COLLEGE Woodchurch High School

9.52 Having successfully bid for Engineering College status, Woodchurch High School is now in the process of planning for two new technology rooms to be built during this academic year which will contain modern high specification computer aided design and manufacture equipment. In addition, money from the capital grant will be used to begin a rolling programme of refurbishment of the science laboratories. 9.53 During the first year, Woodchurch intends to work closely with its primary school partners (Prenton Junior, Overchurch Junior Schools and Arrowe Hill, Woodchurch C of E and Fender Primary Schools) in developing teaching skills in the areas of Technology, Science, Maths and ICT. In addition groups of Woodchurch High pupils will attend the Laird Foundation and Wirral Metropolitan College to follow new double GCSE courses in Engineering. 9.54 Once the new rooms have been built, local engineering companies will be able to access the new facilities, sending their employees for further training on the new computer aided equipment.

9.55 The school is also working closely with local groups to further enhance the facilities available for community access. This will link with the opening of an UK-Online centre and will see local people utilising the Engineering facilities to help develop skills for employment.

St Anselm’s College and Upton Hall School FCJ Joint Technology College

9.56 The St Anselm’s College and Upton Hall School FCJ Joint Technology College was granted its new status in September 2002 and is the first of its kind within the Partnership; indeed joint ventures of this nature are unusual nationally. The College’s main aim is to develop a learning community that makes use of cutting edge technologies and practises innovation through a greater range of teaching and learning styles.

9.57 Plans for the schools’ section include greater use of ICT hardware to support more varied teaching approaches and to support student learning. In addition to the more

MS1725/JM 30 familiar ICT hardware, other facilities such as an inflatable planetarium will add interest to the experience offered for the learners. The development of a joint website and intranet will enable students to access learning resources from home. Technology days and Degree Shows will extend parental involvement.

9.58 The Community dimension of the Joint Bid includes links with Partnership schools at both Primary and Secondary level, as well as return learners in Beechwood, Noctorum and Birkenhead North & Central through the Liverpool Hope REACHout tm Project and Surestart programme. The Birkenhead Chamber of Commerce will benefit from Conference facilities at the St Anselm’s site.

9.59 Given its unusual nature, this new joint Technology College strengthens the Partnership’s commitment to increasing collaboration and sharing of good practice. It is an exciting and innovative project that will strengthen technological awareness and expertise both within the schools and the community locally. 9.60 South Wirral High School’s bid for Performing Arts status was postponed from the previous year. Staff had considerable difficulties in raising the £50,000 sponsorship money needed to support its bid, which was finally submitted in October 02.

CITY LEARNING CENTRES

Aim of the Strand

10.0 City Learning Centres (CLCs) are intended to provide a new building, of modern and eco-friendly design, which is at the centre of cutting edge technology. CLCs will be at the centre of the development of innovative teaching and learning, using ICT across the curriculum and across the phases, both in and out of schools hours. Although sited in a host secondary school, the facilities are to be shared by both secondary and primary partner schools, and also by the community. The CLC is expected to make a significant contribution to provision for those youngsters identified as gifted and talented; it also has a key role in the provision of study support.

PROGRESS

10.1 There has been considerable progress in this strand with the successful opening of the Learning Lighthouse hosted by Wallasey School, and the near completion of the impressive CLC hosted by Ridgeway High School. There is already a very clear structural outline for [email protected], the third CLC. The three CLCs work closely together through regular meetings of the CLC steering group, which links, via the Chair, into the cross-LEA ICT strategy group and through the GI (ICT and DT) into the broader training networks of Wirral. Each of the CLCs is developing its own distinct specialisms and ethos: Learning Lighthouse: arts and multi-media Discovery: science West Wirral Works: DT and CAD/CAM. 10.2 However, there is a great deal of shared expertise and common working practices. All Wirral’s secondary schools are linked to one individual CLC, but the programmes on offer at individual CLCs will be widely available. Primary schools are expected to gain a great deal from the use of CLCs. 10.3 `There are considerable implications for the CLCs from BBC Project Merseyside, an exciting, complex 3-year project which has five strands: radio in schools, curriculum resources, robotics family learning, family/primary languages and age 14-24 informal skills training. The CLCs across Merseyside are seen as crucial to the project, places in which much of the development work can happen and be shared through their networks.

MS1725/JM 31 10.4 New DfES guidance with regard to the independent management of the CLC as a shared resource, is to be published in Autumn 02.

