RAISING ASPIRATIONS


The 10-year-old Urban Scholars intervention programme


is working to raise the aspirations and achievements of students in the inner city. Professor Valsa Koshy explains


O


NLY A small percentage of students from disadvantaged urban backgrounds gain places at the top universities. In an attempt to address this issue, policy so far has focused on providing incentives to universities to widen participation


and to lower the entry requirements for such students. However, there are many students from


disadvantaged schools who have the potential to succeed in higher education but who for various reasons are unable to reach this potential in formal testing and examinations. Universities are ideally placed to support these


students, both in raising attainment and raising aspirations for higher education and subsequent careers. In 2000, based on initial research, the Brunel


Able Children’s Education Centre at Brunel University launched a pilot intervention programme called Urban Scholars. Ten years on, this programme has grown significantly and through continual research and evaluation has developed to meet the needs of the young people it aims to serve. The university team has developed a model of intervention for wider use for other universities and their local schools. The Urban Scholars programme is a four-year


intervention for students aged 12 to 16 from nine London local authorities. Tutors from the university work with 33 schools to identify students who have the potential for high achievement but who may not necessarily be achieving their best. Students on free school meals and from families with no history of higher education form a significant proportion of those joining the programme. These scholars then attend monthly Saturday


sessions on campus at Brunel in which university tutors, undergraduates and external speakers lead sessions based both on the national curriculum and wider learning and development skills. The external speakers have a variety of backgrounds and experiences providing inspiration and motivation to scholars, while undergraduate ambassadors act as role models and mentors to the participants. Urban Scholars aims to increase engagement with


learning, academic achievement, aspirations, higher education orientation, and understanding of self. The format of the teaching sessions follows set


guidelines that include students learning advanced content, carrying out in-depth explorations, being engaged in higher-order thinking skills, and opportunities for creativity. Three key components are explored – teaching of specific skills, adult interaction and support, and academically challenging activities. In teaching specific skills, the programme ties


directly into the national curriculum to provide additional support to classroom teaching. The simple fact of taking the teaching out of their school environment helps to encourage engagement from students. Using university tutors and external speakers also offers a new perspective on curriculum subjects. In this setting, teaching of subject knowledge is not


restricted by the confines of the national curriculum and allows tutors to look for new ways to engage students by relating subject knowledge to real-world concerns. The programme also offers time to explore wider


learning skills including critical-thinking, problem- solving, presentation, study and time-management. These are vital skills that are often left unaddressed in schools due to time and curriculum pressures. The course in critical-thinking was designed by the


university tutors to encourage the scholars to analyse, reason and derive informed conclusions and decisions. As a result, students appeared to develop confidence in putting forward arguments, develop a questioning attitude and anticipating other people’s points of view. In a review of the programme, it was this element that students identified as most useful and enjoyable. For universities, problem-solving tasks have been


acknowledged as a particularly effective way of identifying the brightest students from disadvantaged backgrounds who may not perform well in national tests. Problem-solving sessions have now expanded to relate to all school subjects. This gives students an opportunity to work in groups to use problem-based learning skills to tackle real-world topics. As well as showing students that there are many pathways to solving a problem, the use of real-world


SecEd • April 14 2011 Urban scholars


issues also highlights how what they are learning in school is relevant to the wider world. The importance of teamwork is also emphasised with scholars realising that to be successful in reaching a solution co-operation is key. Adult interactions and support include parents’


days, the undergraduate ambassadors, careers education and the external speakers. The scholars are at an age where they are starting to see themselves as young adults and it is important that they are seen on the same level as adults, not as an “us versus them” relationship. Parents, peers and other adults will be key influencers at this stage so it is important that the programme addressed this. In early research, the tutors found that parents of


disadvantaged children wanted the best for them but due to their lack of knowledge and experience of further and higher education pathways, they felt unable to provide the necessary support. During parents’ meetings, many articulated, strongly, how they were pleased to have their children attend the programme. The issue of the cycle of disadvantage was a constant topic of discussion by the parents. The programme has contributed to breaking this. To support this, the scholars were also given careers


education through discussions and workshops looking at career choices, university education and how to get there. Practical support was also given to help with the preparation of CVs and approaching personal statements as part of the university application process. The external speakers generally act as positive role models for the students, as individuals who had aspired and achieved in spite of disadvantage or adverse circumstances. Finally, to challenge the students academically


each scholar is required to complete a personal project. When the programme was first introduced it soon became clear that the participants were not used to carrying out focused, in-depth work over a period of time. To address this, they were asked to pick a topic of their choosing, something that was of personal interest to them. As an extended research project, this is a great chance to really challenge students’ research skills culminating in a formal presentation to the group. Last year we completed our 10th year of the


