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A three-day residential summer programme run by the University of Strathclyde's Innovative Routes to Learning (IRL) unit for children in care from three Glasgow City Council schools. The programme aimed to build academic confidence, raise awareness of and aspiration to progress to university, and provide access to university facilities and student mentors. Participants reported increased confidence, improved knowledge of university life, and a stronger desire to work harder at school.
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Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care October 2013 – Vol.12, No.
Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care ISSN 1478 - 1840
The Innovative Routes to Learning (IRL) unit at the University of Strathclyde ran a three- day on-campus residential programme for children from a looked after (care) background from three Glasgow City Council schools during summer 2013, designed to build pupils’ academic confidence and raise their awareness of and aspiration to progress on to university. Evaluation of the programme shows very positive results in a number of areas, including pupils’ aspirations and confidence to undertake university-level study, pupils’ knowledge of higher education, and attitude towards school-work. Participants also benefitted greatly from working with student mentors and other young people from different areas. In order to maximise the benefits of such programmes it is important to bear in mind issues around correct targeting of participants, effective communication between stakeholders and ensuring the programme is set within an extended, co- ordinated programme of support.
Key Words: looked after children; widening access; outreach; partnership working
Innovative Routes to Learning (IRL), within the School of Education at the University of Strathclyde, ran a three-day on-campus programme for children from a looked after (care) background from three Glasgow City Council schools during summer 2013. The programme was designed to build pupils’ academic confidence and raise their awareness of and aspiration to progress on to university. This was done through providing participants with a series of engaging and challenging activities which allowed them to gain knowledge of specific university courses as well as more general information about higher education. Pupils also learnt about student life through working with undergraduate and postgraduate student mentors, taking part in an evening social programme and staying in university accommodation.
IRL has previously run a variety of educational initiatives which have allowed children in care to take part in wider summer programmes that are not specifically dedicated to looked after children. It was considered, however, that a smaller, dedicated summer programme for children in care would allow a greater focus on individual needs and provide more individual support than would be perhaps offered on IRL’s wider programmes. Running this summer school for a younger age group would allow participants to go on to access IRL’s more ‘mainstream’ support as they progressed through the education system.
IRL, along with colleagues in the University of Strathclyde, has developed a strong working relationship with Glasgow City Council (GCC)i^ and the MCR Foundationii^ and plans for the summer school were incorporated into a larger programme of support for a target group of children in care, at the end of S2 or S3iii, from three schools in the east end of Glasgow.
The residential programme would act as an introductory activity for this extended programme of support.
The summer programme ran during July 2013 and was called the Strathclyde Summer Experience. In total, ten of the targeted pupils participated in the programme, with eight taking part in the residential aspect, staying for four nights in the University’s halls of residence.
The programme’s main focus was on raising pupils’ awareness of and aspiration to attend university. Working in small groups and guided by student mentors, pupils undertook a series of engaging challenges that allowed them to find out general information about university, address any fears and concerns they might have about higher education and take part in taster sessions for specific university subjects. Activities included:
In addition, pupils took part in four interactive subject-specific challenge sessions including:
Groups spent the last part of their week working on a ‘Mega Challenge’ which involved exploring the campus independently to find out information about various aspects of university life and study. They then presented their findings to assembled guests at a graduation ceremony on the final afternoon of the programme.
Pupils also took part in an extensive evening social programme which included dinner in a restaurant, a trip to the cinema, a martial arts session, bowling, an art session involving making clocks, and a ‘Crystal Maze’ challenge activity.
Parents and carers of participants attended a parallel evening event which allowed them to take part in some of the same activities that their young people had completed throughout the week, enabling them to find out about university opportunities open to their young people and how to support them in achieving the best possible outcomes from their education.
The main aims of the programme were:
Given the more sensitive nature of the work on the residential summer programme compared with other IRL projects, a high level of importance was placed on choosing experienced mentors who had proven to be trustworthy, efficient and proactive, as well as able to form very good working relationships with young people from more difficult backgrounds. Most of the mentors who worked on the daytime programme had worked for IRL for several years and had shown themselves capable of undertaking a range of different roles and dealing with high levels of responsibility. It was also considered important that these mentors should be current or recently-graduated students so that their experience of university was as fresh and up-to-date as possible.
Slightly different criteria were used in selecting the mentors who would stay overnight with the pupils in university accommodation and run the evening social programme. Most of these mentors had worked for IRL for over five years, some for as many as eight years. It was thought that these mentors had the required level of maturity and experience to deal with any potentially more serious problematic issues that might arise during the residential aspect of the programme.
As with all IRL projects mentors were given training on course content before the programme. In addition, mentors also received training from CELCIS (Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland) and university social work academics on working with children in care and the particular educational obstacles that they face.
On other IRL programmes, mentors normally work with groups of pupils in a ratio of approximately one to eight. It was decided to have a much smaller ratio of pupils to mentors on the summer programme in order to give more personalised attention to individuals. This was something of a sensitive issue due to an awareness that many young people in care have contact with a lot of adults and that many of these do not stay in their lives for long. This concern was amplified by the fact that the pupils would also be working with different mentors during their evening social programme. However, as the feedback above shows, the opportunity to work closely with student mentors was one of the main benefits that pupils felt they had gained from the programme. Several mentors also mentioned the small ratio of pupils to mentors as a very positive aspect of the programme.
‘The high ratio of mentor to participant was excellent in that it allowed spending more time with each pupil on a one-to-one basis and it was easier to interact less as an authority figure and more as a source of support for issues.’