Progress Report on Future Fridays
North Lanarkshire Council · 23 May 2023
Back to Education, Children and Families Committee — 23 May 2023 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Education, Children and Families Committee Does this report require to be approved? ☒ Yes ☐ No Ref JO’N/PO’N/GK Date 23/05/23 Progress report on Future Fridays From Janie O’Neill, Chief Officer (Education - South) E-mail oneillja@northlan.gov.uk Telephone Executive Summary This report provides a progress update on the Future Fridays programme as it reaches the end of its second school session. Future Fridays Enrichment Afternoons aim to provide opportunities for all young people within school communities to improve health and wellbeing, build relationships, develop leadership capacity and gain employment and enterprise experiences by developing skills for learning, life and work. Through these programmes young people in North Lanarkshire will gain additional accreditation and wider achievement awards whilst participating in a wide range of in- school and out of school activities which will develop skills for the world of work. The programme offers significant opportunity for schools to support young people outwith the traditional classroom setting within a flexible curriculum ensuring equity for all learners across North Lanarkshire. This extended curriculum opportunity allows for a wider curriculum more bespoke to the needs of all our young people. Future Fridays also underpins the aims of the new Programme of Work theme, ‘Brighter Futures’. Recommendations It is recommended that the Education, Children and Families Committee: 1. Note the current progress in attendance, accreditation, Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) and skill building. 2. Endorse the next steps planned to enhance attainment, develop skills and increase work related learning opportunities whilst targeting specific groups of young people. 3. Approve that further reports are brought to committee to report on progress. The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority Support all children and young people to realise their full potential Ambition statement (6) Raise attainment and skills for learning, life, and work to enhance opportunities and choices
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1. Background 1.1 In 2021 a new secondary school schematic timetable was devised to support the launch of a new asymmetric school week with an Enrichment afternoon, Future Fridays. The new schematic timetable allows North Lanarkshire schools to provide a core curriculum of 26.67 teaching hours, with individual schools given the autonomy to add an additional 50 minutes of registration each week (27.5 hours). The Scottish Government are currently consulting on mandatory teaching of 27.5 hours, Future Friday enrichment afternoon sessions offer young people in North Lanarkshire up to 29 hours of education. 1.2 This expanded curriculum delivers a wide range of programmes, activities and qualifications in areas including health and wellbeing, sport, creative arts, employability, digital and more. The aim of Future Fridays is to: - Increase wider achievement opportunities - Improve physical and mental wellbeing - Enhance opportunities for high quality skills and work based learning - Improve positive and sustained post-school destinations. 1.3 This programme began in August 2021 with Principal Teachers (PTs) in each school supporting the organisation and development of the programme. The role of the PTs is to co-ordinate and plan sessions each week, monitor and increase attendance and attainment / achievement opportunities from Friday afternoon sessions. 1.4 Supported by a Curriculum Manager, PTs meet regularly to share good practice. Weekly updates are issued to help focus and direct the programme in line with our aspirations (highlighted above in section 1.1). 1.5 In June 2022 evaluation data from year 1 highlighted an average attendance for the year of 11.5% (approx. 2400 young people) of young people engaged on a weekly basis. Future Fridays activities in year 2 have been divided as follows: Universal offer - sessions which rotate around all mainstream secondary schools based on labour market intelligence and developing skills for learning work and life beyond school. School based offer - specific sessions, bespoke to each school based around needs / wants of young people. Intensive offer – Targeted to specific groups to meet individual needs designed to close the gap and designed to provide more opportunities for specific target groups. 2. Report 2.1 Since its inception in August 2021 Future Fridays has grown considerably. The opportunities afforded to young people have increased substantially. Across our 23 mainstream secondary there are currently 108 offers covering a range of activities. (Appendix 1 outlines the range of in-school activities on offer.) 2.2 Attendance rates have risen since August 2021 with around 23 percent (approx. 4850 young people) of young people engaged each week in opportunities available. 18 of 23 secondary schools have currently surpassed the 2023 DYW Delivery Plan target of 20%. The target attendance rate for session 23/24 is 30% and session 24/25 target is 40%. Current data indicates that over 60% of young people have attended at least one
