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Medway’s Starter 4 Ten programme: Integrating previously non-attending pupils into regular mainstream classes

Summary

Medway Partnership’s Starter 4 Ten is not a new programme – it has been running successfully for years – but it is an example of a student-centred, flexible approach that enables many disengaged students to find their way back from the fringes to the mainstream of life. Other settings and other regions can learn from its success in bringing disaffected students back into mainstream classes to stay.

Introduction and background
The Medway Partnership in Kent manages the Starter 4 Ten programme for several schools and colleges across a mixed urban and semi-rural environment. In Medway, there are three strands to the Key Stage 4 Engagement Programme. Two of these existed before the pilot programme (Starter 4 Ten and Springboard); the other (the 50:50 programme) is new.

Springboard is an intensive programme (five days a week for a year) for year 11 pupils at greatest risk of exclusion. It existed in North Medway before the pilot programme and is intended to be extended to other areas of Medway. As an indication of the scope, the programme may comprise one day per week on each of the following:

1. entry level certificates in core subjects
2. on-site counselling
3. work placements
4. ASDAN CoPE award
5. outdoor or community-based projects.

In the 50:50 programme, half the week is spent in school studying for core GCSEs and half at NACRO (the national crime reduction charity). In the first term, pupils work towards units of an Open College Network (OCN) Progression Award and undertake problem-solving and team-building activities. In the second and third terms, they continue to work towards the OCN qualification and have one day of work placement and one day of vocational training a week. Sectors covered so far include health and social care, motor vehicle maintenance, construction, and sport and leisure.

The Starter 4 Ten programme – the main focus of this case study – was previously funded by the Standards Fund and the pilot funding has enabled it to continue.

The approach

Starter 4 Ten is a four-week intervention for year 10 and year 11 students who, it is judged, can be readily integrated back into mainstream education. The programme consists of college-based provision (Mid-Kent College) for four days per week for four weeks, with Wednesdays spent at school, keeping contact and catching up with work. Students are put forward by the school for various reasons. The most common are behaviour issues, that students are the victims or agents of bullying, low self-esteem and general disengagement. Students then attend college for an interview. Attendance for interview is seen as very important in order to establish the discipline required and make clear the need for the student to participate fully in the programme. It is also emphasised to students during this interview that the programme is a key to the college, which they are equally able to use to lock themselves out.

The mornings involve some class-based work. It is explained to students that this is the routine for whichever course they wish to take. Later in the morning they do information technology or art work and they spend the afternoons in a variety of workshops or listening to visiting speakers. Workshops include circus skills, stage make-up, interview skills, construction (carpentry, painting and decorating, fabrication and welding, and plumbing) and hair design. There are plans to add animal care to the options. There is a balance between enjoyment and the reality of a college course, with students being given access to courses that they express an interest in, if they are not on their existing timetable. They then have a short talk, taster or lesson in the workshop of their choice.

On this programme, personal progress can take the whole of the time at college. There may be no noticeable improvements in behaviour, attitude and motivation until the last few days. Often, however, there is immediate change. Individual behaviour programmes and overall evaluations take this variation of response into account.

College-based certificates are presented to the students at the end of the programme. These are awarded for each of the workshop tasters, for attending the course as a whole, for achievement in personal development, and for any other quality observed while they attend. Fourteen days is too short a period for students to register for and achieve external accreditation – and from the student’s point of view, may resemble the school experience too closely.

Finally, in order to secure any gains made during the programme, tutors often encourage year 10 pupils to apply for courses while they are on the Starter 4 Ten programme because of oversubscription, thus giving them an advantage when starting year 11.

Signs of success

Students who are bullied at school often do particularly well on the programme, even if they are excluded from the group by their peers. They are helped to find a course and to build up self-esteem and confidence, which can sometimes stop the bullying. The behaviour of students on the programme over the years has invariably improved and students do not want to leave. Many want to (and do) come back to college, though the long-term effects, especially for quiet students, are not always obvious.

At the start of the programme, students are often on a reduced timetable and sometimes have few fixed term exclusion days left before permanent exclusion is used. This sometimes means that half of those in a particular teaching group are close to permanent exclusion. As the course progresses, this becomes of concern to them. Although they may not at first have wanted to stay beyond compulsory education, when they experience this different approach they begin to use the opportunities to gain support in a different context. Course managers have found very few, if any, students who want to be excluded, but it is often difficult for students to correct this in an environment where they have negative relationships with staff or peers. The programme helps them progress towards self-discipline, taking responsibility for their actions and accepting constructive criticism.

The feedback from both students and schools is positive. The cooperation of schools in supplying a new student every four weeks indicates their enthusiasm for the programme.
 
The programme’s attendance and retention rates are high, both between 80% and 100% in the current year. This is notable considering that many of these students do not attend school at all before joining the programme. Progression is considered a strength. Most of the students are in year 10. Some progress into year 11 programmes, and many year 11 students move on to courses at the college. For example, one student, who had hacked into school records and so was not allowed into the IT rooms, joined the Starter 4 Ten programme and has since been used by the tutor as a learning support assistant in information technology sessions (although he was not allowed to log on!). He has subsequently applied to Canterbury College for a course and to an information technology company for an apprenticeship.

Conclusions

The Starter 4 Ten programme is well established and has a good reputation in the local community, so does not need to market what it has to offer. However, its continuing success in recruiting and retaining students from what is, by definition, a hard-to-reach cohort depends largely upon the continuing flexibility and person-centredness of the programme and the staff who run it.

An intelligent approach to personal development – which puts this aspect at the heart of the programme and adjusts the balance of the programme to match individual profiles – means also that no ‘quick wins’ are expected. The significant outcomes from an ongoing process of high expectations, giving students real responsibility for their own lives, along with systematic confidence- and self-esteem-building, often do not becoming apparent until near the end of the programme. This patient approach speaks of the trust that programme staff place in both the process they work within and in the students themselves.

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