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1999/2000 |
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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 is now part of regular library and health service support to families. It is being sustained with more than 10,000 families. It has been picked up as a national initiative by Sainsbury's - which releases our resources to target specific groups e.g. families in Refuges; travellers; families in hostels etc.
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.
A group has met to carry forward joint developments across a range of agencies. Relationship to Early Years and Child Care Partnership clarified. Activities and gaps have been mapped prior to identifying joint developments. Agencies are now more committed to joint planning on a whole-city scale.
Providing additional staff training re. literacy and numeracy development.
There has been an increased amount of training for nursery teachers; early years staff; portage staff; pre-school workers; community day nurseries. More than 100 extra staff are now better able to deliver literacy and numeracy outcomes.
Strategic Objective 2
(a) Raise, year on year, the attainment levels of pupils of school age
(b) Produce a body of key staff who are highly skilled in the teaching and learning of the key skills of literacy and numeracy (including the supporting use of IT)
Extending the benefits of the Education Service's literacy strategy and numeracy strategy with primary schools.
60 additional primary schools worked with intensively on literacy developments and 69 additional primary schools on numeracy developments.
Increasing the number of opportunities for the professional development of language and mathematics co-ordinators in schools.
Additional opportunities created for 40 primary language co-ordinators, 20 primary maths co-ordinators, 70 secondary maths co-ordinators and 75 secondary English co-ordinators. 510 teachers had 5 day training course.
Establishing small scale action-research into the effective ways of raising literacy levels for particular underachieving groups.
Focus on raising achievement of Afro Caribbean pupils and of young Bangladeshi pupils.
Providing matching support for the Education Service's planned work to improve literacy and numeracy levels in secondary schools (at least 56 schools) and special schools (at least 8 schools).
Secondary schools and all special schools received appropriate support for literacy and numeracy developments. This has led to a refined model which schools are implementing with the LEA over the next 3 years.
Targeted additional work with at least 20 secondary schools where groups of pupils need additional interventions.
25 secondary schools supported with additional activity to target groups of underachieving pupils.
Opportunities for a further 70 schools to access ICT-based support for literacy and numeracy.
71 schools supported with increased access to ICT developments to boost literacy and numeracy levels of pupils.
Providing additional support to children in hostels and children in public care.
ICT put into hostels. Books provided for children in care; in addition to sets of reference materials, author visits etc.
Pupil targeting support with at least 30 schools identified as causing concern because of overall low levels of attainment.
53 schools supported via pupil targeting work.
Improve the capacity of schools to plan coherently for literacy and numeracy gains by pupils.
100 additional schools supported in gaining Basic Skills Quality Mark.
Provide family learning support to an additional 50 schools through the INSPIRE, family literacy and family numeracy models.
More than 86 schools supported.
Providing 250 more volunteers to work with pupils, including an increased proportion of cross-phase tutoring and an increased number of business volunteers.
902 additional volunteers supporting reading in schools.
Strategic Objective 3
Increasing the amount of own-time investment in key skills levels by young people
Extend the literacy and numeracy summer schools, via the University of the First Age and the Children's University.
25% increase in the number of literacy and numeracy summer springboards
Extend the homework support available through the Library Service.
Homework support activities now built into 33 out of 39 libraries
Extend the literacy/numeracy components built into playschemes, playcentres and Youth Service activities.
Support given to basic skills developments with young people through the Youth Start programme
Align Core Skills Partnership supported activity with other activity, to work towards the implementation of a planned pattern of out-of-school support via the New Opportunities Fund.
Cross city group brought together to create a whole-city planning approach to out-of-hours support. Involved libraries; Youth service; schools; LEA; voluntary sector. Successful national New Opportunities Fund bid to expand this work.
Establish a cross-city programme of 'own time' events for young people, focusing on reading.
Variety of book festivals, reading groups, author visits, poetry sessions, library developments, young peoples' events etc - more to be done to bring these into a sustained coherent framework. Total of 5,204 young people involved in a range of developments.
Strategic Objective 4
Meeting the needs of specific target groups
Using at risk and excluded pupils as literacy/numeracy mentors with younger children.
Continued support given to Valued Youth and other programmes.
Making provision that keeps young people, who are at risk, engaged with education and training opportunities
Support given to New Start developments focusing on 6 target groups of disaffected young people.
Extending the provision of advice to adults and parents of children with an additional learning need
Information points established in libraries and adult education centres.
Alignment of planning activity through Education Action Zones, New Deal For Communities, other SRB Challenge Funded schemes etc.
This Partnership was closely involved in the establishment of the early Education Action Zones and the 3 Estates New Deal programme. We have cross referenced the Action Plans for these activities with our own plans. We have been strongly involved in the SRB Family Support developments.
Enhancement of STEP/ Bridge etc. to target a range of client groups.
Core Skills built into new Learning Gateway developments. Target activity with offenders/homeless/those leaving care. Development work with the 7 providers. Of the 398 young people going through New Step, 294 improved their core skills.
Strategic Objective 5
Increasing the employability and job-retention of adults
Integrate key skills into existing training curricula for unemployed people currently under-represented in training and employment
49 staff gained key skills Deliverer's Award. Increased levels of assessment and support. 36 pre-vocational supplier staff involved in core skills developments
Enhance and expand existing literacy and numeracy provision for adults in the community by further developing ITC-based learning opportunities
ICT-based basic skills work with adults at 14 more sites (including probation hostels; community centres etc). More structured approach to software support. Increased use of laptops in community settings.
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.
80 front line staff involved in customised basic skills awareness work; more than 30 people acting as intermediaries to unlock the basic skills of people in the community.
Further implement the collaborative city-wide plan for the development of ESOL, and parallel this with the implementation of a joint-agency plan re. post 16 literacy and numeracy.
Basic Skills Plan for Birmingham drawn up and consulted on. ESOL developments incorporated into this Plan. Plan used as a national case study model.
Provide staff development for training providers who are delivering the National Traineeship.
Increased levels of assessment and support for 336 trainees on Modern Apprenticeship and for those young people in National Traineeship
Strategic Objective 6
Meeting the needs of employers for key skills at work
Working with cohorts of employers to establish what employers' needs are in relation to key skills.
Briefings held for more than 200 employers; work done via Business Groups; work done on sector basis e.g. basic skills and health/care workers.
Developing and piloting ICT-based materials for basic skills at work.
Part of national development and piloting of 'state of the art' basic skills at work on-line learning.
Increasing the volume of employee volunteering to enhance the core skills of others.
231 volunteers from 43 companies supporting pupils in schools.
Strategic Objective 7
Increasing the individual commitment to core skills development
Working to meet the varied needs of members of small community groups.
Focus on innovative approach to working with small community groups to unlock basic skills needs and basic skills volunteers.
Continuing the small grant scheme to enable voluntary and community groups to enhance the core skills aspects of their work.
Small Grant Scheme continued for 1 more round. Subsequently this has been built into a structured framework of support being taken up by more than 40 groups.
Establishing localised 'pools' of core skills support resources to be drawn upon by community groups as required.
Some piloting of resource kits. This has led to the incorporation of this activity into a structured framework of support being taken up by more than 40 groups.
Continuing to bring the various volunteer organisations into closer dialogue with each other about the recruitment, training and support of literacy/ numeracy volunteers in a range of settings.
Variety of voluntary organisations now know of each other's activity and have begun to position themselves in relation to wider volume of work.