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AUG 21 DEC 21 AUG 22 DEC 22 0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00% 20.00% 25.00% Future Fridays average attendance across NLC session. 34% of attendees are from SIMD 1-3 and 12% of attendees have additional support needs. Data also highlights an average of 18.5% of care experienced young people engaged each week. The DYW Delivery Plan has promoting attendance of vulnerable groups as a priority for year 3 of Future Fridays. 2.3 Developing the Young Workforce opportunities have grown in each school, with the October 2022 DYW/Employer Engagement Conference providing an excellent conduit to build relations between schools and employers. Employers from a wide range of sectors including construction, health, retail and digital are providing sessions on Friday afternoons focused on raising awareness of jobs and learning skills in a real-life context as well as providing work placements for young people in the Senior Phase of Learning. Employers are beginning to provide curriculum content around growth industry sectors for school delivery. 2.4 PTs have engaged in career long professional learning sessions led by the Curriculum Manager. These have included inputs from colleagues from SQA and SCQF to consider how sessions being offered can be accredited. These sessions have helped to grow accreditation opportunities. Schools are using funding and the opportunity afforded on Friday afternoons to certificate young people with industry recognised qualifications in areas including construction, Barista skills and food hygiene. Opportunities for accreditation have grown significantly as the programme has matured, this has been a focus in Principal Teacher, sharing practice sessions throughout the year and will be a primary focus in year 3. In year 2 we have almost 500 accreditations through the following.
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Session Level (If appropriate) Numbers Youth achievement 38 Leadership 5 5 REHIS 55 CSCS Card 6 Climate path 8 First aid 48 Dynamic youth 18 Saltire 53 Work Placement 5 22 SQA Volunteer 4 61 NPA 6 6 Mentors in Violence prevention 8 Duke of Edinburgh Bronze 27 Barista skills 10 Heart Start 37 Boxercise 7 Pool lifeguard 12 2.5 Future Fridays promotes Pupil Voice and provides an opportunity for young people to contribute to the planning and development of the sessions which run each Friday afternoon. Account is taken of young people’s views when building the Future Fridays curriculum. Opportunities offered during the enrichment afternoons help young people enhance and develop new skills for life beyond school and into the world of work. These can then be used to enhance their CVs helping transitions into casual, part-time or full- time employment. In school activities (Appendix 1) along with college classes and the universal offer, represent the highest levels of attendance, however, young people do have an opportunities out with school via Active and Creative Communities to use NLC facilities to swim, go to the gym, take part in youth groups and clubs run by CLD, or develop their skills through other work related learning opportunities. 2.6 Empowering young people and leadership development is at the heart of Future Fridays helping to improve confidence and communication skills. The launch of the Future Friday’s Leadership Academy in schools has seen over 100 young people work with cluster primaries leading sessions in dance, STEM, enterprise, sports, arts and digital. This has become a part of primary school transition programmes and this coming academic session (2023/24) will see wider accreditation opportunities for young people at SQA level 5 (S5) and level 6 (for returning S6 pupils) on successful completion of the programme. Year 2 of this programme will launch in June and there is scope to increase the number and range of academies as well as the number of young people engaged. 2.7 Schools promote Future Fridays through newsletters, websites and Twitter. North Lanarkshire Council’s Future Friday’s website has been updated and will include a link to a Future Friday’s blog which will showcase photos and case studies from across schools, highlighting to all the exciting opportunities available in Future Friday sessions. 2.8 Case Studies (Appendix 2) have been generated in each school, highlighting the successes through Future Fridays. The programme is growing based on the input from all stakeholders with the aim to meet with needs of all young people.
