Quality in Study Support (QiSS), Canterbury Christ Church University College

QiSS Case Study Series – Spring 2005

Parklands High School, Liverpool

Raising Aspirations and Achievement
Number of Pupils on Roll:  800
Age Range:  11-18
Status:  Mixed Comprehensive
Location:  Urban
Free School Meals Entitlement:  54%
SEN Register:  437 pupils

What this case study is about:

Study Support is well established at Parklands and is embedded into activities across the school, offering a comprehensive programme. This case study outlines two specific programmes and is the companion to a case study which outlines the types of provision the school offers and the impact on attitude, achievement and academic attainment.

Description of the Centre:

Parklands High School is an 11-18 school that serves the Speke Estate. Speke is the second most deprived ward in the country on the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2000 and the second lowest in educational attainment.

The school is part of the new Parklands Complex. This £25 million PFI complex comprises the school, library, nursery, One Stop Shop, community centre, adult learning facilities, a City Learning Centre and refurbished leisure facility.  A Sure Start operates in the area. A new supermarket is to be opened next to the school within the next 2-3 years.
 
The school's population of 800 includes 437 pupils on the Special Needs Register and 24 statemented pupils, with 54% of the school qualifying for free school meals. Pupil attainment and attendance are below the national average.

Socio-economic circumstances

Speke is home to approximately 10,000 people and is some 8 miles from Liverpool City Centre. The estate is isolated from surrounding areas by natural boundaries and there is virtually no 'through trade'. There is very little local economic activity, principally local shopping and services, and no local bank.  The area suffers from many of the classic city problems of multiple deprivations, but with the added disadvantage of a lack of local services and a feeling of isolation. The teenage pregnancy rate in Speke ward is the highest in Europe.

The Speke Advice Service handled 8,812 enquiries between April 2001-April 2002, with over half relating to benefits and debt.  In August 2004 unemployment was 9.2%compared to the national average of 2.3% (Office of National Statistics 2004). 37.8% of people in Speke are classed as having poor literacy and 44% as having poor numeracy (Basic Skills Agency). 10.9% of properties in the Speke ward are classed as being empty. The Standard Mortality Rate (1997-99) for all causes was 165 compared to the Liverpool average of 143.

The Avon Foundation Residential Course:

In response to the low literacy skills of pupils joining the school in Year 7, and the lack of books in the home, a reading club was set up in 1999. This club ran three lunch times a week and provided a quiet drop-in for pupils of all abilities where they could read books of their own choice and receive support with their reading from volunteer staff and Year 11 mentors. Siobahn Down, the Programme Director of Readers and Writers English Centre of PEN, visited the club with the children’s author Berlie Doherty in October 2000. Subsequent visits from the authors Neil Arksey and Josephine Feeney so impressed them that, when the Avon Foundation approached PEN for a school to sponsor, our name was put forward.

The Avon Foundation provides residential reading and writing courses in four centres in the UK. As a charitable foundation they have been able to provide fully funded courses for chosen schools such as Parklands. During the last three years 16 pupils from Year 10, together with a teacher and a mentor, have spent the spring half term at Lumb Bank in Yorkshire.

Lumb Bank is a self-catering retreat – no music, no newspapers, no television or radio. The students cook all their own meals; this is an education in itself. The philosophy of fresh meat and vegetables, plenty of fruit, brown bread and juice... no chips, oven ready meals, fizzy drinks or crisps – impacts considerably on their performance in the workshops. They also have to sit down together in the evenings for meals, an invaluable experience.

The week consists of workshops encouraging poetry and prose writing led by published authors. A visiting author reads from their works and is available to discuss their writing with the students. At the end of the week the students produce an anthology of their work for performance in the theatre facility.

As well as developing their reading and writing skills, their confidence in their own ability grows during the week.  Every student produces work of a higher level than they have ever achieved before.

Free time is limited, but there are opportunities to go for walks in the surrounding countryside or take the bus into Hebden Bridge and visit the alternative technology centre. The week is medicine for their souls, and inspirational experience for our students.