programme which was largely funded by the Moody’s Foundation and SHINE Trust. We were able to conduct an evaluation using a grant from the CfBT Education Trust. The report is available on its website. The findings showed that the numbers of scholars


who reported enjoying school increased throughout the four-year intervention and this was matched by encouraging attainment results with only three and 1.5 per cent failing to achieve a C grade at GCSE maths and English respectively. Students reported that the programme helped them with their revision technique and they were able to think more analytically. There is also evidence that the programme


encouraged scholars to raise their aspirations and change their ideas about the future. In feedback, students remarked that studying on campus was a great insight into life at university and allowed them to picture themselves studying in higher education. They also showed greater awareness and understanding of the steps that they needed to take towards their desired career. So far, the programme has supported over 500 students and the evaluation demonstrates the


effectiveness of the project across the primary aims of raising attainment and aspiration. We believe that the principles of the programme could work on a national scale, either as an entire programme or individual components. As well as universities working in partnership with schools to provide extra support, schools could also develop after-school or Saturday programmes. The solution to improving access to higher education


for students from disadvantaged backgrounds is not to lower entry requirements but to give additional support


Taking the lead: HTI True social mobility


Many schools are quietly and conscientiously


breaking down the barriers to social mobility, says Anne Evans


SOCIAL MOBILITY is the hot topic as I write. Actually, social mobility seems to have been the hot topic of several decades with limited, if any, success in achieving it. And now we have another strategy by another government, full of good intentions and compelling evidence of the need to tackle it. And of course we do. The media’s focus last week was the pledge


to stamp out the “behind closed doors” spread of internships for the privileged few so that all young people have fair access to them. Internships became a bit of a metaphor for the whole issue of social mobility, but Britain’s economic geography, ineptitude at generating and redistributing wealth, one-class housing, state schools entrenched in areas of poverty, dysfunctional families, and cultural desertification are the real culprits of social divisiveness, not internships, access to university and private education. Three other things connected with social mobility


are also firmly on radar for me. The first is Sir Ken Robinson’s ever relevant crusade for creativity and innovation in education. At a recent HTI event he condemned the obsession with university, which he rightly says leads to a catastrophic waste of talent, not only for the individual but also communities, business and the economy (A baffling detour to the 19th century, SecEd 279, March 24, 2011). We need to nurture a diversity of talents and we should certainly not be using the number of disadvantaged youngsters who get into Oxbridge as the only measure of success. The second is YouGov’s research for Pearson, in which just over half of businesses rejected the idea


that academic skills were more important to the economy than vocational qualifications. These findings resonate strongly with the views of


50 of Britain’s top leaders from education, business and government who have contributed to a book HTI is publishing in May.Lessons for Lifeset out to identify what young people need from their education and the implications for leadership, teaching, curriculum and wider community engagement. The importance of vocational education to all young people, not just the disadvantaged or academically less able, and the current inadequacies is a recurring theme. Another key theme is the need for school leaders


and teachers to have relentlessly high expectations of each young person, regardless of background or ability. Sir William Atkinson’s less than auspicious start to his own education, led him to the conclusion that “it’s never possible to know which kids are going to make it and which are not going to make it, so it is necessary to invest in all of the children”. The capacity to instil strong values when they may


be lacking in the home is another strong focus for schools in deprived communities. One headteacher vividly defined this as giving her children a “Ready Brek glow” of moral purpose, attitude, strength and emotional resilience. Parental and community engagement is also


considered to be crucial in helping to break the cycle of generational unemployment and low aspirations. One headteacher termed this as “arms around families as well as children”, while another included parents in activities to expose students to “life beyond school”; opportunities that were outside the realms of their experience. Closer, personal connections with business employees can have a powerful impact in lifting aspirations. The thank you letter of a young lad whose outlook had been transformed when he spent a day with a business manager says it all: “I didn’t think someone like you would be interested in someone like me.” We have known what the root problems behind


social immobility are for a long time and schools are quietly and conscientiously doing an exceptional job in trying to address some of them.


• Anne Evans OBE is chief executive of HTI, a social enterprise working to develop exceptional school leaders. Visit www.hti.org.uk


to help them reach their potential in spite of often difficult and challenging circumstances.


SecEd


• Professor Valsa Koshy is from the Brunel Able Children’s Education Centre at Brunel University.


Further information


• Brunel Able Children’s Education Centre: www.brunel.ac.uk/about/acad/sse/sseres/ sseresearchcentres/bacehome


• CfBT Education Trust: www.cfbt.com


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