Community learning in action

Mitchell High School Mitchell High School serves an inner-city area of Stoke-on-Trent and, as such, faces particularly challenging circumstances. In 2005 ACORN data suggested that 87% of the catchment was ‘hard pressed’ and 72% of families were ‘struggling’. Just 4% were ‘secure’ families and only 1% were said to be ‘flourishing’. This has a knock-on effect in terms of the school population – most telling, perhaps, is the fact that 64% of all students were listed on the SEN register – mostly related to behavioural, social and emotional difficulties.

In 2001, when Debbie Sanderson  (now Mrs Debbie Morrison) joined Mitchell High School as headteacher, just 6% of students were achieving five A*-C grades and it was obvious that a radically different approach was needed. 

A great deal of work has been done since then to help raise student aspirations and self-esteem – crucial work, we believe, to ensuring that our young people achieve the qualifications needed for the next stage of their life. By 2003 GCSE attainment levels had improved – 30% of students now achieved five A*-C grades, and our newly secured full service extended school status gave us an unprecedented opportunity to reach out and engage the wider community. Funding was secured to convert a large and disused area of the school into a community learning centre (CLC) and by September 2003 a very large, very smart, but rather empty space was ready for action.

The CLC was to be used to deliver, in particular, the study support and adult/community learning strands of extended school. The guiding principle behind the CLC was simple – bring young people and local adults together to learn in the same space. Young people see adults, neighbours perhaps, valuing their learning and local people see the school at its best, and all benefit from improved educational outcomes. It quickly became apparent, however, that the provision offered by the CLC had the potential to have a direct and profound impact on adults accessing the facility and an equally profound, but arguably less direct, impact on students.

We secured a Learndirect contract and a NextStep contract (for adult advice and guidance services) and became a testing centre for national literacy, numeracy and ECDL qualifications. The contracts are delivered according to an appropriate business model. The provision has grown from a standing start in 2003-04 to a service which sees approximately 350 pre-Level 2 adult learners complete courses each year (over 800 adults have accessed the services since we started). The contracts now generate approximately £140,000 in funding per year. The facility is about grass-roots regeneration so, for example, our current Learndirect tutors are both ex-learners who trained as tutors while working voluntarily in the CLC.

It has been interesting to note the unexpected, though highly desirable, ‘side-effects’ of having such provision within school. Firstly, we have become an integral part of the wider regeneration networks within the city and, consequently, have had access to expert advice and insight on other funding streams. Secondly, we have learned to work synergistically with partner organisations, to the point, occasionally, of putting our partners’ needs ahead of our own. Thirdly, the extended schools agenda has meant that we can offer our partner schools ‘ready-made’, quality-assured, adult/family learning provision without the hassle of servicing contracts and employing tutors.

As such, we now run literacy/ numeracy workshops from three primary schools, one secondary school and three children’s centres, as well as continuing our own service in the CLC. A word of caution though – in case you are thinking about rushing out for your own contracts – the funding regime is rigorously monitored and unforgiving if targets are not met. A certain ‘can-do’, entrepreneurial, attitude is required to make such a service sustainable.

It was implied earlier that the impact of extended school/CLC on students had been profound though less direct – it is indeed problematic to establish a direct causal link between, say, student assess of the CLC and GCSE/SATs attainment levels. However, the CLC has given staff more flexibility in terms of easy access to ICT – staff and students have also valued access to a facility that supports independent, out-of-hours learning. Perhaps the impact of the facility has been direct and profound, as Ofsted suggested during a recent ICT subject inspection (November, 2006; p4): ‘The CLC provides an exceptional resource both for pupils and the wider community. It is raising pupils’ aspirations and providing the resources that pupils need to overcome their disadvantages and succeed.’

We did not perhaps appreciate the full significance of our involvement with community/adult learning until we began our application for specialist college status. Although late joining this programme, we were delighted to be informed that our application had been successful and could therefore begin operating as a specialist college from September 2007. Given the challenging socio-economic circumstances facing the school, it should come as no surprise to find that business and enterprise is our chosen specialism. The significance of the adult learning provision stems from the fact that the infrastructure required to deliver the ‘community plan’ already existed and just needed to be tailored to meet the requirements of the specialism. We could therefore focus our attention on ensuring that the curriculum plan was robust and that the sponsorship was in place.

The business and enterprise specialism is now at the heart of our regeneration efforts and curriculum development plans. As such, we want to bring an ‘enterprise’ dimension across the curriculum and have, additionally, introduced Enterprise as a discreet lesson for students in both key stages. The aim is to develop students’ enterprise capability: Innovation, risk management, creativity, a ‘can-do’ attitude and a drive to make ideas happen. This programme will complement our innovative SEL (social, emotional learning) curriculum and will help further build the resilience and self-efficacy our young people need to ensure ongoing success once they head towards college or employment/apprenticeships.

Although specialist status does not officially start until the new academic year, we have been able to take some highly innovative steps forward. We were fortunate enough to secure approximately £265,000 of city regeneration money to roll-out a broadband project to our families who have no internet connection at home. We have used the money to provide a special kind of computer, called a Thin Client, to homes and also to transform the school’s ICT network.

Once the Thin Client roll-out is complete we can take a radical approach to how, when and where students access the curriculum. For example, we are installing a new Microsoft e-learning platform and plan to launch a pilot study with a cohort of Y10 students. The students will negotiate a weekly ‘work plan’ and will be allowed to complete the work in designated ‘pods’ around school for three days and work from home for the remaining two days – with online support from staff. If the pilot is successful, the project will continue and expand to include more students in other year groups.

Far-reaching implications
Our plans go further however. We also secured £160,000 to convert an abandoned caretaker’s house into six business units for local people to use for business start-up. The centre, called CHEC (Community Health and Enterprise Centre), contains a hairdresser, beauty salon and four office units. Local people can use the units for 12 months rent free in exchange for providing work experience opportunities for our students. However, we hope it will go further than work experience and will eventually see our BTEC ICT, business and media students actually assist the small businesses by providing, for example, training and marketing services; work which can also double up as coursework.

We also hope that as these businesses grow they will offer students part-time, paid employment – eg Saturday work, etc. This funding has also been able to improve school accommodation by developing a community conference facility, a state-of-the-art enterprise centre and a commercial juice bar, which students from Y10 run as a limited company.

Our early adult and community learning provision has had far-reaching, strategic and resource, implications for the entire school community. We can now look forward to the new opportunities that will inevitably present themselves as we fully embrace specialist status. Further improvements in attainment levels are therefore expected in 2007 and beyond. And in case you are wondering, 47% of students achieved five A*-C GCSE grades in 2006 (with a CVA of 1030), a 41% improvement during Debbie Morrison’s leadership as headteacher – no wonder she was recently awarded the OBE for services to education and is regularly invited to speak at national conferences.

Shaun Morgan is a member of the extended headship team at Mitchell High School.

For more information see the school website