East Norfolk Sixth Form College

How to deliver a Study Programme Implementation Guide Table of Contents Outline... 2 Introduction to Person Centred Planning... 2 1. Transition... 2 2. Study Programmes... 2 3. Care and Therapy... 3 4. Development towards Independence... 3 5. Preparing to leave East Norfolk... 3 Study Programme Example 1 STEP... 4 Range of ability... 4 Support Need... 4 STEP delivers these active learning skills... 5 How STEP improves wellbeing, attendance and achievement at college... 5 Study Programme Example 2 Wellbeing Strategy... 6 Positive Feedback... 7 Aims and objectives... 9 Conclusion and Outcomes... 10 References... 11 1

Outline This guide introduces the reader to the concept of study programmes with two examples operating in a Sixth Form College for students (learners) with high needs studying Pre GCSE, GCSE and A Levels with progression into University, Employment or Work based learning. All students involved in the two study programmes profiled, Sports and Hobbies based and Mental Health Stress intervention based, study in mainstream provision that is integrated with inclusive curriculum. Introduction to Person Centred Planning East Norfolk Sixth Form College has devised a personalised planning and curriculum process for learners with high needs or with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Defined by a Special Educational Needs (SEN) Statement or S139a Learning Difficulties Assessment (LDA), or Educational Care and Health Plan (ECHP), a learner with high needs requires various curriculum modifications and support packages when entering post 16 education from Year 11, although entry points may be available after 19y up to 24 years. Essentially East Norfolk operates three Independence, Employment, and University passports through six pathways Developing Social Independence Supported Living Independent Living Supported Voluntary Employment Traineeships, Internships and Apprenticeships Paid Employment These pathways are made up of various curriculums, extra curriculums and related college activities such as work placements, job coaching, volunteering, study programmes, travel training or respite care for example. Five steps underpin these six pathways to the Independence, Employment, and University passports - 1. Transition (Year 11 16; Year 13 16/19; Adult) An East Norfolk 6 th Form College Key worker (learning support assistant or welfare officer) in an area of primary need is allocated to help design the support package curriculum offer, and lead the transition progress (person centred planning). This informs the other steps - Study Programmes, Care and Therapy support, Independence development, Preparation for leaving college. 2. Study Programmes 16 19 (and 16 24 years old) with an LDA or EHC Plan or Personal Learning Plan for Disability, Difficulty or Disadvantage - various study programmes for different types of needs (Physical Disability v 2

Mental Health Needs, Autism, Social, Emotional Behavioural Difficulties): a) 6 Study programmes as interventions linked directly to needs are 4.5 hrs x 38 weeks long reviewed every 10 weeks graduated over three stages of personal development towards independence b) Supported Internship, Wellbeing Strategy, Taking Partners, Employability, STEPs, Supported Literacy, Language and Numeracy c) Complement 1,2 and 3 subject timetables integrating a Substantial Qualification (1,2 or 3 (4 subjects is average)), English & Maths (only for those who do not have a GCSE at grade C or above and a Study programme d) Planned Progression after 1, 2, 3 or more years at East Norfolk College. 1:1 tuition at GCSE and A Level is available (2 HNL per year) 3. Care and Therapy supporting educational achievement and attendance by Occupational Therapy, Mental Health, Speech and Language Therapy, Behaviour Therapy, Medical Intervention, Physiotherapy, Other. 4. Development towards Independence by individual confidence through Inclusive Communication, Community Awareness, Travel Training, Motivation to Achieve. 5. Preparing to leave East Norfolk progression links to local FE Colleges, Work based training, University, Apprenticeships, Employment in these sectors - Applied Science, Art & Design, Business Administration, Caring for Children, Construction, Science, Engineering, Technology and Maths Creative Media Production, Engineering, Health & Social Care, IT Users, Performing Arts, Public Services. The entire process of personalised planning and application of passports, pathways and steps is outlined in the system chart EN 5 step Implementation tool Person Centred Plan and Process for HNL Appendix 1. Literacy, Numeracy and Language (Maths and English) underpins the study programmes especially for Level 1 and Level 2 students. Step 2 (Study Programmes) is a key stage integrating the other steps into a coherent whole within a single timetable for a learner with high needs. East Norfolk Sixth Form College has been at the cutting edge of develop relevant, workable and curriculum rich study programmes as recognised by the Association of Colleges in April 2014. (1,2,3) 3

