As schools in England set out to fulfill the aims of the Government's new Extended Schools programme, they could look to Scotland for a working model, as Mary Evans reports
At least one school in every local education authority in England will be offering a full range of community services by 2006 under the Government's Extended Schools programme.
The scheme, which is a key feature in New Labour's drive to combat social exclusion, will focus initially on the most deprived areas. It aims to remove barriers to learning and help improve children's motivation, behaviour and achievements.
Head teachers grappling with the complexities of integrating health, family, social and community workers into their schools can learn from their colleagues north of the border. A three-year initiative called the New Community Schools (NCS) programme is being rolled out to every nursery, primary and secondary school in Scotland by 2007 at a cost of 70m.
The Scottish Office launched the prospectus for the NCS programme in November 1998, describing it as a radical plan to modernise schools, promote social inclusion and bring about change in the attainment of children facing the destructive cycle of underachievement. The goal is to be realised through the integrated provision of school education, family support, health education and promotion.
The NCS prospectus says Full Service Schools, with their emphasis on providing integrated services, have recorded improved attendance rates, higher attainments and improved employment prospects, as well as less drug abuse and fewer teenage pregnancies. They have also benefited the wider community through a reduction in crime and violence, and overall improved health within families. The Scottish Executive deliberately devolved the NCS programme to local level to enable practitioners to respond to local needs. The pilot, developed over three annual phases, is being evaluated by a team from the Institute of Education at London University. It published its interim findings on phase one last year and its final report will be published later this year.
Team leader Professor Pam Sammons says a key feature of NCS is local flexibility, but as a result 'there are areas where you could say more could have been done'.
The interim report notes there can be barriers between the professional groups because of their differences in professional etiquette, such as confidentiality procedures or dress codes.
Professor Eric Wilkinson, vice-dean in the faculty of education at Glasgow University, last year conducted an evaluation of one of the leading pilot schools, Lochend New Community High School in Easterhouse, Glasgow. He says that if the programme is to work, staff must 'avoid entrenchment in their traditional professional catacombs.
'It is the teachers who have transcended those boundaries and have taken on more managerial roles who see the virtue in engaging in this kind of work and who have taken a more whole-child approach.'
Professor Jon Nixon, head of the school of education at Sheffield University, says, 'I think there is a massive discrepancy across Scotland in terms of how well it is working.' In some areas, like Stirling, services have been re-organised to create multi-disciplinary teams, while in others heads of service are only beginning to meet together.
Professor Nixon says, 'The most difficult thing to do is to get schools to engage with local communities, especially when the community is extremely disadvantaged with high unemployment, real drugs problems, many single parents and big alcohol problems. Compared to that, inter-service provision is relatively easy to deliver. So you go for inter-service provision and hope community involvement will follow - but it doesn't.'
While Professor Wilkinson says it is too soon to judge whether NCS has raised attainments across the board, Derek Reid, head teacher of Burnfoot New Community Primary School in Hawick, reports a major leap in attainment levels.
Mr Reid, currently on secondment to the Borders Council as head of primary and nursery services, says, 'In 1996 only 5 per cent of the children achieved national standards in writing. In stark terms, one third of Primary 7 children went on to high school unable to write their own names and addresses. At our latest outturn, the figure was 72 per cent. We have seen the same advances in reading and maths from below 20 per cent to more than 70 per cent.'
Like other pilot schools, Burnfoot qualified for 200,000 annual funding which paid for the employment of a school nurse and a social worker and enabled staff to focus on improving attainment through a range of initiatives. They included a drive on school discipline, intensive alternatives to exclusion, a parenting tips club, a free creche during adult classes at the school, a breakfast club, after-school activities and the introduction of personal learning plans (PLPs). 'Every child has a PLP each year. The teachers plan in six-week blocks and set each child learning targets. When the children get to seven or eight they write their own PLPs. Their work is assessed when the next block of work is planned. They take their plans home so parents see how they are getting on. It makes the atmosphere better at parents' evenings because they know what their children are doing, and we have stopped writing end-of- term reports,' says Mr Reid.
'The parents are now taking a pride in their children and the community is taking a pride in its school.'
Further information
- Interchange 76 National Evaluation of the New Community Schools Pilot Programme in Scotland: phase 1: Interim Findings, by Professor Pamela Sammons et al, Scottish Education Department, 2002
- Educational renewal as democratic process: 'new' community schooling in Scotland, by Professor Jon Nixon et al, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 2001
- n From Washington Heights to Raploch: Evidence, Mediation and the Genealogy of Policy, by Professor Jon Nixon et al, Social Policy and Society, 2002