/ Providing Inspection Services for
Department of Education
Department for Employment and Learning
Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure
Education and Training Inspectorate
Report of an Inspection
Alternative Education Provision (AEP)
Loughshore Education Resource Centre
Belfast
Inspected: October 2004

CONTENTS

SectionPage

1.INTRODUCTION1

2.SUMMARY OF THE MAIN FINDINGS1

3.THE MAIN FINDINGS2

4.CONCLUSION7

1.INTRODUCTION

1.1Loughshore Education Resource Centre was opened in December 2002 to provide education for disaffected young people, aged 11 to 16, from schools in the Belfast Education and Library Board (BELB) area. The BELB’s Suspensions and Expulsions Panel and the Statementing Officer refer young people to the Centre. These young people are at significant risk of social exclusion: many have experienced substantial disruption to their schooling and in their family lives; truancy and disengagement are common among them, and their levels of offending, illicit drug use, and contact with the juvenile justice system are much higher than in the general youth population. Some 55% of the young people have statements of special educational needs and about 23% are looked after by social services. Currently, there are 159 young people on the rolls, of whom some 64 are in Key Stage (KS) 4, but the numbers fluctuate considerably.

1.2The inspection focused on the effectiveness of the Centre to identify and remove barriers to learning; to promote the young people’s achievements; to impact upon and support mainstream schools; and to ensure the pastoral and child protection of the young people.

1.3Prior to the inspection, the Reporting Inspector visited the Centre and discussed the inspection procedures separately with the Principal and the staff. As part of the inspection process, the parents received a confidential questionnaire seeking their views of the Centre. Some 159 questionnaires were issued and 56 were returned, of which 20 included written comments. During the inspection, members of the inspection team met with two groups of the young people to discuss their views of the Centre. In the 56 questionnaires returned to the Department of Education (DE), the parents and carers stated their appreciation that their children had been motivated to return to education and had been given a further chance to improve their opportunities for employment. The young people interviewed during the inspection recognised that the Centre provided them with the opportunity to make progress and achieve accreditation.

2.SUMMARY OF THE MAIN FINDINGS

2.1The overall effectiveness of the Centre is good. In very challenging circumstances, it provides well for the young people. It is successful in its main task of keeping the young people in education, and reports considerable success in placing them in employment and training at 16+. In addition, the young people make good progress in their personal development, and in dealing with the barriers which have prevented them from learning. The quality of the teaching is mostly satisfactory or better; 40% of the lessons observed were good. The ethos and quality of relationships are very good. The leadership and management of the Centre are also very good, and there is a strong commitment to continual improvement. The parents and the young people value highly the work of the Centre.

2.2The Centre’s main strengths are:

  • the progress that has been made since it opened;
  • the strong leadership and vision of the Principal;
  • the success of the staff in catering for a wide range of diverse needs and circumstances;
  • the satisfactory or better quality of most of the teaching;
  • the breadth of the curriculum and the range of accreditation opportunities;
  • the quality of care and support provided by the staff and the positive impact this has on the young people’s engagement with learning, their achievements and personal development;
  • the high quality of the partnership with the parents, their participation in the Centre’s activities, and their strong approval of its work.

2.3The main areas for improvement relate to the need to give attention to:

  • addressing the weaknesses in aspects of the teaching;
  • reducing the length of time a small number of the young people remain on one-to-one tuition, to facilitate more social interaction;
  • ensuring that suitable arrangements are developed to disseminate, internally and externally, the good practice observed during the inspection;
  • reviewing the current transport arrangements to eliminate the need for transportation by members of staff;
  • reviewing and developing current accreditation opportunities to promote greater consistency and improve standards;
  • establishing a system to monitor and evaluate further the quality of provision.

2.4It will also be important that the BELB identifies clearly the Centre’s future role and maximum enrolment. Attention should also be given to implementing a strategy which strengthens the Centre’s partnership with mainstream schools and its relationship with other providers of alternative education in the BELB area.

3.THE MAIN FINDINGS

3.1Ethos

3.1.1The ethos of the Centre is very good. The staff adopt positive and non-judgemental attitudes towards the young people and know and understand them well. In the work observed, and in discussion with the young people, there is evidence that the majority respond well to the staff’s supportive approach and are acquiring positive attitudes to learning. The provision for the care and well-being of the young people is excellent and is a significant strength of the Centre. The Centre is a safe place for the young people; there is a sense of orderliness and the young people are well supervised at all times. Almost all of the young people respond positively to the one-to-one and small group teaching, engage effectively in the learning process, and benefit from their interaction with the teachers. However, consideration should be given to moving, as quickly as possible, some young people from one-to-one tuition to small group work to engage them further in more social interaction. In most of the taught sessions observed, the quality of the young people’s engagement with the lessons was of a satisfactory or better quality.