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2.9 The core annual budget for the Future Fridays programme is £0.45 million which funds direct staffing costs, pupil transport and external partner payments. In addition, the successful implementation of the programme has helped direct and align wider resources across the council and partner agencies to enhance the range and quality of offers for young people. Staff groups contributing to the programme currently include CLD, Pathways, Active and Creative Communities, Active Schools, Financial Inclusion and local colleges. Finally the in-kind benefit of teaching staff who volunteer on Friday afternoons is estimated to be in the region of £800,000 per annum and this value is likely to increase as more offers and courses are rolled out. Next Steps 2.10 We will continue to build on current progress and develop the Future Friday’s programme through the following: • Have all schools engage in a comprehensive evaluation which considers the views of all stakeholders, parents and young people. • Schools will identify improvement priorities, highlight current success, capacity for improvement and how they will achieve this. • Schools will use SDS 16+ datahub information to develop sessions relevant to career pathways and will use school data to ensure target groups have increased opportunity to engage to provide more equity in offer. • Review and increase the Universal offer to engage more young people across all schools and continue to relate to labour market intelligence. • Schools will increase accreditation opportunities through SQA and SCQF and wider achievement frameworks to provide more certification for young people which will help to enhance CVs and personal portfolios. • Good practice will be highlighted and share ideas across schools to ensure equity for all young people. • We will continue to build on feedback from DYW conference, engaging with local business to provide more work-related experiences and opportunities and to create curriculum content linked to key industry sectors. 3. Measures of success – Year 3 3.1 Overall attendance for each school above 30 % 3.2 50% of young people from SIMD1-3 engaged 3.3 40% of all care experienced pupils engaged 3.4 2 formal influencing business partners engaged in each school 3.5 Increased attainment measures (presentation numbers) 3.6 Improved and sustained leaver destinations 3.7 Improvements in wellbeing 4. Supporting documentation 4.1 Appendix 1 – in school offers 4.2 Appendix 2 – Case studies Janie O’Neill Chief Officer (Education – South)
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5. Impacts ( http://connect/report-template-guidance ) 5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality- and-fairer-scotland-duty-impact-assessments Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with Financial Solutions? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.3 HR policy impact Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People and Organisational Development? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? The DYW plan is a subset of the wider Workforce for the Future Strategy of North Lanarkshire Council. 5.4 Legal impact Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic Solutions? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.5 Data protection impact Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e- mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.6 Technology / Digital impact Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi?
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Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Where the impact identifies a requirement for technology, has an assessment been carried out (or scheduled) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.8 Communications impact Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? As part of promotion the communications team will work with the curriculum manager to promote website and school activity using media channels. 5.9 Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed? 5.10 Armed Forces Covenant Duty Does the report require to take due regard of the Armed Forces Covenant Duty (i.e. does it relate to healthcare, housing, or education services for in-Service or ex- Service personnel, or their families, or widow(er)s)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the provision which has been made to ensure there has been appropriate consideration of the particular needs of the Armed Forces community to make sure that they do not face disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public services.
