What this case study is about:

Rooks Heath has developed its out of school hours learning programme over the past five years. It quickly had large numbers of students attending but the scheme has now become a flexible one that is designed to meet the individual needs of students. Overall it aims to develop students' academic, social and emotional intelligence. It also tries to remove the barriers to students' learning by providing an environment where students feel safe. Our other aims include developing self-esteem of students by focusing on positive achievements and giving space for students to complete work, with or without extra help.

In its current form, Choice (the name we give to all of our out of school hours learning) started with a small group of like-minded staff, including a deputy headteacher, being given some funding to run two projects. The first source of the funding was from an educational charity called the John Lyon Trust, topped up with funding from the LEA, and was conditional upon us following the QiSS Code of Practice. At first this seemed quite onerous and confusing but before very long we could see the many benefits especially once we had met our critical friend who provided invaluable help and advice. The second source of funding was from the National Health Service who approached us to start a Breakfast Club where the funding was put in place to provide a healthy breakfast.

Description of the centre:

Rooks Heath High School is situated on the southern edge of the London Borough of Harrow. The roll is currently 960 but this changes quite considerably over the course of an academic year due to the influx of casual entrants into the school. We are currently bidding for Business and Enterprise Specialist status. There is discussion in the local authority about changing the age of admission to 11. Plans are also underway to have post 16 in all Harrow high schools, including ourselves, from September 2006.

Our GCSE results have continued to improve over the past few years and GCSE results are in line with the national average. In terms of value-added we are amongst the top 3% in the country. We are also now in line with the national average for unauthorised absence and attendance. One of the factors in this improvement is undoubtedly the impact of study support on all the students in our school.

Socio Economic Circumstances:

We are in the HA2 postal district which is classified as a deprived area. At one end of the social scale a number of Rooks Heath students come from very affluent backgrounds. However, advisers and inspectors have described the school as more like an inner city school. Some 48% of students have special educational needs and more than 4% have a statement. Most of the SEN students have specific learning difficulties but some have physical difficulties as well.

At the moment, our biggest concern is for the proportion of students for whom English is an additional language – 51% - and the proportion that have refugee status, which is currently about 17%. For a high proportion of our students this is their first experience of school.  Despite this, we have GCSE results that are at least in line with the national average. The authorised absence rate has also improved from 1.0% to 0.7% over the last few years.

Study Support Programme:

Choice currently has in excess of 60 different activities per week and more than 50% of students attend at least one activity per week. The term Choice stems from us wanting to give students some choice of what to do in the school day, which is now seen to run from 7.30 a.m. until 5 p.m. or even later.

To encourage all students to attend one or more sessions a variety of teaching styles and methods are used. Some of these are seen to be quite innovative and staff are encouraged to experiment. The programme of activities is advertised to students in regular editions of Choice News.

Breakfast Club:

Each morning we have a breakfast club from 7.30 a.m. until 8.30 a.m. where students can get a healthy breakfast, use the library, ICT facilities, get help with their homework or just to socialise with and receive support from their peers. Up to 100 students currently attend this. This club has been in existence for about four years. Amongst its main purposes are to provide last minute help with homework and for general counselling of students. For example, refugees have had support when there has been a crisis in their country of origin. This has been extremely valuable in the overall ethos of the school. The 34 computers, soon to rise to 42, can be used for purposes related to work or recreation. There is a core of five members of staff who run this club, but many others pop in from time to time.

Lunchtime Study Clubs:

Each lunchtime there is a smaller programme of activities that includes elements of the after school study clubs and the leisure clubs. For example, each day the library and at least one ICT room is open for students to do work.  Music and Sports clubs run. There is a special lunchtime club to support children with special needs in the production of homework but this also provides "hidden" support by counselling students. Many of the SEN children choose not to go to this club but to join in with other activities around the school

Interestingly, the school recently reduced the length of the lunchtime and there were fears that severe damage would be done to the lunchtime clubs but the early evidence is that students are much more focused and get more done in the shorter time available.

