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Cases of effective practice arising from this project.
One EiC/EMAG project was aimed at Key Stage 3 students who had not attained level 4 in English. The school staff welcomed the opportunity that EiC/EMAG afforded them to concentrate on students at this level, as it is often only those students who are relatively new to English at Key Stage 3 who receive special support. As part of the EiC/EMAG activities, the target group received additional support through literacy catch-up sessions (on spelling, grammar and/or punctuation) according to the students’ needs.
Although the aims, objectives and activities of EiC/EMAG remained unchanged, in the second year of the implementation, different criteria were applied to the selection of students. As a result of the process of monitoring and evaluation of the project, it was agreed that length of exposure to English would also be one of the selection criteria for participation in the project.
Consequently, in the second year of the implementation, refined criteria were applied: besides the language level criterion, students with less than five years exposure to English were also targeted.
In one of the schools visited, the EiC/EMAG project aimed to enhance the achievement of African-Caribbean heritage pupils by:
In 2002/03, the focus was on the first two strategies. Parental involvement was felt to be a weak strand, with contact with parents being merely through letters. Therefore, in 2003/04, a plan was devised to develop this strand by organising a monthly evening drop-in session for parents of African-Caribbean pupils. The session would take place in a local community centre, which was perceived to be a neutral site that would enhance the likelihood of parents coming. The need for such a neutral place was felt because parents may often have had negative school experiences themselves and may be used to mostly receiving negatively charged information from schools (eg, concerns about their children).
Prior to the organisation of the first session, questionnaires were sent out to parents to find out what they would like to gain from the sessions and how formal they would like them to be, in order to tailor them accordingly.
One EiC/EMAG project in a case study primary school aimed to assist students and their families with the transition to secondary school. The target groups were English as an Additional Language (EAL) and late-arriving students. A part-time EiC Learning Mentor, who had acquired skills for supporting students and parents with transition as part of his EiC training, played the key role in this project. Part of the EiC/EMAG funding was used to make him full-time, which had the advantage of enabling him to organise his own work more flexibly to the benefit of all the activities in which he was involved.
The Learning Mentor established contacts with a local secondary school. No other member of staff would have been able to undertake this work, which involved meeting staff at the school and organising open days for families. Support was also provided to parents (eg, information about the transition process and help with filling in forms) and to students (through one-to-one sessions where appropriate). Although the support and activities provided were available to all students and families in the school, particular efforts were made to make contact with and engage the EiC/EMAG target groups.
A Learning Mentor described how the EiC/EMAG staff carry out reviews of progress every two weeks, set targets and keep in touch with tutors. Each meeting with the students is logged, along with details of telephone calls or visits to parents. The staff carried out an evaluation last year and the Project coordinator is going to combine the various reports for the DfES. Activities and progress are also recorded on a spreadsheet.
The results of monitoring revealed that the (Asian) target group, in particular the Pakistani students, had made good progress. The Learning Mentor said that as a result of this, many other students who are not involved in the EiC/EMAG project have asked to take part.
In one school, the EiC/EMAG activities with a group of Black Gifted and Talented Year 7 students were started, with strong support from the headteacher.
Activities have included:
At this school, it was felt that not all aspects of the project will be equally sustainable. Each year, the mentoring of Year 7 Black Gifted and Talented students will be taken over by Year 8 students who will have gone through the programme. On the other hand, without additional funding, paying for activities such as visits to the theatre will not be possible once the EiC/EMAG funding finishes.