Appendix 4 EN Study Programmes for Learners with a Learning Difficulty is a presentation of the college and drivers for study programmes detailing Sports and Hobbies study programme (precursor to STEP) and Employability and the Hospital Internship Pilot Project (HIPP). Full case study is found at the link below http://www.aoc.co.uk/sites/default/files/study%20programmes%20overview.pdf Study Programme Example 1 STEP East Norfolk has established a study programme that promotes active learning Study Programme for students with SEND. Sport Through Education and Participation (STEP) is a programme of physical activities linked to team sports and individual sports, that is personalised for learners with a variety of high and complex needs. Peer learning and ownership of learning enables participants to develop leadership and confidence that transfers into their studies. Social communication and interaction - communication, through speaking and listening with conversations expressed as comic strips and stories about social situations, underpins the literacy and language core skills of STEP. 10 week programme of 4.5 hours and timetabled, STEP develops learners with high needs through four levels which link into other study programmes Employability, Talking Partners and Supported Work Placements. STEP complements Maths and English study for Functional Skills and GCSE levels. Focus is on coping strategies to self-manage behaviours that challenge and improve social communication for confidence and study success. This prepares the learners for transition from college into further education or employment. Range of ability Students are post 16 studying at pre GCSE to the A level curriculum ability range (Level 1 to Level 3). They have a variety of disabilities, difficulties and disadvantages and are classed as High Needs Learners. Level 1 and Level 2 learners have a curriculum that is focused on Literacy, Language and Numeracy. Support Need So with a spectrum of difficulty, disability and disadvantage including disaffection with learning, the study programme must be robust enough to manage yet improve attendance and overall subject performance. For example student needs include Physical Disability, Autism, ADHD, SEBD, SpLD (Dyslexia & Dyscalculia), Developmental Co-ordination Disorder, Visual Stress, Medical, Mental Health Stress, Independent Living, Anger Management, ODD; these learners are classified as High Needs Learners. 4

So STEP study programmes are offered for two distinct groups of learners with high needs disabilities and social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD). Two groups follow broadly the same syllabus but at different times of their timetables. STEP delivers these active learning skills Setting Targets (daily and weekly for length of programme) Direct (aspects of) own support (peer learning) Making choices about learning (making and reviewing their own targets) Identifying own starting point (new sport skill development) Reviewing and reflecting on progress (peer assessment) Recognising own Achievement (Sports Leader Day Certificate) Preparing for the future (Building on Self Esteem activities, Interview practice, College and Apprenticeship choices, Careers advice) How STEP improves wellbeing, attendance and achievement at college Instead of fitting into a curriculum, learners with high needs have the curriculum fitted around them through their Study Programme like STEP. These programmes have opened the door to an undiscovered country of personalised curriculum delivery and participation for learners with high and or complex needs. It means for the first time a college can begin to adapt the curriculum around a learner s needs and strengths rather than fit them around it. This is not discrete provision, but mainstream and inclusive for GCSE and GCE A level awards. STEP is just one of several study programmes delivered at East Norfolk Sixth Form College and has been running successfully for two years now. STEP is recognised as good practice in Study Programmes by the Association of Colleges (1). STEP runs as a timetabled activity on the learner s timetable over 40 weeks in groups of 8 10 with two ALS staff. Social communication and interaction - communication competence is based on interventions and resources, developed through a national project to upgrade the professional development of Autism Standards for Post 16 Education (2). STEP enables and empowers individuals with a range of complex needs through strategies to control challenging areas in their lives, day to day frustration, anger and disappointments for example. Peer and buddy learning with social communication development underpins literacy and language skills. Early recognition of success motivates participation and leadership in team and individual sports; fitness levels improve and diet awareness is promoted to lead healthy lifestyles. Mental health stress is reduced with lower levels of anxiety and worry reported. 5