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Appendix 1 – in school offers ARCHAEOLOGISTS DRIVING NETBALL ART E SPORTS NL CHALLENGE BADMINTON EMPLOYABILITY PATHWAYS BARISTA ENTERPRISE PHOTOGRAPHY BAKING FISHING PODCAST BASKETBALL FITNESS POTTERY BIKEABILTY FORMULA 1 PSYCHOLOGY BMX FOOTBALL RAF WORKSHOP BOARD GAME GAELIC READING BOOK GARDENING ROWING BOXING GOLF ROLE PLAY BOXERCISE GYMNASTIC RUGBY BSL HANDBALL SCHOOL MAGAZINE CAREERS WORKSHOP INTERHOUSE SCHOOL SHOW CHARITY IT SCIENCE CHOIR JEWELLERY STEM CITIZEN KARATE STUDY COLLEGE LIVING LIFE TO FULL TABLE TENNIS COMIC LANGUAGE TEXTILES CROCHET LEADERSHIP THERAPET DANCE LGBTQ TRAMPOLINE DODGEBALL MAKE UP UNIVERSITY TALKS DEBATE MENTORING VOLLEYBALL DIG ILLUSTRATION MENTAL H A WOODWORK DofE MINDFULLNESS WK EXP DRAMA MOVIE WRITING MUSIC PERF YOUR RIGHTS MUSIC PROD
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Appendix 2 – Case studies Case study 1 With a recent Autism diagnosis, pupil N was a total non- attender at their previous school and experienced anxiety, difficulty in forming friendships due to very rigid thinking as well as some health issues. They joined the Language and Communication Centre (LCSC) at X High at the start of S2 and slowly began to develop confidence and positive relationships in a safe and nurturing environment. When Future Friday started, Pupil N saw an opportunity to develop their passion for baking and cooking and asked if a this might be a FF activity. Now, with the support of the HSPO, N organises and delivers the baking session each Friday afternoon. This volunteering role includes consulting with the S1 pupils on what they want to make, sourcing recipes and working out quantities. They also make sure the food delivery is stored away properly then prepares for the session by setting out and weighing the ingredients in advance. They plan and lead the session, taking everything from safety, timing and tidy-up into account. Quite apart from the excellent organisational and leadership skills they are developing, they have carried their peer mentoring and nurturing qualities back to supporting other young people in the LCSC, all of whom also have additional support needs. The LCSC staff comment on how proud they are of the progress – which is due to their care and encouragement undoubtedly, but also developed and enhanced by the opportunity to take responsibility for the FF activity with the support of the HSPO. Through the opportunities given by participating in FF activities, pupil N now confidently works with new adults, seeks out vulnerable peers to support them and has become skilled at building relationships. As a result of working with S1s at FFs, they are now considering a career in working with children. LCSC staff say “2 years ago this would have been inconceivable and through the whole range of supports (including CLD involvement through FF) they have had the opportunity to be their real self” And the attendance? – from 0% to 60% – so still room to progress that, but this same person is staying behind in their own time every single Friday, to do something they love and are finding extremely rewarding. Case study 2 Pupil R of our young people in S2 has a serious visual impairment. He has been attending the Digital Illustration Club for some time now and it is proving to be very beneficial for him in so many ways. At the start of the year Pupil R really suffered with lack of self-confidence and self-esteem. He also didn’t have a set friendship group and really struggled to make friends at times. Since attending Digital Illustration club at Future Fridays Pupil R has made some great new friends and even found a best friend. He has learned new skills that he can use for life and work after school and also made work that he can be proud of. The experience has really helped him grow in confidence, develop his interpersonal and social skills and become more independent. He is now working on preparing work for an upcoming Digital Art and Illustration Exhibition which we are hosting in school in June. I recently spoke on the phone with Pupil R’s Mum and she said that she couldn’t thank us enough for the work we do at Future Fridays and spoke about how it has benefited Pupil R massively. She said that she has seen a huge positive change in Pupil R since he has been attending Future Fridays and that he is now much happier at school. Pupil R is now even considering starting his own Chess Club on Friday afternoons in the near future. I am so proud of how far Pupil R has come and I look forward to seeing where Future Fridays can take him in the future.