THE DISCOVERY CITY LEARNING CENTRE – NOCTORUM

10.5 This project has been successful in linking a number of Wirral strategic lifelong learning and regeneration strategies into a coherent facility for Birkenhead schools and communities adjacent to the site at Ridgeway High School. The project, initially funded by DfES, meets the lifelong learning aims and objectives of Wirral Education and Cultural Services Department, Wirral Waterfront (SRB6), New Opportunities on Wirral (SRB4), and the Learning and Skills Council. We have capitalised on this synergy and combined the resources of all partners to fund a £2million capital project. We have also attracted sponsorship from the private sector with Zumtobal/Luxmate funding a state of the art lighting and lighting control scheme and Unilever Research Laboratories donating furniture and equipment.

10.6 As a result of the combined funding, along with the 5 ICT rooms and a laboratory, the Discovery will now contain additional areas of two dedicated adult learning ICT rooms, a creche, a much enhanced public library with 10 open access computers, a conference facility for 150-180 delegates with full audio visual services; it also has the benefit of a large car park. The building project is scheduled for completion in late autumn and we will be fully open in January 03.

10.7 The secondary partner schools, Park High, Upton Hall, Woodchurch and Ridgeway, are working together to identify projects to be undertaken by the CLC for their benefit. 12 named primary schools are also partners in the project (St Peter’s Noctorum, Bidston Avenue, Townfield, Hillside, Manor, Woodchurch Road, Oxton St Saviours, St Michael and All Angels, Overchurch, Bidston St Oswald’s, St Joseph’s Woodchurch Road, St Paul’s Prenton) but we expect to be working with a much greater number of schools. Opening projects identified include a programme of training sessions for staff from primary and secondary sectors in the use of PowerPoint and interactive whiteboards, introductory sessions to the capability of the CLC and a taster session for both primary and secondary pupils. The provision of a wide range of software will allow many more projects to develop over time.

10.8 The Adult and Community learning at The Discovery CLC will be closely linked into existing provision in other areas of Wirral and we are liaising with the LEA, Birkenhead Sixth Form College and the public libraries, as well as consulting with community members in order to provide an invigorating service in Noctorum. Creche facilities are being organised to complement this provision.

10.9 The formal opening will take place in Spring 2003 and we have been asked to invite an Education Minister to attend the ceremony.

LEARNING LIGHTHOUSE - WALLASEY

Teaching and Learning

10.10 Although the Learning Lighthouse has only been opened for a half term it has already providing an exciting learning environment for the host school, partner schools both primary and secondary and the local community. A number of staff development sessions have also taken place as well as a highly successful G@T summer school ‘seashore searches’– see Appendix 26.

MS1725/JM 32 10.11 Most visits to the CLC were logged and of the 1978 logged between 28 May and 26 July. 1606 of these were secondary and 204 primary. Other staff not associated with a particular school, parents and visitors accounted for the remaining 168. The average time per visit was between 1 and 2 hours (See Appendix 27 for a breakdown of logged usage.) Given that the CLC was only open for the last half term of the year, it is not surprising that usage by secondary schools, other than Wallasey School was, not great. However, this year the CLC will be proactive in increasing secondary usage.

Governance

10.12 The Learning Lighthouse Mission statement has been reviewed and a number of policy documents finalised. These include our main objectives, Internet and E-mail policies, acceptable use/user agreement documents, Financial procedures, Performance Management/Key issues, Quality Assurance, Equal Opportunities and grievance procedures.

10.13 The priorities for development 2002-3 are: · Video Editing (all curriculum areas) · Audio capture for video and multimedia applications (all curriculum areas) · Music Technology support of GCSE music, AS/A2 music and music technology · Soundbeam in performance (dance and drama) · Virtual Reality (all curriculum areas) · Sports Analysis software and hardware (PE) · GIS software (accessing demographic data across all curriculum areas) · Links to weather satellites and integrated GPS systems (mainly geography) · Video conferencing link via broadband to Acre Lane · Establishing a Virtual Learning Environment · Addition of 5 remote cameras and multicore audio to Mediastar system.

10.14 Identified projects for this include: · Soundbeam workshops for year 11 dance · Interactive chemistry- development of support worksheets initially with Wallasey School during Autumn 2002. Other secondary schools will then be encouraged to use the software and accompanying worksheets at the Learning Lighthouse CLC · Investigate MapInfo- initial development work with Wallasey School students. The software is also being promoted to other schools and LEA · PE and Dartfish- Wallasey, Weatherhead and other secondary schools · Click2Learn interactive e-learning materials- Mosslands School · Foundation Flash- Weatherhead High and Ganneys Meadow nursery · “My first term in reception” project- Cross phase project · Promotional school prospectus video- Liscard primary · French role play- Wallasey School and then other secondary schools. · Op Art- Wallasey School · Art & ICT- GNVQ Intermediate, Year 12- research, lettering, “Stepping into South America” promotional material- Wallasey, Oldershaw & Mosslands · Flowol mimics- for primary schools · Image database management- D&T & Geography Wallasey School also great potential for community use, e.g. local history groups · Business studies- video to promote Wallasey school & e commerce · Continuation of Seashore searches- linking primary and secondary schools and sixth form college through small projects to build upon website. · Creative Virtual Reality- development of resources- initially CLC staff with sixth form (to be decided) · Video editing INSET for both primary and secondary · Flowol training- Prenton Juniors and other primary schools

MS1725/JM 33 · Primary School website design using schools.ik- time & dates to be decided. (See Appendix 28 for details of completed and active projects.)