Study Programme Example 2 Wellbeing Strategy The Wellbeing Strategy has established a functional peer mentoring scheme and a direct intervention to improve the Health and Wellbeing of students who suffer mild and moderate mental health stress (MHS). The Wellbeing Strategy began in September 2012; it recruits 30 students per year as Wellbeing Agents who after a period of training provide support for their peers to ensure that they have the best educational experience possible. The direct intervention is a 10 week programme following the five ways to healthy wellbeing, open to students with mild to moderate mental health stress and delivered by a trained mentor employed by the College. It operates as study programme for students with mental health stress and cooccurring difficulties. It is accessed by high and low needs learners. The peer mentoring strand is accessed by students with and without disabilities, difficulty or disadvantage. Students are timetabled into the Wellbeing Strategy during free blocks on their time table. The Wellbeing Strategy was conceived when it became apparent how many students were suffering from poor mental health (81 per year in 2012). As well as providing adequate support for those with identified issues, a need was realised to increase the wellbeing and resilience of every student in College. So the college put together a team of people to design and implement an wellbeing strategy External MHS consultant was brought in to oversee the project alongside the ALS Manager, the Pastoral Development Manager, an LSA with special responsibility for Mental Health and the Student Welfare Coordinator. By September 2012 a broad Wellbeing Strategy was ready, approved by Senior Management and budgeted for 2 years with 5,000 for Consultancy and Resource costs. The Wellbeing Strategy is underpinned by the New Economic Foundation (NEF) s Five Ways to Wellbeing, an idea developed in 2008 from Foresight s report Mental Capital and Wellbeing. Similarly to the campaign to get people to eat their 5 a Day, NEF advised that by doing something towards the Five Ways to Wellbeing (Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning, Give) each day, everyone would see a marked improvement in their wellbeing. It was agreed that there would be two main strands to the Wellbeing Strategy; the first would be targeted work with individuals who had declared a mental health problem or who felt that they needed to work on their wellbeing. A diary explaining how to incorporate the Five Ways was designed as a means to deliver a 6-week structured programme to individuals, which would then lead on to a further six weeks of guided self-completion. This is now known as the Wellbeing Programme, and is delivered on a 1:1 basis by LSA with MHS focus. A questionnaire is undertaken at the start of the intervention, 6

and repeated at the end to measure the efficacy of the programme. In 2012, 14 students enrolled on the guided aspect of the programme, with some very encouraging results; in 2013 30 students enrolled, in 2014 35 students enrolled. Alongside the more formal and therapeutic method of the diary, wellbeing is being addressed on a College-wide basis with the help of the Wellbeing Agents. This group of enthusiastic and altruistic second-year students volunteered to form a group tasked with increasing wellbeing throughout the College. Under the guidance of a LSA with MHS focus, a Student Welfare Officer, and the Student Welfare Coordinator, the Agents plan and help out at events and fundraisers, provide general support at events like Taster Day, Open Day and Enrolment, and offer Peer Mentoring to individual students who would benefit from a little extra support. All Agents are trained in Peer Mentoring, and those recruited from 2013/2014 onwards are put through the Youth Mental Health First Aid course to add to their skillset, as well as offering them a very well-respected qualification to add to their CVs. Also from 2013/2014, any hours the Agents put in can be recorded on the VInspired website, to count towards an accredited award. College invited VInspired to come in September 2013 to train the Agents in how to register themselves and then act as ambassadors for the scheme in College. All 30 Agents had completed enough hours to achieve the V100 certificate in by June 30 2014 and 35 students are expected to complete by June 30 2015. Positive Feedback Feedback from students involved with the Wellbeing Strategy have been positive as outlined in Appendix 2 Wellbeing Strategy Feedback (students) with samples below - has given me the ability and incentive to get out of bed on bad days and move!... CC as Wellbeing Agents, we try to improve the overall wellbeing of everyone in college. This may include fundraising, such as bake sales or coffee days and raising awareness, such as mental health and LGBT days/weeks, my personal favourite being Random Act of Kindness Day. Plus, through being a Wellbeing Agent, I have also become a Peer Mentor to give a student an easier transition from high school to college who may have had some difficulty in doing so. This involves meeting up once a week and chatting for an hour in the hope that it will help the mentee in feeling more comfortable in college. From doing this, I feel a certain amount of self-satisfaction, knowing that I have done my best in making a difference to different people, charities and around college. I ve also met a lot of new people and become friends with them and have thoroughly enjoyed my year of being a Wellbeing Agent GG 7

as a Wellbeing Agent I have taken part in a Mental Health First Aid Course which I found very interesting and definitely helped in understanding certain Mental Illnesses. I've also helped out in things such as open evenings and stalls for fundraisers ect. Being a Wellbeing Agent has helped me be more aware of other people and I've had the pleasure if helping out whilst earning some forms experience at the same time AA The Wellbeing Strategy has been identified as good practice in East Norfolk Sixth Firm College s most recent Ofsted Inspection 2013 in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment - Teachers create an inclusive and positive environment to learn in which sometimes very diverse groups of students learn effectively with mutual respect. Staff effectively challenge the use of stereotypes in most subject areas. Students can volunteer to support other students by training for the roles of Wellbeing Agents. Following training, they can promote strategies to improve health and wellbeing to their peers. (3) In terms of impact the Wellbeing Strategy has demonstrated valued added learning. Along with other factors, the Wellbeing Strategy indicates that participation in a direct intervention helps a student understand and manage their mental health stress. Through activities improves their wellbeing and so their engagement with college and their community for learning success. By measuring a student s average GCCE score at entry then their A level score at exit to University or Employment or Work based Learning or Further Education, then a value added measure is available. For example student ZZ had an average GCSE 3.90 at entry to East Norfolk Sixth Form College with a history of moderate to severe mental health stress and a co-occurring difficulty of autism that had been a barrier to mainstream education from Year 7 to Year 11. In fact ZZ has been educated in Year 11 in a Pupil Referral Unit with a limited number of GCSEs. After 1 year of AS Levels, student ZZ had achieved A grades in his three A Levels and attended 97.74% of the time. ZZ had participated in the Wellbeing Strategy 2 hours a week in the 1:1 programme then as a Wellbeing Agent. In his A2 year ZZ is achieving four A grades in three A2 subjects and 1 AS Level and is planning to go to University or take up an Apprenticeship. More details on value added learning achievement is presented in Appendix 3 Distance Travelled achievement by students taking part in East Norfolk Wellbeing Strategy Study Programme 2013-2014. All four students have or had moderate to severe mental health stress which has blighted their secondary education. 8

