North East England Ford Next Generation Learning …...EDGE : North East England – Ford Next Generation Learning Community Masterplan : 1 Contents 1. The challenges facing the English

North East England Ford Next Generation Learning Community MasterplanApril 2019

Action fundedby the European Union

Supported bythe European Union

The Government’s careers strategy aims to make sure that all young people in secondary school get a programme of advice and guidance that is stable, structured and delivered by individuals with the right skills and experience.

EDGE : North East England – Ford Next Generation Learning Community Masterplan : 1

Contents

1. The challenges facing the English education system 4

2. A golden opportunity to address these challenges 6

3. The North East Ford NGL community – The story so far 8

4. Our partnership 11

5. Our community 13

6. Our schools 17

7. Conclusion – adapting, connecting and giving back 20

4 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA020 7960 1540 . www.edge.co.uk

What this process has allowed us to do is truly bring the community to the table. It has been inspirational to see pupils and parents working with employers and community groups to discuss what skills and attributes are needed. On the days that project based learning takes place, attendance is excellent and the behaviour incidents that we log are lower on those days. It really is having an impact.

Claire Goodwill, Principal of Milburn School, Excelsior Academy

We went across to Nashville and I was very sceptical that this was possible. We saw out there something that we have been able to come back and use as a framework to challenge what we are doing. This is a way of really changing the lifeblood of our school. It has been transformational.

David Baldwin, Head Teacher, Churchill Community College

We want to help schools to support their students to develop the skills that employers here in the North East tell us they need, like teamwork and problem solving. We also wanted to help them to find ways to integrate relevance to the real world into the curriculum to motivate all pupils. So we immediately saw the appeal of working with Edge and Ford NGL to establish a hub here in the North East LEP area.

Michelle Rainbow, Skills Director, North East LEP

We have looked at the best models in the world for school transformation and found that Ford NGL brings a unique focus on community connected learning and the legacy of successful work with communities across the US. We wanted to help the team to adapt this model to a very different context and are proud of the difference it is already making and excited for future collaboration.

Alice Barnard, Chief Executive, The Edge Foundation

2 : EDGE : North East England – Ford Next Generation Learning Community Masterplan

North East England

When you see how the kids are reacting it’s amazing. My daughter’s been doing it since September and her confidence is just getting bigger. She’s really enjoying it. The knock on effect of three hours a week of project based learning is unreal.

Rachel Turner, Parent

As Deputy Head of our primary school, the work I do with PBL has enabled me to develop a similar approach at secondary level – making links between subjects and bringing them to life through projects. Collaboration with employers has strengthened this further. It has really reinvigorated the teachers involved – their excitement is infectious.

Hannah Williamson, Head of PBL, Excelsior Academy

I think it’s fantastic. There’s not enough engagement with schools at the moment. This is a great opportunity for us to be able to get into schools and let them know what’s out there.

Keith Robertson, Training Manager, Go NorthEast

It also makes you feel like you’re having an impact on the world and that you’re more important than people thought you were. It brings up pride in people.

Alyssa, Pupil


Introduction

At the same time, there has been a refocussing within GCSEs on end-point assessment and high stakes exams rather than on continuous assessment and development during the course of those qualifications. This has resulted in teachers being pushed into focusing on rote learning for the test to the exclusion of richer holistic learning and preparation for life and work. The relevance and practicality is rapidly disappearing from schools.

Over the last ten years, government policy has driven the English school system back into a very old fashioned position. In terms of subject choice, the government introduced the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) measure in 2010. This specifies a narrow range of academic subjects that schools should aim for most of their pupils to study. This has resulted in broader subjects being reduced or removed from the curriculum – design and technology has fallen by over 50% and creative subjects by 20% over the last eight years.

The challenges facing the English education systemYoung people in England are required to stay in some form of education and train-ing up to their 19th birthday. Most move to a secondary school at age 11 (Year 7) and spend two to three years being taught a relatively broad curriculum before focusing down on preparation for high stakes exams known as GCSEs at age 16 (end of Year 11). Young people can then continue in school (sixth form), at a local further education college or move into an apprenticeship or other work with training.