[email protected] - WEST KIRBY

10.15 Since receiving confirmation in September 2001 that Hilbre High School was to host the third of Wirral’s CLCs, preparation for the development of the project has been hectic.

10.16 The design of the Centre was created by Abbey Holford Rowe (now Aedas) in conjunction with the Headteacher at Hilbre and in collaboration with the CLC Managers at the Learning Lighthouse and Discovery centres. Construction is now proceeding at a rapid pace; although currently a little behind schedule, the construction team is still expressing confidence in completing the building work by February 2003, ready for opening before the end of March 2003.

10.17 The full Management Board has met, and the sub committees for Curriculum, Business and Finance and Personnel have been constituted. Attendance at meetings has been generally good, and commitment to full partnership in this venture clearly evident.

10.18 The selection process for the CLC Manager at West Wirral Works was undertaken in Autumn 02, and an appointment made.

10.19 The design development of WestWirralWorks has been greatly enhanced by the cooperative and collaborative working practices which have been forged between the three Wirral CLCs; whilst all distinctly individual in nature, common guiding philosophy and principles mean that the three centres will be complementary in the resources, facilities and opportunities on offer throughout the Borough and will, we believe become a real source of innovation within Wirral.

10.20 All three CLCs are excited by the possibilities being explored in collaboration with BBC Merseyside and although this project is still at a very embryonic stage, we are pleased to be engaged in the development of plans and ideas for both the staging of events and the creation of on-line teaching and learning materials.

EDUCATION ACHIEVEMENT ZONES (EAZs)

Aim of the Strand:

11.0 The aim of this strand is to lay sound foundations between secondary schools and their partner primary schools, by focusing resources on a small number of clear and agreed priorities. Close analysis of strengths and weaknesses within the zone schools leads to agreement about key difficulties, which are often around standards in literacy and numeracy, attendance and attitudes towards education and achievement. The areas zones serve are often characterized by serious problems arising from long-term unemployment, low aspirations and a high degree of family stress. The zone’s main purpose is to change the culture of the area, and their targets must be viewed with this long-term perspective. A key feature is the requirement to make genuine partnerships, for joint working and not mere financial or in-kind sponsorship, with a range of partners from the community and local business.

11.1 There are two EAZs in Wirral. The DfES amended their guidance about management of the zones in December 01. Both zone directors now line managed on a day-to-day basis by the EiC Manager, but work to their management boards. The DfES monitors their progress in the first year only. When ‘signed off’ successfully, the responsibility for monitoring, evaluation and future direction will pass to the EiC Partnership. The Aspire

MS1725/JM 34 Zone came to the end of its first year in August 02, and the review and Action Planning for Year 2 has been approved, with four conditions to be met by the end of November.

PROGRESS

11.2 The two Zones have established close working links, the Directors meeting at least every four weeks with the EiC Manager and GI (Primary) to discuss joint planning and share good practice. There is some shared training for Headteachers from both Zones, eg a recent briefing on national issues with the Wirral’s SEU Adviser. The Directors regularly attend Specialist Strand Steering Group meetings and produce regular reports for the Partnership. We have a number of systems in place that provide external moderation – LEA Inspectors, and the EiC Manager. An independent consultant working on cross- Merseyside evaluation has been asked to conduct a longitudinal study on both EAZs. His initial reports are included in Appendices 29 and 30. The EAZ Directors will bring an Action Plan to address the issues raised in their report to the December Partnership meeting. Links with other EAZs in Greater Merseyside are now making good progress and we have had one meeting in Liverpool, with two others planned. The Project Directors and Headteachers from the Zones have an opportunities to take up training run by EAZs in other areas such as Leicester, Newcastle and Nottingham.

ASPIRE EAZ

Schools and main partners

11.3 ASPIRE worked with ten partner primary schools over the year: Egremont, Kingsway, Liscard, Mount, New Brighton, Park, Poulton Riverside, Somerville and St George’s Primary and at the secondary level, The Oldershaw School, which is where we are based.