Aims and objectives 1. Reduce by 20% MHS student withdrawals (keep 2 students with MHS from withdrawing between September to February) over three years 2. Establish a cross college practice connecting with existing pastoral, welfare, learning support and student association services to act together in identifying MHS and acting to prevent risks to performance such as absences, low achievement and withdrawal within three years These objectives deliver aims 1 and 2: by a direct intervention for those students with MHS identified as at risk of withdrawing from college for 10 students with low and moderate MHS by continued peer support and graduation into a Wellbeing Agent programme of peer support and wellbeing progression so recruit and train 30 students yearly by an annual Wellbeing Conference focussed on the Student population and external agencies providing MHS services These study programme aims have been achieved by September 2014-1. Wellbeing Strategy target was reduce MHS student withdrawal by 20% over three years. Actual results have seen a reduction in MHS student withdrawal from 10 to 7 on 88 students in 2012/13 and from 7 to 6 on 90 students in 2013/14. In 2012 2013 88 students declared Mental Health Needs and required varying degrees of pastoral, welfare, learning support which the Wellbeing Strategy provided by direct intervention and wellbeing peer mentoring. Seven students with MHS withdrew between Sept 2012 and Feb 2013 so completing the aim to reduce MHS student withdrawal by 20 %, actually 30% on 2011/2012 MHS population (81) and withdrawal rate (10). So a student with MHS in 2011/12 (before the Wellbeing Strategy) was 50% more likely to withdraw than a student with MHS in 2012/13 (after the Wellbeing Strategy). 2. There is an established cross college practice connecting pastoral, welfare, learning support and student association services together. This cross college and integrated service identifies student with and at risk of MHS acting to prevent absences, low achievement and withdrawal. In 2013-2014, 30 wellbeing agents recruited and active with over 100 other 9

students volunteering per year and supporting five college events. A guerrilla campaign of raising the Wellbeing Strategy in September every second year successfully raise awareness. In 2013 a small grant of 1000 was awarded to provide one annual Celebration conference and resources primarily for the Wellbeing Agents. LSA with MHS focus has led College in-service training on Mental Health Awareness in June 2014 and has visited four local high schools to give whole school assemblies about the Wellbeing Strategy reaching over 2000 Yr 10 and Yr 11 pupils and educational staff. Conclusion and Outcomes East Norfolk has developed effective study programmes that are part of a cross college process that personally plans the college career for students with high needs. Two study programmes have been outlined, STEP and Wellbeing Strategy programmes. The High Needs Learner Personalised Planning Process (Appendix 1) outlines a robust and adaptive methodology that is being tested by the current SEND Reforms and is effectively organising the identification and tracking of new applicants with high needs for September 2015. Feedback on the study programmes, especially the Wellbeing Strategy has been positive from students and Ofsted inspectors (Appendix 2) with a demonstrable effect in value added learning for students (Appendix 3). (1,2,3) A summary of the rationale and drivers to deliver study programmes is outlined in a presentation (Appendix 4). East Norfolk Sixth Form College continues to evolve study programmes that are timetabled across college for employability, volunteering, work placements and the Wellbeing Strategy. Further developments in the Talking Partners (Appendix 1) and STEP Study programmes for students with SEBD along with alternative curriculum options are being planned for September 2015. 10

References 1. Sharing Innovative Approaches to Delivering 16-19 Study Programme Principles. N Morgan Baker http://www.aoc.co.uk/sites/default/files/study%20programmes%20overview.p df Accessed 14/11/14 2. Making Sense of Autism Post 16 Programme. Project led by Autism education Trust with ENSFC participation 2013-2014 http://www.aspergertraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/aet-post-16-flyer.pdf Accessed 14/11/14 3. Ofsted Inspection Report October 2013 http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspectionreport/provider/els/130767 Accessed 16/11/14 11