There are some beacons of hope. The Gatsby Benchmarks set out the eight principles of good careers guidance and employer engagement and the government has included these within statutory guidance to schools. The North East LEP has been instrumental in piloting this approach, but it is widely acknowledged that Benchmark 4 (connecting careers into the curriculum) is the hardest to deliver and there is a risk that schools may treat the benchmarks as a tick-box exercise.

Despite these challenges, there are a small number of schools within England, such as School 21 in East London and XP School in Doncaster, which are going against the grain of the wider system to teach a broader curriculum that includes project based learning and rich employer engagement. You can read about some of their work in the Edge Foundation Report, Towards a Twenty-First Century Education System (2018).

But this is simply not enough. Our economy is facing a triple threat. There are very high levels of skill shortages across different industries – 226,000 in 2017, an increase from 91,000 in 2011. Brexit is threatening to reduce

opportunities for migration, which would exacerbate these further. Meanwhile, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is rapidly changing the labour market, with jobs that previously would have offered lifetime careers dropping out of the economy and being replaced by new digital professions that did not exist five years ago.

Employers are clear what they want – the technical skills that are required for their industry and the softer skills like team working, problem solving and communications that result in great outcomes in all businesses. Yet these are exactly the skills that are missing from the narrow academic curriculum in our schools.

These are the issues that we wanted to address by working in close partnership with Ford Next Generation Learning to create your first hub outside the US. We have worked hard with the team to adapt the model to the UK context, with its rigid system of school funding and performance management, but to remain true to your principles of transforming teaching and learning, transforming the secondary school experience and transforming business and civic engagement.

http://www.edge.co.uk/sites/default/files/documents/edge_future_learning_report_final.pdf


North East England

First, the Government’s careers strategy, published on 4 December 2017, set out a long term plan to build a world class careers system that will help young people and adults choose the career that is right for them. This statutory guidance has been updated to expand on the aim set out in the strategy to make sure that all young people in secondary school get a programme of advice and guidance that is stable, structured and delivered by individuals with the right skills and experience. There are clear expectations (Benchmark 4) that all teachers

take responsibility for linking careers learning to their curriculum areas. This gives us a solid springboard for this work.

Delivery of the government’s career strategy aims to ensure that students are well informed with a strong foundation of current and appropriate Labour Market Information to make effective decisions regarding their next steps whether that is into education, training or employment.

A golden opportunity to address these challengesDespite the challenging policy environment set out above, we feel that there are three key tactical areas where the Ford Next Generation Learning model can link directly into the English education system.

A STABLE CAREERS PROGRAMME

CAREER STRATEGY

LINKING CURRICULUM LEARNING TO

CAREERS

PERSONALGUIDANCE

ENCOUNTERS WITH EMPLOYERS AND

EMPLOYEES

LEARNING FROM CAREER AND

LABOUR MARKET INFORMATION

ADDRESSING THE NEEDS OF

EACH PUPIL

ENCOUNTERS WITH FURTHER AND HIGHER EDUCATION

EXPERIENCES OF WORKPLACES

23

4

1

5

876


A golden opportunity to address these challenges

Second, in terms of curriculum links, essential employability skills can be embedded into Key Stage 3 curriculum (age 11-14) – particular aspects may be delivered as discrete curriculum opportunities or extra-curricular activities. The subjects included at this stage are:

At Key Stage 4 (ages 14-16), a narrower range of subjects are prescribed through the performance measures known as Ebacc and Progress 8:

Even at this stage, where there are more restrictions, the ‘open group’ qualifications currently count towards performance measures. This provides opportunities for our work. Many of the qualifications here are focused on local areas of economic growth:

l Level 2 Technical Award: Engineering

l Level 2 Technical Award: Vehicle technology

l Level 2: Engineering Electronics and Computer Control Technologies

l Level 2 : Engineering, and Constructing a Sustainable Built Environment

l NCFE Level 2 Technical Award in Business and Enterprise

l City & Guilds Level 2 Technical Award in Digital Technologies

Third, there is a serious and growing issue with teacher satisfaction and retention, with evidence from the National Education Union suggesting that 80% of teachers have seriously considered leaving the profession in the last 12 months. Anything that can be done to reinvigorate teachers will be welcomed within the system.

