School in Focus - celebrating success in schools

Redcar Community College

Few schools would relish the challenge of persuading young children to attend extra classes on a Saturday. At Redcar Community College, however, an extra-curricular 'Primary University' featuring lessons on rockets and robots has got pupils "buzzing" with excitement about lifelong learning.

Redcar set up the university last November, as part of the full service extended school programme, to raise the aspirations of talented Year 6 children from seven feeder primaries.

Reaching pupils and parents

The school's intake is from some of the most deprived wards in England and Wales, and the borough has the second highest percentage of NEETS in the country. To counter negative attitudes towards further and higher education, the school decided it was vital to reach pupils (and parents) from the earliest possible stage in their school career.

Liz Dewings, the extended programme manager, says: "We wanted to address under-achievement, particularly at GCSE level, and to maximise the achievement of pupils identified as potential high achievers by their primary schools.

"We knew we had to do something different to get people in here on a Saturday. It had to be interesting and exciting for the child, and the parents had to buy into it because they are the ones who are bringing their children in."

The result was the Primary University, which took six months to plan and prepare before the first cohort of 35 started attending Saturday sessions last November.

Liz has led the overall strategy, whilst planning and specific learning modules were handed to Helen Spence, a former primary teacher with responsibilities for KS2-3 transition strategies at the school.

Enthusiastic staff

Helen was given release time on Fridays for the extra planning work, and she and up to three additional members of staff (including another primary teacher) are paid to take lessons on Saturdays.

Liz says: "Although they are paid for their extra teaching hours, we needed the most enthusiastic members of staff for this role because the whole point is to get children excited about learning.

"We selected the teachers according to a strict set of criteria: they had to be passionate about their subject, knowledgeable, committed to enthusing and challenging young children and at the same time open to innovative teaching methods.

"It's really interesting because the school has learned that it has to change the way children are taught. The big thing is realising that children can be independent learners. They can be self-directed and self-motivated; they don't have to be spoon-fed."

Positive outcomes

The success of the scheme has also changed the way the school is perceived among parents of prospective children. "Many of the parents have told me the Primary University has been a factor in their decision to send their child here instead of other secondary schools," says Liz. "One mother told me her son was already talking about staying on to complete his A Levels and going on to study Archaeology at university."

The school has also ensured parental involvement with adult learning sessions on computing, healthy eating and first aid, offered at the same time as Primary University sessions. "Next year we hope to include joint parent-child sessions so they can work on challenges together. This is important because many of the parents' own experiences of education in this area were not positive," says Liz.

The children, when they start at Redcar in September, will already be equipped with many of the skills they need for secondary school. For instance, they are all capable of doing Powerpoint presentations related to their work.

"We have put such a lot of effort into the whole experience, we want children to be engaged from the minute they arrive to the minute they leave." And it seems to be working, because "at the end of each session they are absolutely buzzing with excitement and start looking forward to coming back the next Saturday".

Knock-on effects

Success has had a knock-on effect on the whole school. "We are now developing a Year 7 curriculum for this cohort, with a specially selected group of teachers that will continue to engage and challenge them once they start in September. Eventually we want to roll that out across the whole year group."

In terms of professional development, the increased contact between our teachers and colleagues at the feeder schools has led to a real cross-fertilisation of expertise and ideas.

The funding for extra staffing and resources — for instance, robot-building kits — came from the full service extended budget. Start up year costs are £10,000 and years one and two will be £8,000 per year.

"You do need a dedicated budget for this kind of programme." But the extended budget has been granted to us only up to 2008, so the school may face the challenge of sourcing the money elsewhere".