11.4 ASPIRE’s main partners have been the Irish World Music Centre, University of Limerick, Ireland, Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA), New Wallasey Regeneration, Wallasey YMCA and Wirral Metropolitan College. Governance of ASPIRE has been designated to our Action Forum which is composed of representatives from school governors, senior primary inspectors, EiC Manager, regeneration agencies, the private sector, higher education and the local community.

11.5 In Year 1, the ASPIRE EIC Action Zone aimed to: · generate an environment of challenge along with creative support for schools; · raise standards in education; · enable the successful implementation of relevant national and local strategies; · deliver innovative support mechanisms; · fully integrate into the Excellence in Cities programme and National Curriculum developments; · be a significant force for change.

11.6 Our work was directed by the Year 1 Action Plan which was approved by DfES in September 2001. The Action Plan identifies three key priorities for action which are: Strand 1 To improve attitudes to learning amongst pupils and the wider community; Strand 2 To improve attendance; Strand 3 To increase attainment and key skills in literacy, numeracy and ICT.

11.7 Whilst the approval of the ASPIRE Year 1 Action Plan was given in September 2001, it was not until January 2002 that the Director was able to take his post. This delay in recruitment had a significant impact in getting ASPIRE off the ground and into the schools.

MS1725/JM 35 11.8 These early difficulties in start-up were to be repeated throughout the whole of the year: our Administrator was unable to start prior to mid-May and our Learning Mentor started in August. Consequently, it is important to note that whilst this report technically covers the September 2001 - August 2002 period, in reality the Zone has been operating to less than its full capacity for the majority of that year.

Progress in the three strands: attitude, attendance, attainment

11.9 (see Appendix 31 for attainment data across Zone schools)

11.10 Strategies to improve Attitude have included: · Improving Communications: ASPIRE newsletters, Blow Your Trumpet! (for parents) and At the Coal Face (for teachers), was written, produced and distributed to all schools, local community centres, youth clubs and libraries in April 2002. Improving relationships with Parents: A Parent Room is being established at New Brighton Primary School from September 2002; An Adult Learning Project – NVR 2 L8 – has been established with co-funding from New Wallasey SRB and ESF CAMEO funding from LIPA. · Improving Behaviour: A Behaviour Champion Project has been established at Egremont Primary School and two Playground Workers at Liscard Primary School from September 2002; Our Primary Learning Mentor has been appointed; her role will be to offer 1:1 support for children. · Improving attitudes to learning: An extra-curricular programme of activities has been offered which includes: Visual Storytelling: a performance and workshop about communication by a profoundly deaf actor from Singapore, Ramesh Meyyappen. Culture Box Project: performing arts project exploring issues of identity and difference, leading to establishing international links with primary schools in Cape Town, South Africa. September Arts Week, an Arts Festival for all years in all schools delivered in September 2002.

11.11 Strategies to improve Attendance have included: An Attendance Officer was appointed to work within the Zone to deliver and manage attendance projects and enhance home-school liaison. Projects she has developed include: · Midday Assistants Training provided by Wirral Metropolitan College; · Hotspots and First day contact surveys carried out for all primary schools; · Delivery of Summer Schools in 3 schools (Mount, New Brighton and Park); · Successful application to NOF to run an After School Club at Mount; · Funding a pilot After School Club at Riverside which has demonstrably enhanced pupil motivation, self-confidence, pupil behaviour and interaction. · Parent Induction workshops with new parents at Kingsway, Park, Mount and St George’s. · Establishing a structure for rewarding good attendance - book tokens and shields - which were designed, printed and distributed to all schools and which have been offered as weekly incentives to all classes throughout schools.

11.12 See Appendix 32 for attendance data across Zone schools.

MS1725/JM 36 11.13 Strategies to improve Attainment have included:

· Years 6/7 Transition numeracy project delivered in July 2002 with Year 6 teachers from three primary schools – Riverside, St George’s and Liscard – and maths staff from Oldershaw School. · Developing a Writer in Residence Project at Kingsway to develop key skills in writing across the school; · Provision of Support Assistant for Kingsway focussed on increasing attainment of underachieving pupils in KS1 / KS2 ; · Five Gifted and Talented projects delivered including: the ASPIRE Design project; the Wallasey World Cup; CREST Science Awards; a Poet in Residence Project with The Windows Project; a Stand Up Comedy Project with Liverpool Comedy Trust at Oldershaw. · KS2 / KS3 Transition project in Science and Humanities · ICT audit of all schools which led to the development of the ASPIRE Intranet which will facilitate communication between in the Zone through a shared bulletin board, calendars, email facilities and future curriculum development · Increased technical support for five schools · Co-funding of CLANSA (Classroom Assistants) course at St George’s · Five schools registering for Basic Skills Quality Mark.