l English

l maths

l science

l history

l geography

l modern foreign languages

l design and technology

l art and design

l music

l physical education

l citizenship

l computing

Progress 8 measure

EnglishDouble-weighted*

MathsDouble-weighted

EBacc qualifications(science, computer science, geography,

history and languages)

‘Open group’Remaining EBacc qualifications

and other approved qualifications(GCSEs and other approved academic,

arts or vocational qualifications))

321 4 5 6 7 8

*Higher score of English Language or English Literature double-weighted if a student has taken both qualifications

Second, we were ambitious to go further and began to look for a community that was eager to try a new educational approach. Adapting criteria shared by the Ford NGL team, we looked at a range of areas before focusing down on the North East of England, which met all of these criteria. Schools in the area had only recently collaborated with the North East Local Enterprise Partnership as a facilitating organisation to deliver the successful Gatsby Benchmarks Pilot to improve careers guidance. We wanted to build further on this to bring about a transformation not just of careers but of the schools and their relationship with the wider community.

We were immediately keen to bring some of the magic we saw in Nashville to the UK and began a twin-track approach.

First, we started to develop and pilot small elements of what we had seen in Nashville through the Ford NGL model to begin to learn lessons and establish these in the UK context. Our Give Yourself the Edge (GYTE) pilot, for instance, began to adapt the teacher externships that we had seen, already delivering very positive results – 80% of teachers surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that participating in GYTE gave them an insight into the world of work.1


North East England

The North East Ford NGL community – story so far Our journey began in 2016 when the Edge Foundation was looking around the world for the very best models that were preparing young people for their future life and work. We visited the Academies of Nashville Fall Study Visit and found what we were looking for.

1. Independent evaluation by the University of Derby - http://www.edge.co.uk/edge-future-learning/our-offer/teacher-externships

http://www.edge.co.uk/edge-future-learning/our-offer/teacher-externships


The North East NGL community

We worked with the NELEP to select a diverse range of schools for the first phase – Excelsior Academy in central Newcastle and then Churchill Community College and Norham High School in North Tyneside. In September 2017, we took representatives from the North East LEP, the CBI and the schools to Nashville so that they could experience and be inspired first hand by the work of the Academies of Nashville and Ford NGL.

The visit concluded with a full day’s workshop in Nashville and immediately the whole process began to gain momentum – several of the team worked on job descriptions for our Industry Alignment Support Officers (the equivalent of the Academy Coaches in Nashville) on the night flight home!

These posts were hired in early 2018 and joined us on a third visit to Nashville in March of that year, giving us a core group of around 20 individuals in the North East who had experienced the model first hand and so were ideally placed to help drive plans forward.

We established a clear structure of a Steering Group and Working Group within the North East to oversee plans and began to engage with a wider range of partners from different schools and projects within the UK and abroad who could bring further richness and depth to the adaptation of the model. These included the P-TECH model, Buck Institute and High Tech High from the US and forward-thinking schools that are already delivering project based learning and rich employer engagement in the UK, such as School 21 and XP School.

We worked with our Ford coaches and with several of these partners to bring on board the trailblazer teachers who would lead transformation in the three schools and provide them with a rich series of visits and CPD sessions to introduce them to the elements of the model and new approaches.

This meant that by Summer 2018, we were ready to work with our coaches to deliver the first visioning workshops at the schools. These were truly transformational, bringing together leaders, staff, parents, governors, pupils, businesses and community organisations for the first time to begin to develop the leaver profiles for the schools. These same partners have become a key part of the development process, taking part in the master planning workshops over the Autumn of 2018 and early part of 2019 as the schools have collaboratively developed their plans for the future.

At the same time, the schools were impatient to begin their transformation and so from September 2018, began to introduce elements of the Ford NGL model, with teachers changing their pedagogy to deliver projects in partnership with local businesses and community organisations.

Even within the first couple of months, the impact on the pupils and teachers involved was transformational.

2018 concluded with two excellent pieces of news for the future of this work. First, we secured funding from the European Social Fund to create a much more ambitious funded programme of teacher externships in the North East, which will support transformation. Second, we secured agreement from a partner charity to support a second phase of activity in the North East from summer 2019, which will enable us to bring on board an additional two schools and an FE college to spread this transformational approach.

