Devasted that Luljeta Nuzi has died after a long fight with cancer. An incredible, dynamic, fierce woman whose optimism and passion for equality for all, in education, as women, as members of refugee and global majority communities will remain an inspiration for those who met her. I first met Luljeta in 2009 when she came […]
New quality recognition scheme builds on government regulation
Stop press: New quality recognition scheme encourages development of best practice in out-of-school provision and builds on existing government regulation.
The NRCSE Quality Mark builds on Section 11 of the Children’s Act 2004 and addresses eight standards in educational provision:
- Create an effective learning environment
- Teach effectively
- Record progress and achievement
- Choose the right resources
- Plan and develop your organisation
- Select and support staff and volunteers
- Make sure that children are safe
- Manage finances
The NRCSE provides free self-evaluation resources and online guidance on minimum safeguarding standards on our website staging.supplementaryeducation.org.uk Downloadable templates and discounted training can be accessed by subscribing to NRCSE. Contact details for agencies providing support in the school’s local authority area are also provided. The NSPCC has recently updated their toolkit of safeguarding standards and guidance in line with Section 11 guidelines so that is a good place to start if your local safeguarding children board isn’t responding quickly. Section 11 of the Children Act 2004 places duties on a range of agencies and individuals to ensure their functions, and any services that they contract out to others, are discharged having regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. You can contact your local safeguarding children board to obtain details of the support provided in your area to meet these standards.
In order to apply for an NRCSE Quality Mark a supplementary school must:
- Meet the stated Section 11/safeguarding requirements for your local authority, and
- provide up-to-date information on the services it provides, and
- have received a visit from an appropriate person*.
*nationally qualified member of teaching staff, or Children’s Services, or registered NRCSE quality assurance mentor
Following a Recognition Meeting the school will receive a detailed report highlighting good practice and containing recommendations for development. Successful recognition will entitle the school to carry the NRCSE Quality Mark and the quality assurance report will be publicly available on the NRCSE Online Directory of Supplementary Schools (unless the supplementary school has provided a written request not to be publicly listed).
Start working towards an NRCSE Quality Mark today!
To enter your school for an NRCSE Quality Mark you must be able to demonstrate that you meet local safeguarding standards (see below) for Voluntary & Community Sector (VCS) organisations working with children and young people as detailed in: HM Gov. document ‘Working together to safeguard children’ 2015, chapter 2 and para 4 Section 11, Children Act 2004
- Culture of listening to and consulting with children
- Effective recruitment, selection and contractual procedures including safeguarding checks
- Staff/volunteer supervision, support, training, induction, review, competence
- Staff aware of safeguarding policies and procedures including what to do if concerned about a child
- Procedures for dealing with allegations against staff/volunteers
- Requirement to refer to DBS and local authority designated officer or team dealing with allegations against those who work with children (formerly known as LADO)
- Supportive environment for staff/volunteers that encourages sharing of safeguarding concerns and provides clear
- whistleblowing procedures
- Clear lines of accountability for safeguarding arrangements
- Senior board level/management commitment to safeguarding
- Designated professional lead for safeguarding
- Arrangements for information sharing with other professionals and LSCB
You can demonstrate this via written confirmation from your local authority, or confirmation from Ofsted that you meet the requirements of the childcare register, or by completing the NRCSE safeguarding quiz and uploading your management file online.
For more details about the NRCSE Quality Mark visit our website staging.supplementaryeducation.org.uk
Download a printable flyer about the NRCSE quality recognition scheme
Building partnerships in practice!
It’s always good to see new partnerships developing!
It was one of the aims of the Northern Supplementary Schools Network which held its first meeting in September 2016. The NSSN aims to bring together representatives of supplementary schools, NRCSE Mentors, universities and museums with a common interest in the delivery of community-led out-of-school education.
One of the organisations attending was Polish Educational Society (PES), a charitable organisation supporting Polish supplementary schools in the United Kingdom. Following the network meeting the PES was successful in establishing a new partnership with Manchester Museum. This led to the museum hosting a PES training session for teachers on ‘The new Polish GCSE exam’ at the Museum. The teachers loved the Museum and were very enthusiastic about the chance to propose ideas on how the Museum could work with them. As part of the training Manchester Museum also had the opportunity to present their programme offer such as the incredible touring Inflatable Museum. The Inflatable Manchester Museum is now scheduled to visit a couple of Polish schools in the area in the summer term.