Conclusions

11.14 ASPIRE was guided by 3 separate Strand priorities and these strands had 36 different actions attributed to them. This was far too ambitious to achieve in Year 1 and given that some of these actions were duplicated across strands, this contributed to a sense of confusion as to the purpose of each strand.

11.15 Consequently, the work of ASPIRE has developed in an erratic fashion in Year 1. Whilst work within the Attendance strand has largely been viewed favourably by all Headteachers, the work on the other strands has taken longer than many would have wished - leading to a perception that whilst some of the short term, one-off initiatives and projects that have been established have been worthwhile, the need for projects with a long term impact into the classroom is pressing.

11.16 However, ASPIRE was successful in raising £50,000 from two sources of public funding in Year 1; £25,000 from both New Wallasey SRB and Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts EQUAL programme. These partners are collaborating with ASPIRE on the delivery of the NVR2 L8 programme. Private sector support has been forthcoming this year in terms of work placement mentoring, support in kind, and contributions in time. This has raised over £7,000 in matched funding.

11.17 Specific conclusions after Year 1 include: · Overlap and repetition of activities across strands eg methods of communication has led to a confusion over the purpose and focus of those strands; · Extra-curricula activities need to be incorporated into the broader curriculum and planned well in advance; · Training for MDAs has significantly contributed to children’s self esteem and motivation meaning that they are returning to the classroom after lunch confidently and quieter than usual. This has contributed to reducing unauthorized attendance, improving pupil behaviour and reducing teacher stress; · ICT approaches to increasing attendance should be pursued; · The provision of After School Clubs particularly in areas of social need have a significant impact on social inclusion;

MS1725/JM 37 · Communicating with parents through a variety of means contributes to parental understanding of the need for good behaviour patterns to be established early on a in child’s school life; · Rewards/sanction systems are highly effective in contributing to enhanced attendance patterns although need to be used judiciously and not as a blanket approach for all children; · ASPIRE should prioritise projects which are collaborative and cross phase as opposed to projects which are of sole benefit to individual schools; · Provision of Classroom Assistants is a valuable mechanism to enhance achievement in the classroom.

11.18 See Appendix 33 for summary of activities

Priorities for Development: Action Plan For Year 2

11.19 During an extensive consultation process between ASPIRE staff and all Headteachers over May and July 2002, the ASPIRE Partnership has refined its vision of how ASPIRE will impact on school life by identifying a number of key themes for development over the next 3 years. As a result of this process, the Partnership has refocused its aims as follows: · Support the successful implementation of relevant national and local strategies in order to raise standards; · Support schools to provide innovative support mechanisms; · Fully integrate into the Excellence in Cities programme and National Curriculum developments. 11.20 Consequently, the strand structure begun in Year 1 has been refocused as follows:

Strand1 To improve attitudes to learning amongst pupils, parents and the local community; Strand 2 To improve attendance; Strand 3 To increase attainment in key skills such as literacy, numeracy and ICT and achievement across the whole curriculum.

11.21 The associated strategies of each strand have subsequently been considerably refined and agreed as follows: 1. ATTITUDE · To develop and refine channels of communication between parents, schools and the local community; · To facilitate adult learning opportunities; · To develop behaviour management programmes for children and their parents; · To provide Learning Mentor support for children most at risk of under attaining because of disaffection, behavioural or emotional difficulties; · To develop curriculum enhancement activities which widen children’s aspirations and expectations. 2. ATTENDANCE · To target initiatives and resources at very young pupils and their families; · To target provision at the harder to reach families and those at risk of social exclusion; · To target provision at those who demonstrate regular lateness and sporadic attendance (The Persistently Late Project); · To combat non attendance caused by unauthorised absence due to holidays within term time; · To pilot innovative approaches to increasing attendance. 3. ACHIEVEMENT

MS1725/JM 38 · To provide additional professional development opportunities for staff especially with respect to Teaching and Learning strategies at KS3; · To provide appropriate provision for gifted and talented pupils in order to develop pupils’ academic, creative and sporting gifts and talents; · To develop a bridging and transition strategy across all key stages; · To facilitate good practice across all schools in the delivery of ICT across the curriculum with pupils and their families; · To provide additional support for under-performing pupils; · To establish literacy, numeracy and ICT curriculum groups to enhance attainment in these core subjects.

STAR EAZ

11.22 STAR EAZ commenced in January 2002. It will be required to present a report on the first year’s progress and updated action plan to the DfES in late December 02. This report will have been agreed by the Zone board meeting, after discussion with all Zone Headteachers. It will be presented to the EiC Partnership on 15.11.02.