Recognition of the North East of England as the first Ford NGL Hub outside the US will help to add further momentum to this change and show how the model can be adapted to very different educational contexts.

North East England


SEEING THE TRANSFORMATION ON SCREENWe are making a series of short films to showcase the transformation taking place in the North East so that other communities in the UK can be inspired with some of the same energy and excitement.

The first film explores the transformation already taking place just a couple of months into delivery.

The second film shares highlights from our first showcase visit to the North East for schools and education leaders from around England. The positive comments from Adrian Lyons from Ofsted, the English school inspectorate, are particularly encouraging.

We will continue to make and share further films over the coming years as our work progresses.


Our partnership

EDGE FOUNDATIONEdge is the independent education charity dedicated to shaping the future of education in the UK. We believe a coherent, unified and holistic education system can support social equity and enable all young people to fulfil their potential.

Edge’s research shows that a broad and balanced curriculum, including creative and technical subjects, rich employer engagement, teacher autonomy and interactive pedagogy, can help to bring learning alive and prepare students for more than just a set of exams.

We believe we need a revolution in our classrooms to ensure young people take away more from their education than just grades, and have the skills our digital economy demands for the 21st century and beyond.

You can find out more at www.edge.co.uk.

NORTH EAST LOCAL ENTERPRISE PARTNERSHIPThe North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is a private, public and education sector partnership, supported by a small executive team that provides strong, collaborative leadership to support the growth and development of the North East economy. The North East LEP developed and implemented a pilot into testing the Gatsby Good Careers Guidance Benchmarks based upon international research. In 2017 the research and evidence from the pilot informed the latest Department for Education Careers with statutory guidance on careers education.

The North East LEP now actively support the majority of secondary schools and colleges through strong partnership to implement the careers guidance and provides a regional network of support through a wide range of organisations and institutions including the Enterprise Advisor network.

Our PartnershipAs in any other community, success in the North East has relied on very intensive joint working between a wide range of partners. Alongside Ford NGL, the two founding strategic partners are:

http://www.edge.co.uk


North East England

Enterprise Advisors are senior business representatives who work strategically with school leaders to ensure the careers guidance is implemented, evaluated and improved. They have a clear vision that each and every child in the North East will benefit from the support and guidance and achieve this through rigorous challenge.

The North East LEP are also the Cornerstone Career Hub for England helping to support the implementation of the careers strategy across the country.

You can find out more at www.nelep.co.uk.

The table below sets out the wider range of partners involved in delivery and relates them to the closest roles in the US system. It is worth noting that over the last decade the drive towards school independence in the UK means that in most areas of the country there is very little role for local authorities (the closest equivalent to School Boards in the US).

Partner Key Role Relation to US model

Ford NGL l Providing the roadmap and evidence-based transformation model.

l Providing coaching and support as the community has made its way through the phases of the roadmap.

Edge Foundation l Leading development of the model and its adaptation to the UK context.

l Convening key partners nationally and developing widespread support.

Convening organisation (National)

North East LEP l Leading coordination and delivery of the model within the North East.

l Bringing on board key regional partners, including employers and community organisations.

Convening organisation (Local)

PENCIL (employer engagement work)

CBI North East l Promoting the model and involvement to businesses across the North East

Chamber of Commerce

North East Collaborative Outreach Partnership

l Providing funding for the Industry Alignment Manager (IAM) posts.

l Supporting links to further education and higher education institutions

Community Colleges and Universities

Schools l Excelsior Academy, Churchill Community College and Norham High School are leading the transformation within their own schools

High Schools

SCHOOL SLT AND CAREERS LEADER

NORTH EAST LEP MATCHED ENTERPRISE

ADVISOR

ENTERPRISE ADVISOR NETWORK AND

SUPPORT

http://www.nelep.co.uk


Our community

Within this area, there is a population of two million people and a skilled and resilient workforce. In 2016, the North East produced goods and services valued at £37 billion. This is due to our three great cities, a wider urban economy and our rural and coastal locations which offer a diverse range of investment opportunities and an excellent quality of life.

