PROGRAMME OF ADDITIONAL ACCESS MEASURES. 4.1 Widening participation and outreach programme
4.1.1 In 2012-13 Xxxxx Xxxx will target expenditure on an outreach programme that will focus on raising student aspiration and achievement and on providing appropriate information, advice and guidance to support students in making the right choices for successful progression to higher education. It will combine projects involving a wide range of schools and colleges with the development of long-term structured interventions with a smaller number of partner schools. Work will focus mainly, though not exclusively, on schools and colleges in east and north London and in the wider Thames Gateway area. Many of the activities will support the Level 3 attainment of students in the target cohorts, and help them either to achieve the grades required for competitive programmes at Xxxxx Xxxx or to secure access to other appropriate higher education programmes.
4.1.2 Full details of this programme can be found in Xxxxx Xxxx‟s 2010-15 Widening Participation Strategy and 2009-12 Widening Participation Strategic Assessment. Activities will include: a summer school programme aimed at students in Years 9-12 an evening revision programme in a range of subjects targeted at AS and A2 students Year 10 and Year 12 masterclass programmes in a range of subjects a school visit programme for primary and secondary school students that will include taster lectures in a range of subjects and question-and-answer sessions with student ambassadors specific curriculum-related activities such as a Physics Practical School to stretch and challenge A2 level physics students
4.1.3 Widening participation at Xxxxx Xxxx is fully integrated into our overall recruitment objectives. The widening participation team sits within the Education Liaison and Access Office, which in 2012-13 will deliver a range of activities that support and complement the widening participation programme. These will include general information and advice and guidance talks to students, parents and carers on a range of themes. About 25% of these talks each academic year will be delivered in schools and colleges with a high percentage of widening participation cohort students. Xxxxx Xxxx students will work as mentors in schools and colleges in east London that have a high number of students in widening participation target groups. A separate scheme will place Xxxxx Xxxx students as classroom assistants in primary and secondary schools in Tower Hamlets, an area of high social...
PROGRAMME OF ADDITIONAL ACCESS MEASURES. 4.1 Demonstrating a strategic approach
4.1.1 Research has indicated that widening participation activities have the greatest impact if they are delivered in a sustained way, as part of a long-term partnership with target schools. The importance of this is also highlighted in the National Strategy for Access and Student Success. In 2015-16 Xxxxx Xxxx will deliver an extensive outreach programme that will focus on raising student aspiration and achievement and on providing appropriate information, advice and guidance to support students in making the right choices for successful progression to higher education. This will combine projects involving a wide range of schools and colleges with the development of long-term structured interventions with a smaller number of partner schools. The strategic priorities will be: delivering long-term sustained outreach programmes with partner schools such St Paul’s Way Trust School and the Drapers’ Academy targeting outreach activities at students who are the first in their family to consider university, students from lower socio-economics groups (National Statistics Socio-economic Classification Groups 4-7) and students from low- participation neighbourhoods improving student success and progression through a range of measures aimed at supporting students from non-traditional backgrounds targeting care leavers as a group significantly under-represented in higher education.
4.1.2 St Paul’s Way Trust school and the Drapers’ Academy are both schools in areas of severe economic and social deprivation and low progression to higher education. We will focus resources on sustained outreach work with these schools as there is good evidence that this approach has had a positive impact. Examples of this evidence can be found below in sections 4.1.3-4.1.5.
4.1.3 St Paul’s Way Trust School in Tower Hamlets has made remarkable progress over the last three years. The 2013 GCSE results show that 58% of students achieved at least five A* to C grades in subjects including English and Mathematics. This is an improvement of 29 percentage points from the 2009 results. The school’s most recent Ofstead report, published in May 2013, judged the school to be outstanding in all categories, and made specific reference to the positive role of Xxxxx Xxxx as an educational partner. Xxxxxxx Xxxxx, the Head Teacher, has said that “I am entirely of the opinion that without the strong partnership that we have with Xxxxx Xxxx we would not today be...
PROGRAMME OF ADDITIONAL ACCESS MEASURES. 4.1 Demonstrating a strategic approach in the light of changes to the fair access landscape
4.1.1 Research has indicated that widening participation activities have the greatest impact if they are delivered in a sustained way, as part of a long-term partnership with target schools. The importance of this is also highlighted in the National Strategy for Access and Student Success in Higher Education. In 2017-18 QMUL will deliver an extensive outreach programme that will focus on raising student aspiration and achievement and on providing appropriate information, advice and guidance to support students in making the right choices for successful progression to higher education. This will combine projects involving a wide range of schools and colleges with the development of long-term structured interventions with a smaller number of partner institutions.
4.1.2 We have taken effective steps to identify schools with the largest proportion of students from groups that are under-represented in HE, which we believe will give us the best chance of reaching those who could most benefit from our activities. Previously, we utilised standalone metrics in helping us to determine which schools to target and we had some concerns that this method could be overly simplistic. Now, our approach makes use of a number of metrics in combination, from which we calculate a point-score for every state school in our target boroughs. This score is then used to help us determine which schools to prioritise. This new methodology was introduced in the 2015-16 academic year, and we will review its fitness for purpose once it has been in place for a full year.
4.1.3 We have also revisited our decision-making process for initiatives that involve students applying to us directly (for example, our summer schools). We understand that young people are affected by multiple dimensions of disadvantage, and our approach attempts to recognise this. As with our schools- targeting rationale, we take into account a range of widening participation indicators to calculate a point-score for each application. This method enables us to prioritise students impacted by the largest number of factors that may negatively influence higher education progression. It also allows us to, where beneficial, factor in project-specific aims, for example allocating points for female students in a STEM activity or male students in a literacy scheme.
4.1.4 In 2017-18 QMUL will remain a high-level strategic partner with two ...