Schools and main partners

11.23 The Zone consists of two secondary schools, Rock Ferry High and Prenton Girls, with nine feeder schools as primary partners. These schools are Bedford Drive, The Dell, Rock Ferry Primary, Well Lane, Grove Street, Mersey Park, Devonshire Park, The Woodlands and Woodchurch Road Primary Schools. All Zone schools are represented at strand meetings and co-ordinators meetings held regularly during the term; they also have regular individual meetings with the project director to ensure that they are active partners at an individual and group level.

11.24 We have developed a clear system for sharing good practice within our Zone - with colleagues from both the secondary and primary sectors – working together, sharing ideas at meetings and visiting each other’s schools. Headteachers are very keen to take part in seminars run by other LEAs and to learn from their good practice.

11.25 The Zone has very close links with a number of other groups established throughout Wirral, eg Sure Start, Tranmere Alliance, Tranmere Community Project, Active Drama, Parentline Plus and many others. There are a number of links that have resulted in sponsorship either in kind or money, links with Cereal Partners, Tranmere Rovers, Midland Bank, Career Connexions and Groundwork Wirral.

Progress in the three strands: standards; inclusion; relationships

Standards

11.26 The establishment of Cross-phase curriculum groups across the Zone have undoubtedly impacted on the standards of achievement. (Please see data in Appendix 34) 11.27 The opportunity for cross phase curricular groups in Literacy, Numeracy and ICT to meet regularly (at least four times so far) has been of enormous benefit to both coordinators themselves, and also to the zone schools. These groups have also been a valuable tool for evaluation and provided opportunities for consultation in preparation for the revised plan for 2002-03. The groups have had time to look at their schools to agree on areas of development and each school’s best practice. Coordinators have been able to develop links with other schools, and planned activities together which scrutinise schools’ evaluation systems and record keeping. Individual schools’ needs have been met through matching them up with other schools (in particular through links made through the specialist Strand Steering Group). Each coordinator has looked at the EAZ action

MS1725/JM 39 plan and made links to their own school development plan, in line with the LEA’s EDP and any Ofsted reports.

11.28 The timetable for the Autumn term is to look at next year’s plan for their own school and the whole zone and to see how we should move forward, following analysis of SATs results and areas of underachievement. We have stressed that this group needs to discuss issues back at school with the structures their own school already has in place.

11.29 Headteachers are supporting each other through sharing good practice. An audit carried out in all the zone schools identified many areas of strengths with ten leading teachers in Literacy and Numeracy. Good practice now being identified in ICT and Science by the LEA. The zone also has three beacon schools and specialist colleges that can offer advice and support to other schools.

11.30 Two additional schools are applying for the Basic Skills Quality Mark, making a total of six in the Zone: three are already working with assessors and three will commence in September. One school has already been awarded the Quality Mark and a second school is in the final stages.

11.31 We have started to offer opportunities for pupils from years 5 & 6 to work with pupils in year 7. This programme will be extended next year, as teachers gain confidence in working cross phase.

11.32 The zone has been working with LEA officers to develop family literacy, Maths and ICT opportunities for parents as well as keeping up with the children’s courses. All nine primary schools will run at least one of these courses each term from September 2002. One of the secondary schools is working with primary colleagues to run a ‘keeping up with the children’ literacy course in September for fifteen parents.

Inclusion

11.33 A key focus for this strand is improving attendance, and there is evidence of good practice developing, which we will wish to share with other EAZs.

11.34 Home school link support assistants have been appointed for three hours a day in all of the primary schools in the zone. Their role will maybe slightly different in each school depending on the school’s priorities, but the overall brief is to improve attendance, punctuality, work with parents and provide support for individual or groups of pupils as needed. These posts will commence in September 02 and be on a one year fixed term contract. The assistants will meet together monthly to provide mutual support, share concerns and good practice. Priorities: Child Protection; Behaviour Management; working with the ESW service. Their job descriptions have been written by individual schools, based on zone guidelines, and each assistant will be line managed by the school they are working in.

11.35 We will develop links with the secondary schools’ learning mentors, the learning support units and use a range of incentives to improve attendance. The ESW service aims to allocate up to two ESWs to work across zone schools and develop projects. A number of reward systems have been established in the zone schools to improve attendance, including some ideas from the pupils themselves. We have a number of projects that we are planning to develop with the LEA, including electronic registration systems.

11.36 We have developed links with the English as an Additional Language team and looked at opportunities to provide support for minority groups – both parents and pupils; a number of projects are being developed at the Woodlands Primary School.

MS1725/JM 40 11.37 A number of cross phase projects to smooth transition problems have been discussed and will be further developed next year – such as joint summer schools and sports days, building on projects successfully run this year such as the Five Alive netball tournament run by Prenton Girls High School for the primary schools.

11.38 The zone is developing communication systems with parents, for example building on the work at Prenton High School, which is developing an e-mail system which allows parents to communicate electronically with the school.