The North East is built to work, with local road, rail, air and digital infrastructures giving easy access to local jobs. This means business support that really boosts growth and innovation, as well as connections to national and international trade and investment markets which help businesses to flourish.

The North East is the second smallest region in the UK in terms of employment (1.2m), just above Northern Ireland (0.9m). This is equivalent to 3% of the total employment of the UK. The region has contributed £53bn to the economy in 2017 (3% of the total output) and its productivity is below the UK average – 7th among all the regions.

With a population of 2.6 million, the North East has a larger youth population (21%) than the elderly (16%). The working-age population accounts for 63% of the local total population, which is identical to the working-age population profile at the national level.

There are approximately 70,000 enterprises in the North East (3% of the UK total), of which 87% is micro, 12% is small to medium-sized and less than 1% is large. The two leading industries in terms of number of businesses are ‘Professional, scientific & technical’ (17%) and ‘Construction (12%).

Our communityThe North East LEP covers the local authority areas of County Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland.

12345

Port of SunderlandSeaham HarbourPrincipal Rail Links

NorthumberlandNorth TynesideNewcastleSouth TynesideGatesheadSunderlandDurham

Port of TynePort of BlythPort of BerwickNewcastle Airport

North East LEP area

1

2

3

4

5


North East England

The North East LEP area faces a particular challenge in the current skills profile of its workforce, which is characterised by fewer (in relative terms) higher-skilled workers than in other parts of the UK and more (in relative terms) of the working age population with low or no qualifications.

The situation is worsened when considering that the North East LEP area has below-average rates of employment and economic activity. Presently, skills provision and demand from employers is not in equilibrium (i.e. fewer people with skills than are demanded by employers).

GCSE attainment across the North East LEP area is not particularly poor although students do not make as much progress from their starting points compared to their peers nationally.

Area

Average attainment 8 score per pupil (max 90) Progress 8

England 44.3 -0.08

Durham 44.9 -0.23

Gateshead 46.0 -0.25

Newcastle 44.7 -0.16

North Tyneside 45.8 -0.20

Northumberland 45.9 -0.09

South Tyneside 44.2 -0.25

Sunderland 43.1 -0.36

Looking more closely at the qualifications profile of the workforce, the gap between the skills of the workforce in the North East and England begins to widen compared to England at the level of NVQ3.

There is a particular shortage of technically-skilled workers in the North East. Data from the UKCES identifies that professional, associate professional and skilled trade roles are the occupations with the highest rates of skills shortage vacancies in the North East LEP area. The Tech Nation Report 2017 also found that the technical skills shortage was an increasing challenge for tech firms in the North East, with employers stating that finding employees with the right skills was the biggest barrier to growth.

The North East LEP has identified four business opportunity areas that provide huge potential to generate jobs within the North East economy:

DigitalOur vibrant digital community is one of the most productive and fastest developing in the UK, across industry and public services.

Advanced manufacturingOur advanced manufacturing sector is globally focused with strengths in automotive and pharmaceuticals. We have significant opportunities in international trade and invest-ment and in local supply chains.

Health and Life SciencesOur excellence in clinical research, innovation in pharmaceuticals, and responding to an aging population allow us to respond to the changing global health services and markets.

Energy With expertise in offshore energy and subsea technologies, regional energy and demonstration and innovation, we are ready to respond to national and international energy agendas towards clean growth.


Our community

There are also four service sectors that support the wider economy and offer significant opportunity for more and better jobs in the North East:

Overall, the three key aims of the North East LEP and its partners in terms of improving education in the community and its links to employment are:

l Education establishments must provide a mix of world class academic, technical and professional education, apprenticeships and higher level apprenticeships in all of the growing areas of our economy, ensuring that those entering the labour market have the right skills to thrive.

l Develop a skills supply that underpins business growth and talent and retain this supply in the region.

l Enable every young person to identify routes into work, supported through experience and exposure to the world of work. We want them to understand that life and work experiences, alongside career and formal qualifications, are incredibly valuable.

These three aims could not fit more closely with the objectives of Ford NGL’s transformation programme.

2,700 enterprises employ 85,000 people in education in the North East.

5,600 enterprises employ 40,000 people in financial, professional and business services.

1,100 enterprises employ 15,000 people in transport and logistics organisations, supporting the move ment of goods and people across the region.

