Case study bank: find or share a case study

21st Century approaches to consulting pupils    Elgar College in Worcester used technology to full advantage when it was consulting with parents and young people from its cluster of schools.

A mobile parent and family drop-in centre   Based in a bus, the drop-in centre ‘visits’ all four schools in the Driffield cluster of schools on a fortnightly rotation to offer parenting advice and support.

A range of oshl activities in Flintshire – for only £1,000     A number of summer literacy and numeracy activities were offered by Flintshire Library Services to 400 students on just a nominal budget of £1,000.

Action Figures   This project involved children and young people from nine to nineteen years old working with professional artists, animators, software programmers and sound designers in a series of accredited drawing, animation and sound design workshops during Spring and Summer 2008.

Active citizenship in the sensory garden   Thornton Grammar School was one of ten pilot schools involved in the Active Citizens in School (ACiS) project. Part of their work included the creation of a sensory garden.

Activities to 6pm at Bowbridge Primary School   This school offers wraparound care and study support activities from breakfast until 6pm.

Adventure play in the bay   This project, managed by Torbay Play Forum and Torbay Council, provides free, inclusive, adventurous activities for children through the school holidays.

After-school and holiday childcare in Nottingham   Three schools within the Central Education  Improvement Partnership (EIP) serve the childcare needs of all schools within the area. The three 'hubs' each have a minibus based on-site to collect children from other schools at the request of parents.

Angling for success   Fairfield Community Primary school in Worcester used a fishing project to change children's attitudes to learning.

Better reading   Gomer Infant School successfully uses the Better Reading Partnership, a programme trialled by Bradford Local Authority, to improve the reading ages of its pupils.

Breakfast club healthy bar   Breakfast Club at Papdale Primary School, Orkney Islands provides a healthy breakfast for pupils.

Building Bridges - Peer mentoring for positive living in the community   A programme was made to give support to a group of disaffected Year 9 boys and equip them with skills for life in school and the wider community.

Camps Hill - a hub for the community   As part of the Chells Learning Network, Camps Hill Primary is fast becoming a hub for the local community.

Changing the school day   Ian Johnson as headteacher of Marlowe Academy relates his experience of changing the school day. His message: make sure the community sees the relevance and importance of learning, it's then easier to raise aspirations among your students and ensure sustained progress.

Communication, communication, communication!   Martyn Davies, extended services co-ordinator for the Whitecross Cluster in Hereford, talks us through all the publications and other methods he uses to keep parents and his community in the loop.

Consulting parents   A cluster in Hackney commissioned an independent consultant to help devise consultation techniques that could help discover what services parents/carers and children wanted as part of their extended school provision. The exercise also aimed to evaluate the schools’ current provision.

Creative Music Ensembles   Day-long workshops, aimed in particular at those who do not engage in musical activities, were organised in which staff and Year 8, 9 and 10 pupils worked together to create and perform music.

Delivering parenting and family support through extended school services   A demand-led service that responds to the needs of the community in the Isle of Wight.

Early intervention strategy   This is a case study about a school/police partnership that supports students before they become involved in the criminal justice system. The partnership is run by Castle High School and Visual Arts College's (Dudley, West Midlands).

Engaging parents as mentors   Pupil Parent Partnership (PPP) have engaged with parents by training them to be mentors to young people, through the PPP Mentor Training Course.

Improving attainment through extended services   Frederick Gent Secondary School in North East Derbyshire provides a range of extended activities, many of which have impacted significantly on students' attainment.

Increased learning opportunities for excluded pupils   The Youth Programmes Unit in Hertfordshire created a range of activities for excluded young people, and those at risk of exclusion, to help their confidence and self-esteem.

Learning support facilitator runs the SHOTS club for pupils with low self-esteem   The SHOTS club at Marshall Park School in Havering targets pupils with low-self esteem, poor co-ordination skills and challenging behaviour at Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4.

Locality planning   Churchill Community College in Tyne and Wear, offers a range of 8 to 6pm activities and services, including a breakfast club, summer learning provision, and wraparound care across a family of local schools and childrens centres.

Measuring the impact of extended services   Broadgreen High School in Liverpool uses a range of approaches to measure the impact of study support on students' attainment, attitudes and attendance, including staff and parental perceptions.

Parenting support and lifelong learning at Ladybridge   Ladybridge Primary School has set up a programme of parenting support and activities as part of its extended services remit.

Personalised Learning - 'Pakistani Boys Can'   Watford Grammar School for Boys created a personalised lessons catered towards Year 11 Pakistani boys who were underachieving in exams.

School partnerships   Good relationships with local organisations has enabled Egremont Primary School to offer different activities and take care of the well-being of its pupils.

Shared resources and strong links   The Bradford extended schools (BD3 4ALL) project focuses on widening oshl/study support opportunities through effective partnership development.

Skilled for Health in a specialist sports college setting   St Luke's Science and Sports College in Exeter tried the health improvement programme and it proved such a success that it spread throughout the city, engaging with the community.

Stepping Stones programme - tackling exclusion   Teaching assistants and youth workers at Ashfield School, a Technology College in Kirkby, run an innovative after-school social skills training programme to help prevent educational or social exclusion.

Study support at Tor Bank Special School, Belfast   A wide range of study support/8 to 6 activities and services are run at Tor Bank Special School in Belfast, despite problems of transport and the need for a high teacher–pupil ratio.

Study Support Residential - Aim Higher   A pilot project offered study support classes for Year 11 looked-after children held at Hertfordshire University where they could prepare for exams and raise their aspirations. (Also links to Enjoying & Achieving).

Summer Challenge   Collett School, a school for children with learning difficulties, created a week-long summertime art & design course that centred on the theme of friendship and team work.