3.1.2The Centre is successful in improving the attendance of the majority of the young people, most of whom had a history of poor attendance at their previous schools. While attendance rates vary considerably, attendance at the Centre is good, averaging some 87%; some 25% are maintaining full attendance.

3.1.3The staff are exploring and developing the use of a range of alternative therapies with the young people. The parents are also invited to attend therapy sessions to promote their own well-being and to help them understand the therapies their children receive. While it is still too early to measure the benefits of these approaches, the young people are responding well. In addition, counselling services are provided, as required, by two trained teachers and also by an external counselling agency.

3.1.4The Centre has a comprehensive and clear policy to guide pastoral care and child protection. Every effort is made to engage parents and carers in the work of the Centre and in the support of the young people. The tutors make regular contact with the parents to report positive outcomes, however small. While it is recognised that the staff are highly committed to assisting the young people in their attendance, the Centre should reconsider the appropriateness of the staff transporting a small minority of individual young people in private cars. The KS4 pupils benefit from a broadening of their learning programme through vocational links with two further education colleges and with a training organisation. The Centre’s arrangements for pastoral care and child protection are good and in keeping with the DE’s circulars 1999/10 and 2003/13.

3.2Quality of Experiences

3.2.1The quality of most of the teaching is satisfactory or better. The key factor, in successfully helping the young people to learn, is the very high quality of the relationships within the Centre. The teachers are good at managing the young people’s behaviour and in persuading them that their work in the Centre matters. In the majority of classes, the teachers give good attention to detail, and provide the young people with a good level of individual support. The young people achieve good standards when they are given opportunities for extended pieces of work and when there is increased emphasis on practical and interactive learning, to help them secure and consolidate their understanding. There is, however, a minority of the teaching which needs to improve. Weaknesses observed were mostly based on an excessive emphasis on the use of worksheets, and a lack of effective planning. The needs of the young people need to be met more precisely in these classes, to ensure greater consistency of practice throughout the Centre.

3.2.2The staff recognise that links between the one-to-one tutors and the subject teachers are too informal to ensure effective monitoring of the content and coherence of the taught programme and, as a consequence, the range of experiences of the young people varies considerably in both key stages. In the best practice, the subject teachers plan and record progress effectively and can demonstrate clear lines of progression; in these instances, the planning includes potential modifications to deal with the unexpected behaviour problems and their potential impact on the individual young person or group. A closer alignment of the information on the young people’s subject attainment with their attitudinal records would provide the Centre with a clearer picture of progress and a more solid base for the further development of individual education plans. The Centre is developing a system of baselining the attainment of the young people on entry, so that their progress can be monitored more effectively. This is timely and appropriate.

3.2.3The one-to-one provision offered by the Centre is costly to maintain and presents difficulties in the designing of the timetable, the undue length of some of the sessions, and in the balance achieved in the teaching of literacy and numeracy skills. In developing further its one-to-one provision, the Centre needs to ensure consistency of approach from all tutors in respect of the above.

3.2.4Approximately half of the young people are exempt from KS3 assessment in English, mathematics and science. In 2004, among the remainder, very few attained the target level in KS3 assessment in English, and no young person achieved the target level in mathematics or science. Given the young people’s previous educational history and experiences, these low levels of attainment are, perhaps, predictable. The Centre should now seek to raise standards in English and mathematics in KS3 to provide the young people with a more secure literacy and numeracy base on which to build in KS4. To help achieve this, the staff should take greater account in their planning, teaching and learning of the need to improve the young people’s levels of attainment in literacy and numeracy.

3.2.5The staff have given careful thought to the development of appropriate accreditation routes for the young people in KS3 and KS4. In 2002, only limited accreditation was available, centring on basic skills tests in literacy, numeracy and health and safety at work. Since then, much has been done to offer the young people wider and more relevant choice. General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is available to those with the aptitude and motivation to gain from it and is offered in seven subjects, and also in association with the Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education (BIFHE). In 2004, a wide range of external accreditation is available, including GCSE, Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) Occupational Studies, National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) Level 1, the Prince’s Trust XL programme, and a variety of Achievement, Entry Level and Unit Award courses which focus largely on attainment in literacy and numeracy. While much has been gained in providing the young people with a wide range of accreditation opportunities, the multiplicity of external accreditation currently on offer, particularly sub-GCSE courses, should be reconsidered in favour of a more coherent accreditation framework. The Centre is already moving towards the introduction of key skills opportunities in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Communication, and Application of Number. These skills should be integrated into existing vocational, academic and other work.