6,500 enterprises employ 51,000 people in a construction-related industry.


North East England

EXCELSIOR ACADEMY is a large all-through school in Newcastle educating just over 1,500 children and young

people aged 3-18. Unusually for the UK, it is organised on a ‘school within a school’ basis, with one primary school, three 11-16 schools and a sixth form college all sharing one building and overall school identity. The school is an independent academy that is part of the Laidlaw Schools Trust. You can find out more at http://excelsioracademy.laidlawschoolstrust.comExcelsior Academy, Denton Rd, Newcastle upon Tyne NE15 6AF

NORHAM HIGH SCHOOL is based in North Shields. The school educates just over 300 11-16 year olds. Like Churchill, it is a Foundation School and is currently

receiving support from the Head teacher of Churchill to plan and prepare for the future. You can find out more at https://www.norhamhigh.comNorham High School, Alnwick Ave, North Shields NE29 7BU

Our schoolsThe three fantastic schools in the first phase were chosen to represent a wide range of different types, sizes and situations, to show that the model would work in a variety of settings.

N O R T H U M B E R L A N D

C O U N T Y D U R H A M

Newcastle upon Tyne

North Shields

Wallsend

River Tyne

NORTH SEA

River Wear

Sunderland

Gateshead

CHURCHILL COMMUNITY COLLEGE provides education for just over 800 11-18 year olds in Wallsend. The College is a Foundation School with North Tyneside Learning Trust (NTLT) as its

foundation that works closely with other schools in the area through the Churchill family of schools (which incorporates local primary schools) and through NTLT. You can find out more at www.churchillcommunitycollege.org Churchill Community College, Churchill St, Wallsend NE28 7TN

http://excelsioracademy.laidlawschoolstrust.com/

https://www.norhamhigh.com/

http://www.churchillcommunitycollege.org/


Our schools

The leaver profiles developed by each of the three schools are set out below and their tactical plans are in the Annexes.

During Spring and Summer 2019, we will be expanding work in the North East to bring on board three more schools and colleges.

Leaver Profile – EXCELSIOR ACADEMY


North East England

Leaver Profile – NORHAM HIGH SCHOOL


Our schools

Leaver Profile – CHURCHILL COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Students will be ready to live happy and healthy lives

Students will be ready to work

Students will be ready to learn


North East England

THIRD, there are areas of policy development and practice where we are already ahead of the game in the UK. Two of those that have been particularly noted by Ford NGL coaches in their visits have been the Gatsby Career Benchmarks and a focus on ‘oracy’ (oral communication). Just as we continue to learn rich lessons from other Ford NGL communities, we want to share lessons about these areas back with the wider network to help them to make excellent progress in new areas.

We are committed to the ongoing success of the community in the North East and to being able to continue to share lessons as part of the worldwide Ford NGL family.

But we also believe that we can add value to the Ford NGL community network in three unique ways.

FIRST, as is clear from Section 1, the English education system provides a very different context to the communities that Ford NGL has been working within the US. As a result, the founding partners have worked closely together to adapt the model to work in this different context so that it can make just as big a difference but fits closely with local priorities. This process of adaptation demonstrates clearly that it is possible for the model to work in other countries and opens up a wealth of international opportunities for Ford NGL working in partnership.

SECOND, the Edge Foundation has developed close connections with around 20 different models of school transformation worldwide – for instance the P-TECH model, High Tech High, XP School and School 21. Many of these share similar characteristics, such as project based learning and rich employer engagement. We are gathering extensive evidence of the effectiveness of these approaches and sharing lessons and approaches between these models. This can only help to strengthen the evidence base for the Ford NGL model and provide new connections that support delivery.

Conclusion – adapting, connecting and giving backWe hope that the progress and excitement in the North East of England about

this work is clear from our plan and the films that we have made so far. We are ambitious to go further both within the North East, where we are recruiting

three more schools and colleges to join this work, and in the UK more broadly.

Action fundedby the European Union

Supported bythe European Union

Documents

North East England Ford Next Generation Learning …...EDGE : North East England – Ford Next Generation Learning Community Masterplan : 1 Contents 1. The challenges facing the English