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2000/2001 |
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Strategic Objective 1
(a) Raise the baseline attainment, year on year, of children on entry to school
(b) Create increased consistency of pre-school intervention across areas and communities
Sustaining the Bookstart model, ensuring that the support can be accessed by the ‘harder to reach’ families.
Bookstart has now been taken on as a national programme. In Birmingham it exists as a normal ‘layer’ of service to all families. Specific work is being done to ensure that traveller families, those in hostels and refuges, and families with young children with disabilities get the same level of service.
Encouraging increased linkages between the various interventions, including workshops with parents of under 5s, family literacy work, Bookstart, Flying Start, Wilstar, and other language development programmes, mainstream education and library activities etc.
Under Fives language, literacy and numeracy skill developments have been carried forward through a framework of activities that has the support of all partners. This is the first time such a coherent pattern of development has been achieved.
Extending the range of pre-school organisations supported.
Support has been extended to include all nursery schools and all day nurseries.
Creating a focus on language development and a focus on families where English is not the home language.
Some work has been undertaken within day nurseries, within libraries and through the speech and language development service – but lacks a precise focus.
Outcomes from this activity:Baseline Assessment average scores will rise to 4.0 (Language and Literacy) and 4.0 (mathematics)
Baseline Assessment figures (2000) are 4.6 (language and literacy) and 4.6 (mathematics).
Strategic Objective 2
Raise, year on year, the attainment levels of pupils of school age
Increasing the number of opportunities for the professional development of language and mathematics teachers in schools.
100 newly qualified teachers, 80 nursery staff and 60 school co-ordinators supported through targeted professional development. Expansion of support to teachers, relating to specific aspects of literacy/numeracy work.
Bringing a more precise focus to a number of small scale activities to give effective ways of raising literacy levels for particular underachieving groups.
Wide range of fragmentary activities consolidated into 3 or 4 themes aimed at raising the achievement of specific groups.
Further development of curriculum materials in literacy and numeracy to minimise the break in learning across the Key Stage 2/ Key Stage 3 transition.
‘Moving On Up’ English and Maths modules revised and in use in the majority of schools.
Targeted additional work with at least 20 secondary schools where groups of pupils need additional interventions.
Support work undertaken with 40 secondary schools, with a shift from separate projects to a coherent menu of support.
Opportunities for a further 70 schools to access ICT-based support for literacy and numeracy.
73 schools supplied with increased support in using ICT to boost literacy and numeracy levels.
Providing additional support to children in hostels and children looked after.
Books, ICT and author visits made available to childrens homes.
Pupil targeting support with at least 30 schools identified as causing concern because of overall low levels of attainment.
43 schools able to target curriculum areas with specific small groups in danger of being left behind.
Improve the capacity of schools to plan coherently for literacy and numeracy gains by pupils.
More schools supported in developing whole school strategies; via Quality Mark, via work through language of maths co-ordination etc. 58 schools awarded Basic Skills Agency Quality Mark.
Provide family learning support to an additional 50 schools through the INSPIRE, family literacy and family numeracy models.
More than 96 extra organisations developing stronger engagement of parents in children’s literacy/numeracy.
Providing 250 more volunteers to work with pupils.
293 new volunteers recruited and trained.
Introduce literacy and numeracy support activities into residential experiences for pupils and young people.
Resources provided and development work undertaken with all outdoor and residential centres.
Outcomes from this activity:By the end of Year 5 all schools in Birmingham will have robust plans for raising core skills levels of their pupils. Attainment at Key Stage assessments:
Literacy/numeracy firmly structured into School Development Plans; and into the Education Service’s Education Development Plan. 2000 figures attained:
Strategic Objective 3
Increasing the amount of own-time investment in key skills levels by young people
Increase the number of literacy and numeracy summer schools, and the amount of literacy/numeracy support available through extended learning centres.
Number of literacy/numeracy summer schools for 10-19 year olds more than doubled from 1999 figures.
Extend the homework support available through the Library Service and through schools.
Homework support extended through joint training of libraries and youth workers; detached outreach work into city centre from Central Library and expansion of availability in inner city libraries where demand is high.
Align Core Skills Partnership supported activity with other out-of-school activity.
Core Skills supported activity used to extend the national programmes being put in place via lottery funding.
Establish a cross-city programme of ‘own time’ events for young people with an increased focus on writing skills and on the involvement of underachieving groups of young people.
‘Stories on the Web’; Young Peoples Reading groups and a Young Readers Festival linked to provide a cross city programme with substantial involvement of young people.
Outcome:10% increase in the volume of young people from target groups using libraries
Volume of target young people’s use increased by 15%.
Strategic Objective 4
Meeting the needs of specific target groups
Making provision that keeps young people, who are at risk, engaged with education and training opportunities – with a focus on work with offenders, homeless young people, people leaving care and people with disabilities
Specific outreach and development work undertaken to keep six key target groups, in the 14-19 age group, engaged with education/training providers. Additional support given to homeless young people and young people leaving care.
Building core skills support into new structural services that support Partners’ target groups.
Work done with partners to increase the amount of key skills work via Probation Service, via Youth Service and via Learning Gateways.
Strategic Objective 5
Increasing the employability and job-retention of adults
Increased from 7,734 adults to 12,234 adults in year ending July 2000.
Enhance and expand existing literacy and numeracy provision for adults in the community by further developing ICT-based learning opportunities.
ICT based developments carried forward via laptops in community groups; via national development of Skillsbuild software; via more basic skills via ICT in Libraries and Employment Resource Centres.
Provide training for a further 100 front-line staff in a range of agencies to enable them to more adequately refer and assess people with core skills. One focus within this will be those people able to act as intermediaries / paraprofessionals in meeting the needs of members of small, dispersed community groups.
Develop a joint-agency plan re. post 16 literacy and numeracy
An adult basic skills plan developed for Birmingham. This was used as an exemplar in national advice re. area basic skills planning.
Provide staff development for training providers particularly in the voluntary sector.
Work undertaken to strengthen the capacity of 25 voluntary organisations, to bring them to recognised quality levels re. basic skills delivery.
Strengthen the basic skills support processes within New Deals programmes
Basic skills screening, assessment and referral processes reviewed and a New Deal basic skills improvement action plan implemented.
Outcomes from this activity:
(a) More than 120 new staff whose retraining focuses on core skills development
(b) A 4% increase in the number of adult learners engaged in raising their basic skills levels
128 staff involved in training programmes.
Strategic Objective 6
Meeting the needs of employers for key skills at work
Developing and piloting ICT-based materials for basic skills at work.
Involvement in development of basic skills assessment and learning software, in partnership with a range of national agencies.
Increasing the volume of employee volunteering to enhance the core skills of others.
Links made in Education Action Zones etc. to unlock more than 150 business volunteers.
Supporting core skills developments within Learndirect developments
Not fully carried forward. Will be more robustly revisited in 2001/02.
Integration of core skills support into employer services and into business start-ups
Focus has shifted from work with separate companies. Model is now to work with larger numbers of employers, via structured training needs analysis – as part of a wider menu of business support.
Strategic Objective 7
Increasing the individual commitment to core skills development
Working to meet the varied needs of members of small community groups.
Work undertaken, with the support of the national Basic Skills Agency, to create a new way of working. 40 community groups engaged with this development.
Implementation of the recommendations from the Basic Skills Agency consultation
Recommendations fully implemented. Is leading towards a coherent voluntary sector set of developments.
Establishing localised ‘pools’ of core skills support resources to be drawn upon by community groups as required.
Resources assessed for suitability for different target groups. Sample boxes of resources reviewed and trained with 5 community groups.