The 'Class Act'

The Class Act project ran for the first time last year. This project aims to achieve a step change in the performance of a group of pupils approaching their GCSE examinations. The project is based upon the establishment of an Academic Intervention Team to provide support for pupils in combating certain issues facing students at Parklands High School, such as social deprivation and the constraints of the class system on achievement. The target group was 20 boys and girls on the borderline for C and D grades in English, Mathematics and Science.

Class Act ran from Easter 2003 until after the examination period in 2004, providing a year long academic support and development programme for pupils, encouraging independent learning. Sessions were held after school, at weekends and during the holiday periods. The project also provided the opportunity for other pupils from the year group to benefit. They were able to attend all the out-of-school small revision sessions as well as benefiting from a visit to Poetry Live (a workshop on the GCSE English Anthology) and a visit by an English GCSE Senior Examiner to talk about exam technique to staff and pupils.  After the Saturday workshop on Relaxation and Stress Management for Exams, the mentor attached to the group was able to produce booklets on 'Exam Stress and How to Beat it' for use by the whole group. The group followed a goal setting programme supported by the local COMPACT. This was excellent for those who lacked career direction and risked under-achievement through disaffection. After-school sessions included going to the Brain Gym with instructor Louise Locke, taking water to exams became 'cool' and even the most hardened lads were seen discreetly exercising before exams.

How has the activity had impact and brought real, visible change?

The biggest success of this project has been the impact on the personal development of the pupils involved. They mostly achieved their target grades with 40% managing 5 A-Cs. This was a success in itself but most pleasing was the increased self-esteem and aspirations of all the students involved. 

The impact for the whole school is that we have gained a highly motivated group of young people returning to our 6th Form, excellent role models for the current examination group.

What lessons have we learned that can inform others?

The impact of Study Support on attitude, achievement and attainment is so significant that it has become embedded into activities right across the school.  Data collection has enabled us to measure that impact and devise programmes which meet the needs of the students and the wider community.

Some recent examples of partnership working in Study Support provision:

• Breakfast Clubs – we have two clubs, one in the Youth Centre where children can watch television, play pool, read etc, and one in the City Learning Centre, where they can surf the net, do coursework and homework etc;
• The Extended School and CLC have given funding to the Youth Centre to equip a 12-station IT suite for young people to access at evening and weekends;
• Extended School part-funds a Study Support Co-ordinator who works in the Library on Saturdays, engaging mostly with primary-age children and their parents;
• During the summer we held a number of Children's University modules in the school and CLC. More of our school activities are now being accredited as Youth University modules, with help from the Education Action Zone and CLC;
• A full range of indoor and outdoor sports will be on offer this half-term, with a programme to set up between the Youth Centre, School PE Department and local (voluntary) Football Groups;
• In response to a recent pupil questionnaire, which put ICT as the most popular out-of-school hours activity, we are offering five days (10 sessions) of ICT-based activities in school this half-term.  We are also starting a Saturday afternoon class for ICT GNVQ students.

Future developments

Parklands has been chosen as Liverpool's first Full Service Extended School in recognition of its unique 'campus' facilities and the close links already in existence between the school and local statutory and voluntary organisations.

In addition to the extensive after-school Study Support Programme, activities are available to young people not just in school but also at the Youth Centre, City Learning Centre, Library and Sports Centre. The key is partnership working, and the Extended School offers a mechanism for people and organisations to communicate, to make joint plans and share resources.

Case Study Reference: Spring 2005 – 002
For more information on this case study contact:

Imelda Rooney Study Support Co-ordinator Parklands High School Ganworth Road Liverpool Merseyside L24 2RZ Tel: 0151 486 2612 www.parklands.liverpool.sch.uk

Quality in Study Support CELSI Salomons Southborough Tunbridge Wells Kent TN3 0TG Tel: 01892 507657 www.qiss.org.uk