11.39 A number of exciting projects have been developed at Rock Ferry High to engage pupils in alternative curriculum activities, in order to reduce exclusion and truancy. Projects such as The European Computer Driving Licence are running hand in hand with actual driving preparation; pre-Army courses at Wirral Metropolitan College previously piloted at Park High School and an extensive number of links with the Heritage Centre extending previous links. Tranmere Community Project/Tranmere Alliance are providing appropriate courses during the holidays for example, day courses for pupils, which provide opportunities for increased self esteem, personal development and enable young people to reflect on how they manage themselves, e.g. improved self control in stressful situations. Communicating with parents about the importance of attendance is an area for development.

11.40 See Appendix 35 for attendance data across Zone schools.

Relationships

11.41 The overarching aim of this strand is to provide opportunities for pupils to develop positive relationships with adults in non-academic surroundings. There is a need for further clarity about the aims and objectives of the range of before-school and after- school clubs etc. Schools need to be more aware of the opportunities these provide for making connections, reinforcing the importance of attendance, verbalising and reinforcing positive measures to enhance and develop relationships and self esteem.

11.42 All schools have had training in what time is available and courses for new staff are planned for September; schools have also been supported though the purchase of resources. From September all nine primary schools and one secondary will support a play leader to work with pupils at lunch times to create active playgrounds. Training will be available for all personnel commencing in September through the LEA. A resources bag which cost £380 will be provided for each school.

11.43 Summer School activities to promote relationships and team work have been run by the EAZ in six primary schools for one or two weeks. One secondary school and two primary schools worked with Tranmere Community Project on Summer School activities and a number of pupils were offered financial support for these projects. Others took part in activities run by Tranmere Alliance. For an evaluation all of these projects, see Appendix (?).

11.44 All zone schools have had the opportunity to meet with LEA officers to discuss breakfast clubs and after schools activities and a number of these projects have already started, funded by the zone and local business to give a high profile start.

11.45 All zone schools had training in establishing a school’s council, and a school council is now in place in all eleven Zone schools. A selection of these will be evaluated by the zone director and an LEA officer in September. The school councils also have a budget

MS1725/JM 41 of £250 to allow the pupils to achieve success with a number of small projects which they will manage.

11.46 All new nursery pupils and their parent/carer were offered half a day in September at Barnston Dale to look at fun activities they can do with their children, in order to support them at school. This is in collaboration with Park High School Sports College. A number of short fun courses have been run in three primary schools and many more are planned, working with the LEA and Parent Partnerships – Parent Line Plus – who have a number of breakfast meetings for parents planned.

11.47 Schools have had an opportunity to meet and discuss assertive discipline systems and two schools wish to proceed with this methodology. Some staff are looking at more minor adaptations for use in their own schools.

11.48 See Appendix 36 for a summary of schools’ take up of Zone activities.

11.49 Strengths of the STAR EAZ · staff from zone schools have worked together, forming very strong links with each other, with open and frank discussion of issues · they share good practice, · work cross phase has been both productive and encouraging · there have been opportunities for all pupils to take an active role in zone projects · staff are starting to develop zone plans creatively.

11.50 Areas for Development · More parental involvement across all zone schools · Ensuring all schools feel confident sharing good practice · More cross phase projects · A clearer understanding of the role of the EAZ and EiC in all schools amongst all school staff and governors.

Priorities for development 2002-03

11.51 Standards · Analysis of pupils' books to ensure progression · Sharing of good practice: transition issues · Extending resources for more able pupils; developing continuity and progression in KS2/3 · Targeted activities for G & T pupils (planned project with EiC strand coordintor), eg classroom assistants, springboard Maths; extending able pupils; use of ICT across the curriculum · Staff training, eg classroom assistants, springboard Maths; extending able pupils; use of ICT across the curriculum · Windows Project to improve quality of writing · Black Box or Merseyside Young People’s Theatre interactive projects · Catch up Clubs, eg writing at Rock Ferry Primary following SATs analysis. 11.52 Inclusion · Home school link – personnel working with LEA & ESW · More focused Attendance Reward system · A revised development of LSU at Prenton · Alternative Curriculum opportunities (Secondary) · Breakfast Clubs · Work with Excellence Challenge Strand Coordinator re Widening Participation. 11.53 Relationships · Monitoring school councils and dissemination of good practice

MS1725/JM 42 · Parents activities: including vocational elements · Cross phase projects e.g. summer schools · Play leaders: development of shared understanding of role; establishment of support network, training programmes · After school activities, eg team building. BEACON SCHOOLS

12.0 During 2001-02 Wirral had fifteen Beacon schools – eleven primary, four secondary and one secondary special school. That total represents a higher proportion of Beacon schools than most other local authorities.