Evening Study Clubs:

After school on three nights per week, there is a study support centre based in the same area as the Breakfast Club but also spread throughout the school. Students can use the library and the ICT facilities. Approximately 150 students currently attend these. Activities such as the Reading Challenge also run at this time. Evening clubs received funding under the original scheme and then the New Opportunities Fund.  Teachers are volunteers and several attend in the library each evening. Additionally some Teaching Assistants are paid to provide extra help. In different parts of the school some subject departments, who wished not to be part of this centre, run their own study clubs.

The main purpose of all these clubs is to support students with their homework.  In the spring and early part of the summer terms there is a programme of revision clubs that is additional to the homework clubs. Volunteer teachers again run these and all departments are represented.

Leisure Clubs:

There is a thriving group of sporting, dramatic, musical and other leisure activities such as Art and Photography.  These happen either weekly or as part of a planned programme, such as in preparation for a drama production.

Like much of what we do at Rooks Heath this list is not static but is dynamic and responds to new needs. By comparing the programme on offer in September 1999 with that on offer today, one can see that there has been a huge development in the range and quantity of activities.  We are now evaluating replies to the latest audits from the non-attendees to see how we can further encourage greater participation.

Finally, there are numerous off-site trips most of which are subject based but some are for recreational purposes.

The how:

Rooks Heath has always recognised the value of offering a well-managed study support programme. We have a clear purpose, strategy and direction. Management, as with all things in the school, is collaborative by all involved in the process – managers, staff and students. Support for staff is readily available from a variety of people: heads of department, the Study Support and Breakfast Club co-ordinators, the leadership team and colleagues all help to maintain this collective responsibility.

We therefore have systems in place to help us to respond to difficulties.  One amusing example of how this works was when the librarian, who has always been most supportive of Choice thought that a mouse was eating a tape package stored on a library shelf. This raised a variety of issues that led to the food technology teacher attending the Study Support Committee to talk about hygiene, a policy being developed, new measures introduced and eight staff gaining a Chartered Institute of Environmental Health Certificate. In the end, the cause of the original damage was decay of the packaging due to age! The Health Certificate course is also now offered to students as a course to take after school and earns them extra pay if they work in a supermarket.

Visible and sustained support by the leadership team has been crucial to the long-term success of out of school hours learning. There are regular timetabled meetings of the Study Support Co-ordinator and a member of the leadership team. All those involved in the management are also involved in the day-to-day running of activities. All share in the common sense of purpose, the values and the direction.  All staff are involved in the development of the School Development Plan, of which out of school hours learning forms a part.  This means that all staff have ownership of the plan and share responsibility for it.

All of the clubs in Rooks Heath are run by staff volunteering to run activities but this has never been a problem for us as Choice has built upon the voluntary activities that have been a part of school life for many years. The vast majority of staff have been involved at all stages of the development of our study support and help in at least one activity.

As the various clubs have developed we have continually sought to involve students and now find that they come to us. Recent examples include Year 10 students helping younger ones at the Maths club, a student with special needs starting an information Art club in the library, which now receives funding for materials, a group of citizenship students helping to support younger students in the after school study library club.

Right from the start of Choice, the clubs have been very popular and communicating effectively with everyone has been an important issue.  A wide variety of ideas have been tried with varying degrees of success. The use of publicity has had a variety of positive effects, such as members of the community coming to us with offers of funding or other help, as well as students receiving recognition.  There is growing qualitative evidence that the local community hear about Choice, often from newspaper articles, and choose to send their children to Rooks Heath on the basis of what they have heard. There has been improvement in behaviour and motivation over the last few years and again qualitative data also indicates that is due to Choice.

The Study Support Co-ordinator attends parents' evenings to advertise the diverse range of activities that we have.  There are permanent, but regularly changing, displays to highlight the success of Choice activities and their participants. Awards are currently on display from Kodak and Education Extra, along with various sporting trophies.  There is a special celebration evening for Year 11 students as they are about to leave school. Prizes relating to Choice are awarded to all participants in assemblies.

