Greenwood Academy is situated in the Dreghorn area of North Ayrshire. The school links with five associated primary schools. The school roll is 1,356 young people. 33% of young people live within Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation deciles one and two. 31% of young people have additional support needs. The school provides a range of additional support for groups of young people, including those who are hearing impaired, those who require enhanced transitions and those who require particular support to access school.

The improvement issue

School staff identified the need to develop a wider range of pathways, including vocational programmes, for young people who were at risk of becoming disengaged with school. This includes where a classroom environment does not support young people to achieve and attain. Although many young people achieve academic qualifications, they do not always have the required level of skills and confidence to enter and sustain positive destinations. There was also the need to ensure that young people were well informed about the world of work to help make appropriate subject choices.

What the setting did

Senior leaders and staff created a whole-school strategic vision for developing the young workforce (DYW). This included offering traditional qualifications, developing vocational pathways and expanding the range of Scottish Qualification Awards qualifications available, such as skills for work courses and National Progression Awards.

Staff undertook professional learning to help them to deliver an increasing number of programmes. They developed effective partnerships with local businesses, colleges and the Ayrshire Chamber of Commerce. They used labour market intelligence to help identify areas where young people could access work experience opportunities. They worked with a range of partners such as local businesses, including a beauty therapist, a construction company, childcare provision and bike maintenance company to form a Skills Academy. This creative approach and the contacts gave the young people meaningful contexts in which to develop and demonstrate their transferrable skills.

Plans are also in place to open a community café in the local Townend Community Centre, which will help to provide young people with work experience. The community centre is also being used to develop further opportunities to engage with disengaged learners and their parents/carers. Its purpose is to help re-engage young people in education, to achieve qualifications and work towards positive destinations. Staff are also in early discussions to further develop a context for learning in the creative industries, including media and music technologies. This context will be developed to specifically meet the needs of young people with additional support needs.

Staff identified that partnership working with employers would also be an important part of increasing pathways for young people. A partnership with Ayrshire College is helping to identify and develop partnership programmes for young people progressing into their senior phase. For example, young people have increased access to ‘Vocational Bursts’, a hands-on short programme to introduce S2 or S3 pupils to a range of different vocational areas to help them make informed choices about potential careers.

Staff work closely with DYW Ayrshire to offer young people work placements. DYW Ayrshire staff also conducts employer visits and support many other events in the school, such as an apprenticeship fayre and mock interview programme.

The introduction of a My World of Work (WoW) ambassador programme is helping young people and children in P7 to identify jobs and career pathways for the future. This work also includes delivering workshops for parents/carers to enable them to better support their young people into positive destinations.

What the sustained impact has been

Staff are committed to improving their practice and adapting what they offer to better meet the needs of young people in the context of a changing labour market. Staff and young people are more aware of the ways in which programmes can be adapted and be more sustainable. Staff are continually seeking new partnerships, and opportunities, and are being more creative in their approaches.

Young people recognise the opportunities they have within the Skills Academy to develop their employability skills. They are increasingly transferring their skills into positive destinations. For example, young people attending an events management course at university, improved their communication, interpersonal and team working skills. In addition, young people who struggled to engage with more traditional subjects have achieved level six of the Scottish Credit Qualification Framework, through participating in the upcycling and bicycle maintenance programme.

The school’s employer engagement activities have increased young people’s understanding of more diverse employment opportunities. This is supporting young people to make more informed choices for future positive destinations. As a result, there is an increase in the number of young people going into all levels of apprenticeship programmes. Local labour market data also shows that there is an increase in young people entering employment.