Sustainable reading club   The reading group at Don Valley School and Performing Arts College, Doncaster links with a range of initiatives across the curriculum in order to fund and sustain its activities.

Take the school to science; bring science to the school   XL Wales, based in Swansea, has turned the challenge of making science more accessible by bringing science into the community.

Teach a boy to fish   An out-of-hours fishing club at Hackney Free and Parochial School encouraged pupils to continue learning in their own time and fish themselves on a Saturday morning.

Towards seamless services for families   Community consultation at Brichensale Middle School.

Using puzzles to improve maths    There's been a maths club at Oakwood since 2004. However, its Puzzle Club began in September 2007 and it aims to stimulate the thinking skills and maths confidence of any students who want to come along.

Wider activities: a comprehensive menu    One of the options offered by Beauchamp College is the Curriculum Extra programme: a series of additional courses in subjects that students don't expect to encounter in normal curriculum time - with qualifications attached. Subjects on offer include everything from first-aid to food hygiene. They demonstrate to university admissions tutors that pupils have other interests, as well as helping pupils get part-time jobs.

Young Travellers - stories from the web   Through a combination of traditional story-telling and modern technology, a project in Hertfordshire was able to raise literacy and self-esteem in Traveller children.

Worcestershire

• Worcestershire Council: The impact of study support and extended services case studies 
  Here is Worcestershire Council's list of monitoring reports of study support and extended services programmes showing progress made so far. A full evaluation will be available soon. The projects and programmes have covered:
  speech and language therapy, youth voice (an inter-school council); gardening; play; reading improvement; family learning; ICT; sculpture; a project addressing premises/space needs for extended activities; behaviour improvement; transition programme for pupils at risk of disengagement; a survey run by disabled pupils; music therapy; an internet café for young people; community cohesion event (organised by young people); general after-school activities clubs; dance; swimming; bridging the gap between ICT and home; Gypsy Roma family learning project (arts and story-telling); academic coaching to support to support targeted KS4 pupils in achieving 5 GCSE A*-C; drama; music and dance for Gifted and Talented pupils.
  The projects are run by schools and groups of schools in Droitwich, Evesham, Malvern, Martley, Pershore, Tenbury, Worcester, Wrye Forest and Hagley and have included some special schools.

Hertfordshire

• Study support: Aim Higher (Herts)   Looked-after children frequently perform poorly at school compared to the general population and they frequently have problems in accessing study support activities because they have been relocated away from their communities and have much longer travel times to get to school. This pilot project offered a residential study support course at Hertfordshire University for Year 11 children, helping them to prepare for their exams to raise their aspirations for when they would leave school
• Study support club to improve behaviour (Herts)   An after school club for young people with behavioural difficulties, who are on the verge of exclusion or considered to be culturally deprived.
• Building Bridges - Peer Mentoring for positive living in the community (Herts)  A study support programme designed to give extra support to secondary school pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. School staff worked closely with ‘Bridge Builders’, an external organisation, to deliver additional intervention to a group of disaffected/disengaged year 9 boys.
• Young carers' Chill Out Zone (Herts)   Young carers' may often find that study support is not an option for them due to their caring duties. Here's a project, jointly delivered by Nobel and Marriotts schools in Stevenage, which has aimed to provide respite for young carers, to give them access to study support activities and a chance to improve on their achievements. It also gave pupils a chance to have fun and to socialise with their peers.
• Creative music ensembles (Herts)   This county-wide pilot project was designed to be attractive to Year 8, 9 and 10 pupils who would not normally take part in music-based study support activities. It was delivered in partnership with the Guildhall School of Music and featured day-long workshops in which staff and pupils worked together to create and perform new material.
• Study support can increase learning among excluded pupils (Herts)   An innovative project to provide study support and out-of-school-hours learning opportunites for Key Stage 4 pupils who were either excluded from school or at risk of becoming so. The pupils took part in an alternative programme of education provided by the Youth Programmes Unit, designed to meet their needs by raising their confidence and self-esteem. The programme included opportunities for the young people to examine their own behaviour and to develop self-management techniques.
• JEX (Junior Eating & Exercise) (Herts)   This project focuses on food and exercise in a fun,
  friendly and relaxed environment.
• Learning Games - Study Support (Herts)   Enhanced study skills opportunities for children and young people missing education due to illness and  tailored to individual needs.
• Opening Doors (Herts)   A programme of study support and oyt-of-school-hours learning activities for looked after children with special needs.
• Study support: measuring impact (Herts)   A web-based programme to measure the impact of physical activity on students, both within school and outside in the community. Three targeted groups with a planned programme of activities were identified to start the data set, provide initial analysis and test specific activities to inform where best to invest resources.
• MFL+ P (Modern Foreign Languages Plus Programme (Herts)   Early morning French and Italian language sessions available to the whole school.
• Pakistani Boys Can: study support for personalised learning   A project that aimed to meet the personalised learning needs of BME pupils from the Pakistani community who were
  underachieving in examinations. 
• Young Travellers: Stories from the web   This was a six-week pilot literacy project for  aimed at improving literacy in young Traveller children. The programme engaged with Traveller pupils by focusing on traditional story-telling activities through ICT and the web.
• Study support for Gifted and Talented young people (Herts)   A project to enable Gifted and Talented young people to develop leadership skills.
• Study support summer challenge for children with MLD   Traditionally it has been difficult to provide study support in schools for children with learning difficulties because the pupils are drawn from a wide geographical area and transport issues become a barrier. This project attempted to overcome this problem by providing a week-long summer school of study support and out-of-school-hours learning activity on the theme of developing friendship and team work, using art and design.