3.2.6In KS4, the standards achieved in literacy by many of the young people are low; outcomes in entry-level numeracy are better. The standards achieved at GCSE depend substantially on the ability, motivation and perseverance of the young people entered and, consequently, outcomes vary considerably. In 2004, most of the young people entered achieved grades D to G; a few achieved grades in the A*-C range in English, English Literature, Religious Studies and Art and Design.

3.2.7Much has been achieved in developing work-related education links with further education and with a training organisation, and this has improved substantially the relevance and attractiveness of the Centre’s programme at KS4. A wide and appropriate range of vocational opportunities is available; vocational sampling in year 11 generally leads to specialisation in year 12. The Centre continues to make progress in developing a relevant and appropriate KS4 curriculum, though, ultimately, the success of this work depends heavily on the young people co-operating well with the external tutors and gaining from the opportunities provided for them. During the inspection, mostly positive messages were forthcoming about the attitude of the young people and their progress, although it was recognised on all sides that the behaviour of some of the young people present the further education (FE) tutors with very considerable and, at times, unacceptable challenges.

3.2.8Currently, a small number of the young people are catered for within BIFHE’s full-time GCSE provision. The tutors spoke highly about their attitude and motivation and general levels of attainment. The young people also spoke appreciatively about what is being provided for them and have a clear understanding of what they hope to achieve at 16+. To build on the achievements realised to date, the Centre, the FE colleges, and Belfast Central Training, should monitor and evaluate more systematically the success of the current 14-16 academic and vocational programme, the young people’s progression to courses at 16+, and the extent to which they achieve success at 16+. In addition, the Centre should develop further its vocational and work programmes to ensure, as far as is practical, that the work experience opportunities provided for the young people match the vocational courses taken by them. Furthermore, the Centre’s current classroom-based teaching and learning arrangements at KS4 should incorporate, to a greater and more effective extent, the learning opportunities and course content contained within its current external vocational education programme.

3.2.9Considerable and successful attention is given to providing the young people with relevant and challenging opportunities in outdoor and related activities. In addition, a wide range of clubs offer opportunities such as angling, computers, art, and photography. Within the context of “The Loughshore Challenge”, the young people engage in activities to develop their self-esteem, self-confidence, and other important social and personal skills, and many achieve success. Residential opportunities locally and elsewhere are also available, and the young people have opportunities to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award programme.

3.2.10Increasing attention is given to in-house monitoring and evaluation and there is a growing interest in self-evaluation as a mechanism for self-improvement. Residential and in-service training opportunities are used in a constructively self-critical manner to review the Centre’s current position and to identify its strengths and areas for improvement. Similarly, a staff development policy identifies areas for attention, including the need for all staff to participate in a quality audit and needs analysis. These are helpful and necessary elements in the Centre’s internal development programme. Against a background of these helpful measures, there is a need for the Centre to develop a more systematic and structured approach to monitoring, evaluation and development planning. For example, attention should be given to the more extensive use of data to inform more clearly planning and future practice, particularly in respect of the young people’s levels of attainment in KS 3-4 and beyond.

3.3Management Arrangements

3.3.1The leadership and management of the Centre are very good. The leadership provided by the Principal is excellent and is enabling the Centre to overcome its previous weaknesses, and to provide an important alternative education service for the BELB area. The senior managers bring a breadth of expertise and experience and provide valuable support. The staff have a clear understanding of, and commitment to, the aims and objectives of the Centre. Much emphasis has been given to establishing a sense of order and a suitable curriculum and, in a relatively short time, the Principal has welded the staff into an effective team which works well together. The Centre has no management board to oversee and support its work; this is a weakness which requires attention.

3.3.2The role of the Centre is very broad and has been subject to regular debate and discussion within the BELB. The Centre currently provides for young people who, for whatever reason, are no longer attending school. Since 2002, the numbers enrolled have risen considerably and more young people are presenting with significant difficulties, including medical and psychiatric conditions. To manage these high numbers, arrangements are in place to ensure that a maximum of some 60 young people are in the Centre at any one time, though often there are understandable and valid exceptions to this rule. A consequence of restricting the number of young people in the Centre at any one time is that the staff are not able to provide adequately for those young people who must otherwise remain at home for two to three days each week.