Although we have a formal reward system in place to publicly give thanks to those students – and staff – who regularly attend study clubs, Rooks Heath is a very positive school and its positive ethos is such that the staff continually encourage and reward students, in appropriate ways, for attending Choice activities.  Short-term motivation is encouraged using target setting by students themselves in consultation with their personal tutor.  Frequently these are related to attending a specific club. These targets are recorded in their school diary.

The why:

Out of school hours learning has been in the School Development Plan for several years because the school sees Choice as a major contributor to its success. There is an expectation that staff will be involved in Choice and to this end it is built into our interview and induction process for new staff. All staff are encouraged to see study support as an extension and enrichment of their work.

New staff receive training on the ethos, methodology and expectations of study support. They are given a handbook in which is to be found information about Choice and also the various policies. Once we have approved an idea, we let the member of staff responsible implement it without interference from anyone. We see this as good staff development. One example is the French teacher who was encouraged to start a Photographic Club which has led to Photography being introduced into the Year 10 curriculum.

The impact:

Subsequent to the big growth in Choice attendance, there was an increase in the GCSE results. School attendance has also greatly improved.  We are finding that some students attend school purely to go to one of the Choice activities. After a while most build up their self-esteem and attend for other reasons and look likely to get respectable GCSE results.

Many departments are evaluating the impact of study support and have done some interesting work on the effect of attendance at their revision clubs. One example is sociology, which saw that for students who missed virtually no revision club, their GCSE grade for Sociology was their highest GCSE grade when compared to other subjects taken in the same season, but for which there were no revision sessions.  Of those who attended study support regularly, most students improved on their predicted grade. Of those who failed to attend any of the sessions, one improved their grade.

Whilst it is difficult to discern the impact of each element that has been put into place to improve attendance and GCSE results, we have no doubt that Choice has played a significant part in this improvement.  However, this is not the sole reason for running out of school hours learning activities.  One of the major effects of students attending Choice is the raising of self-esteem and becoming more effective learners. In some cases, it has motivated them enough to come to school. Students – and staff – enjoy the work they do in Choice activities and give positive feedback about their involvement.  All students have developed skills and interests that they did not previously have by attendance at clubs such as photography or drama.

There have been a variety of gains for the school and individuals through the heavy investment in out of school hours learning. Staff gain not financially but more in an intrinsic sense.  Many find themselves teaching in ways that they has not previously thought possible by learning a whole variety of new teaching styles. Discipline and motivation are better and the school is much more peaceful, most notably at times when it was previously frenetic. Attendance and the quality and quantity of homework, whilst still not perfect, have improved greatly. Students now want to be in school.  They are obviously gaining with better results, attendance, an increased range of activities to participate in, a wider range of marketable skills and so on. One disadvantage is that students are reluctant to go home and some "hang around" for some considerable period after formal school has finished!

Overall, the staff, students, governors, parents/carers and the LEA feel that the cost of the future of Choice has been assured as everyone involved – students, staff, parents/carers, the LEA and, increasingly, the local community realise that it is cost effective and a vital part of school life.

Next steps/Future developments:

We currently have two major aims:

• To target the 40+% of students who currently do not partake in Choice.
• To develop new clubs in order to reflect the changing interests and needs of our students. For example, a film club starts in September 2004.

What has been learnt that can inform others?

• Form a small group of people who will make it work. The clubs will eventually seem to work themselves but the team that runs it overall is crucial to the success. Include staff from all levels in this team.
• Involve everyone – staff and students – in any decision-making. What do they want? How can they help? What can they offer?  What do they need to make it successful?
• Try to be flexible, particularly when problems arise. See opportunities when problems arise.
• Talk to other schools and build on their ideas. Build on what already happens in your own establishment.
• Use the QiSS  Study Support Code of Practice to review your work. It really helps and leads to improvement