The Learning Exchange Library

* New from VCS members Bigfoot and Cineclub:
Schools: Summer programmes in 2013 – start your planning now    Two VCS Hub members, Bigfoot Arts Education and Cineclub, are offering schools an extensive range of summer school programmes that aim to help students explore, accept, and enjoy their transition to new schools and to further key stages in their education. Download this great programme, which includes a good range of performing arts courses as well as film and animation workshops. Bigfoot and Cineclub can also help your school with:

• Your application for some of the £50m government Summer Programme funding to run your summer project 
• evaluating your summer programme and writing a case study
• running ‘Recruitment workshops’  to encourage Year 6 students to enrol in your summer programme.
• Assist your students to gain accreditation based on their participation – either through an Arts Award, or through New Era Exams (as part of any two-week programme).

Bigfoot Arts Education works with schools across England, in the North East, Greater Manchester and Merseyside, London, Bath, Bristol, Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Brighton. Cineclub also operates nationally.

* New from Craft Club:
Craft Club: A PowerPoint presentation for teachers.

* New from Member Janet Spiers:
Inclusion: Warrington's new Play and Sensory Centre      Warrington Borough Council has done some great work around inclusion of children and young people with disabilities. You can read about it in this leaflet about their latest initiative, which is a play and sensory centre for disabled children. If you live in or near Warrington and you are interested in bringing your pupils to this lovely place, get in touch with Learning Exchange member Janet Spiers – she has put a note about Warrington’s inclusion initiatives in her blog. Also download Warrington's Inclusion Matters Principles.

Member Pascale Vassie:
Supplementary schools: do they make a difference?   This study looked at 3,391 individual records of supplementary school pupils aged 7 and 11 across 67 schools. Sixty-one per cent of the children in this sample attend mainstream schools in their boroughs, which allowed researchers to match their mainstream school records and compare attainment levels by borough. Two key findings: in Barnet, expected progress was exceeded by a significant margin in both Maths and English. Also, children on FSM at supplementary schools achieved higher levels of attainment at KS1 reading and writing and KS2 English and Math, compared to the average for children on FSM across the beneficial area which John Lyon’s Charity, which funded the research. (Also in Library Gems)

Member Steven Gore:
Westleigh Activ-fest, Summer 2012   Over the summer holidays, between July and August, the Westleigh extended schools cluster is offering a huge selection of great activities for children aged between 5 and 16. The programme also includes family days out, which the partnership has managed to keep at a reasonable cost through subsidising transport and admission fees to venues. The schools that have subsidised these trips & activities are: Westleigh High School, Westleigh Methodist Primary School, St.Paul’s CE Primary School, St.Peter’s CE Primary School, Twelve Apostles RC Primary School, Newton Westpark Primary School, Westleigh Children’s Centre. (Also in the Learning Exchange News Centre: Events)

Member Simon Vincent:
A Journey to Charitable Status: the hare and tortoise race in London's East End   This PowerPoint presentation describes the journey to charitable status that the E13 Learning Community is undertaking - slowly but surely - with the aim of making extended services sustainable for the schools in E13. The journey isn't yet complete, but so far it can be a useful model for other clusters. Please send a message to Simon on the Learning Exchange if you wish to ask questions.

Member Simon Bradley:
Six point planning framework for Community Cohesion  
The use of indicators and measuring - a training exercise
Promoting community cohesion - a discussion exercise
Simon recently ran an event on Community Cohesion and has shared with us some of his tools on how to approach the issue.

Cumbria Local Authority - contributed by Lucy Kitson:
Study Support: Raising Achievement - A School Improvement (Cumbria)
A questionnaire covering how Primary Study Support links with SEF (Cumbria)
A questionnaire covering how Study Support links with Secondary Schools, Special Needs, PRUs (Cumbria)
A Safe Place to Be Guidance for Secondary/Special Schools and Pupil Referral Units (Cumbria)

A DCSF research brief, January 2009 DCSF-RB0689     Extended schools survey of schools, pupils and parents: A quantitative study of perceptions and usage of extended services in schools.

Member Simon Bradley:
Key Points in the 21st Century Schools White Paper   Simon Bradley and Corinne Cappell have summarized the key points, as they see them, from the white paper Your child, your schools, our future: building a 21st century schools system.

Member Martyn Davies:
Top 10 tips for running a successful family learning day   Useful practical advice by Martyn Davies, cluster manager for Whitecross Partnership, Hereford.

Member Jo Galloway:
From flame-throwing to surfing   Case study showing how the the Disadvantage Subsidy can be used effectively.

Member Martyn Davies:
Coaching - a PowerPoint presentation (2009) - useful PowerPoint presentation that highlights some fundamental points about the process of coaching. Martyn is happy for people to use the presentation but asks that his copyright notice at the back is adhered to.

Member Matthew Freeman:
Singing Breakfast Clubs toolkit; Also from Matthew:
Sing Up Breakfast Club Training on 6 November at Dragon Hall, Stuckley Street, London (nr Holborn Tube).

Cumbria Local Authority - contributed by Lucy Kitson:
Study Support: Raising Achievement - A School Improvement (Cumbria)
A questionnaire covering how Primary Study Support links with SEF (Cumbria)
A questionnaire covering how Study Support links with Secondary Schools, Special Needs, PRUs (Cumbria)
A Safe Place to Be Guidance for Secondary/Special Schools and Pupil Referral Units (Cumbria)