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It has helped so many of our young people socially and emotionally. I also feel that it has been great for moral in the school as pupils are looking forward to their Friday afternoon activity. There has been so many little moments of magic through the whole experience where young people who struggle and have barriers to learning in class really get their chance to shine during Future Fridays time and that's amazing to see and it makes all the hard work seem worthwhile. Case study 3 Pupil A, an S4 girl, has attended the Dance Leader course on a Friday afternoon. The desire for a Dance Leader opportunity was identified through pupil surveys on Teams, where a number of pupils identified dance as an area they would like to explore during Future Fridays time. This, along with conversations between teachers, parents and pupils, made it clear that dance would be a popular choice throughout year groups. We signed up 15 pupils, ranging from S2-6, to the Dance leader course where they would receive a National 4 qualification after a 16-week block. This course was delivered by the Y-Dance organisation and looked to develop each pupils’ confidence within dance and also develop their ability to lead dance sessions both as a group and on their own. Pupil A already attended dance classes outside of school but as of yet had not led any sessions. Over the course of the 16-week block, pupils were slowly introduced to the concept of leading sessions as their confidence, creativity and organisational skills were improved. Pupil A developed a real strength in both planning and delivering dance sessions and became a leader within the group. Pupil A thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and it was a pleasure to see her ability as a leader in this environment develop as the year progressed. As well as achieving a National 4 qualification and developing many other skills, pupil A has expressed a desire to lead her own dance club within the school that will open up the possibility of her achieving more SQA awards as well as further developing her leadership and responsibility skills. Off the back of completing the Dance Leader course, pupil A has also stated that she wishes to progress onto a career in teaching or coaching and being part of the Dance Leader course as further reinforced her desire to do so. None of these opportunities would have been possible without the Friday afternoon slot and Pupil A, along with the rest of the Dance Leader class, have not only achieved another SQA qualification, but also further developed their knowledge within their area of passion. Case study 4 When I think of human rights, I think of opportunity. For me, rights are the construct which ensures protections people need are at the heart of society, from government to beyond. This means we should have the chance to pursue a better society, at least in theory, without leaving anyone out. But this isn’t how I’ve always seen human rights! My first introduction (to my memory, anyway) was in early High School. I remember being told about them around my rights and responsibilities as a UK citizen. Yet, while I learned about rights, I am not sure I truly understood them. Bringing rights to life - My first real dip into the world of human rights didn’t happen till much later. It started with the ‘Future Fridays’ programme in North Lanarkshire, where secondary school students can spend Friday afternoons doing activities like taking a college course or gaining work experience.
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Through this, I joined the Make It Right project, working on a communications campaign to raise awareness of children’s rights and mark the expected incorporation of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child, into Scots Law. While the incorporation was delayed, thankfully the campaign was not. Each advert, poster and key message was jointly created by young people and adults, making it a rather unique piece of co-production and place to learn. Making a difference - Since then, I’ve continued my work on human rights by joining Scotland’s National Action Plan for Human Rights (SNAP) Leadership Panel. At 17 years old, I’m the Panel’s youngest member, and it’s truly been a whirlwind adventure, working on all sorts, from mental health to education and beyond. It wasn’t until I joined the Leadership Panel that I truly gained an understanding of what human rights are and what they mean to me. I still remember the early barrage of documents and inaccessible language – on a page filled with acronyms, from the basic SG (Scottish Government) to the unexplained NACWG (National Advisory Council for Women and Girls), it made no sense! Luckily for me, I had the help of fellow panel members and the awesome SNAP Secretariat Lead to guide me, something I have talked about on the SNAP website. I do wonder how it would’ve turned out for someone without access to the right support. For example, I’m a student who doesn’t need to work, so I can afford to spend a day in a meeting. Even simple things like shortening meeting lengths can make participation more realistic for many. Not everything is rosy - Working with human rights is not all positive. There simply hasn’t been enough resourcing over the last decade to support civil society. This has undoubtedly impacted on organisations’ ability to contribute to exciting things like SNAP. The delays to legislative changes that would allow people to access to their rights, such as the new Scottish Human Rights Bill, have understandably demoralised those who most need the protections. And at a UK-level, the Government’s attempt to repeal the Human Rights Act could even see the UK ‘in breach of its international obligations’ should it become law, according to human rights campaigners. So, as I said at the beginning, human rights are an opportunity – but one that often falls short. Our inalienable rights let us dream of a better world though. And in tough times, they strengthen our ability to defend them, against people who would prefer to make rights history. In 2022, I think Scotland is doing fine on human rights, regardless of all the rhetoric saying we are amazing or terrible. On the ground, the truth is much more mundane – there’s a lot to be proud of yet so much more to do!