Aim of the strand

12.1 The Beacon schools’ initiative is both a means of recognising particular expertise within schools and of establishing a funded system for the dissemination of good practice. Schools may be invited to apply for Beacon status as a result of excellent Ofsted reports and/or standards of achievement. Whilst undoubtedly providing examples of recognised good practice, Wirral’s Beacon schools do not see themselves as the “fount of all knowledge”. This initiative is about working together, learning from each other and sharing ideas and practice, so making the most beneficial use of the DfES Beacon grant.

12.2 Wirral LEA supports and endorses the Beacon activities being offered by its schools and works in partnership with them. The initiative is seen as an important element in the LEA’s strategy of developing and sharing good practice. Representatives of the Beacon schools meet regularly with an LEA inspector to develop further that role and link.

12.3 The development of the Government’s diversity agenda will lead secondary Beacon Schools to be replaced by Advanced Schools, where there is an even greater emphasis on schools being able to demonstrate they are “lead collaborators”. PROGRESS

12.04 Wirral’s Beacon schools are working with an increasing number of schools, both within Wirral and beyond. By the end of the year, twelve secondary, sixty two primary and five special schools in Wirral had had some form of contact with one or more of our Beacon schools, ranging from being a designated partner school with regular involvement to a one-off contact for a specific purpose.

12.05 At the beginning of the year a colour brochure was published advertising the Beacon schools and their activities, as well as the partnership with the LEA. The brochure was circulated widely to all Wirral schools, neighbouring local authorities and colleges of higher education. Priorities

12.06 Priorities for the New Year may be summarised as follows: · revise and update the Beacon brochure; · involve Beacon schools more systematically in supporting schools causing concern to the LEA; · develop further the role of Beacon schools within the Specialist Strand Steering Group.

Clare Mount School

12.07 Clare Mount School was nominated by the EiC Partnership as its Beacon School. Official confirmation came in 2001. The main aim of the Beacon status is for mainstream

MS1725/JM 43 colleagues to have the benefit of the considerable expertise present in Clare Mount staff, in order to enhance the experience of many pupils with special educational needs in mainstream secondary schools.

Activities undertaken 2001/02:

12.08 1. Liaison with LEA Special Education Support Service (SESS) at planning stage September 2001. 2. Science INSET ‘Literacy across Science and Target setting’ ½ day and follow up visits – all Wirral secondary schools and two Liverpool partner schools. Delivered January 2002. 3. NQT (newly qualified teachers) ‘Visits to Clare Mount School programme’ - all Wirral secondary schools and Liverpool partners – ½ day visit to include subject based lesson observation, 1: 1 with Clare Mount Heads of Departments to examine teaching materials for MLD pupils, tour of Clare Mount, information re role and function of Clare Mount, 70+ page booklet distributed to each NQT entitled ‘Ensuring access to the Curriculum for pupils with SEN’ – a practical handbook detailing teaching and learning styles, characteristics of different types of SEN and teaching techniques etc. – Delivered March – June 2002. 4. Clare Mount/Park High School inclusion sports programme – KS4 pupils from Clare Mount going to Park High School to work jointly on a weekly programme of inclusive sporting activities. 5. Attendance at LEA Beacon cluster group meetings, regional Beacon conferences and regional Beacon Special Schools conference for Clare Mount staff. 6. Inclusion programme with Plessington High School – Year 8 pupil Clare Mount to Year 7 Plessington – phased introduction to mainstream provision, Liaison with school initially via Headteachers, then parents/carers/Head of Year. Plessington/SENCO Plessington/pupil, pre-visit to Plessington; monitor placement (1 day per week initially, increasing to 3 days, to full time). 7. Established internal Beacon administration. Liaison with LEA Inspectors re planned activities. Completion of DFEE returns and reports to governors. 8. Rock Ferry High School INSET session for approx. 20 subject link staff /SENCO/ school EP on identifying and responding to pupils with MLD in a mainstream setting, materials prepared and delivered as requested. 9. English Department INSET programme – delivered May 2002.

Planned Activities 2002-2003

12.09 Ÿ Autumn Term – NQT Programme planned. Approximately 21 NQTs from Wirral + Liverpool Secondary Schools. All subject areas. § Spring Term – Careers Education and Guidance. ‘Careers for pupils with Learning Difficulties’. Half day INSET for staff from all schools and half day follow up visits. ` Drama – half day INSET ‘Drama for pupils with Learning Difficulties’ and half day follow up visits (Both based on model re: Science, delivered Spring Term 2002). § Summer Term – INSET for SENCOs half day (details to be confirmed). Secondary SENCO and primary special needs classes (SNCs) staff.

MS1725/JM 44