If you are interested to join Northern Supplementary Schools Network please get in touch with Gosia McKane: gosia@nrcse.org.uk
Two research studies published
Two leading think-tanks, IPPR and RSA, publish reports on supplementary schools
From Institute for Public Policy Research
Satu
rdays for success: How supplementary education can support pupils from all backgrounds to flourish
Mainstream schools can benefit in a number of ways from the work of the UK’s many community-led educational programmes. This report makes recommendations for how more pupils, schools and communities can gain from the rich, extracurricular learning environments that these ‘supplementary schools’ offer.The more diverse Britain becomes, the more scope there is for mainstream schools to take advantage of, and benefit from, the extensive network of between 3,000 and 5,000 supplementary schools that exists in the country. These community-led out-of-school educational programmes, set up largely by migrant and ethnic minority communities, have widespread support from parents and communities, and offer a personalised and informal learning environment that complements mainstream education, covering areas including the core curriculum, languages, and cultural activities.
At their best, these supplementary schools offer children and young adults a rich learning experience, providing personalised learning with strong pupil–teacher engagement, and giving young people the means to explore complex questions of identity, engage with role models from similar backgrounds, and develop networks of peer support.
In this report we recommend greater complementarity and coordination between the mainstream education system and these thriving supplementary schools. This would make some mainstream schools better prepared and equipped to deal with the pressures that come with catering for a diverse student body, and further the government’s commitments to community- and parent-led approaches to education, and to greater diversity and autonomy within the schools system.
We call for more mainstream schools to, through engagement with supplementary schools, become active players in their communities. In doing so, they can raise the capacity of those communities, and of parents, to take ownership over their children’s education. They can help ensure that out-of-school learning and enrichment opportunities are high-quality, and open and accessible to all pupils, particularly those who need them the most.
This report sets out a roadmap for how mainstream schools can build on and engage with supplementary education, where there is a high-quality local offer. We suggest three modes of engagement with supplementary schools:
- mapping supplementary school uptake
- greater coordination with, and referral to, supplementary schools
- cooperative programming with supplementary schools.
Making supplementary schools work for your school
IPPR has also produced a summary of the research presented in this report, tailored specifically for headteachers and other education professionals in primary and secondary schools.
Entitled ‘Making supplementary schools work for your school’, it considers the challenges facing mainstream schools, asks how those schools and their pupils can benefit from supplementary schools, and suggests how they can best work together.
You can download it here.
And from the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) Beyond the school gates
As part of the RSA-Investigate-Ed series, Selina Nwulu explores the developing roles and connections of supplementary schools, in light of the changing needs of black and minority ethnic (BME) pupils and the longstanding barriers they face.
In a changing cultural, social and economic climate, we consider how supplementary schools might adapt, particularly to helping their pupils make successful transitions from school to further and higher education and employment. Over the past 20 years, BME students have made advances within the education system. Chinese and Indian students remain consistently high achievers and Bangladeshi and Nigerian students now outperforming their white British peers at GCSE. Black Caribbean pupils have made some academic advances, but they still attain below the national average. BME students are also far more likely to go to university than they were 20 years ago.
However, beyond compulsory education, the obstacles continue; BME students are less likely to be offered a place at a Russell Group university than their white peers with similar grades. Black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups twice as likely to be unemployed as their white peers. By extension, people from BME backgrounds are more likely to work in temporary or precarious employment which has been linked to lower wellbeing.
While supplementary schools cannot and should not address these complex issues alone, how might supplementary schools form a more integral part of the local learning ecology, connecting with mainstream schools, higher and further education institutions and arts and cultural bodies to offer a strengthened network of support to BME young people?
Our report aims to widen the conversation about supplementary schools and their existing roles, so that they are able to evolve with support and intention, This report’s recommendations, therefore, centre on how supplementary schools can harness their strengths to broaden their purpose, connection, impact and sustainability.