The Alternative Curriculum - Glasgow City Council: How you knew it worked
This section details the progress and impact of the project, including reviewing evidence against measures of success and consideration of next steps. It also reviews the broader impact of the project, in addition to its original aims, and any unintended consequences.
The school recorded the young people’s attendance to evidence that they were participating in an alternative curriculum offer. Views shared by school staff indicated that improvements in attendance were being made.
The ‘UpShots’ platform (management information tool) was used to share updates, case studies and personal statements from young people. Feedback from other partners, such as the police, libraries and voluntary organisations were also stored in ‘UpShots.’ This ensured there was quantitative and qualitative data and evidence to triangulate impact.
VOiCe software was also used to generate reports to demonstrate the chronological journey of a young person going through the project and key milestones.
A targeted group of girls demonstrated improvement in attendance across the school week when they attended the project on a Monday morning. It reduced the transition barriers to attending school, following the weekend, to break a pattern of lateness and non-attendance. This evidence is being looked at across all young people who have attended the ‘Alternative Curriculum’, and it is hoped to demonstrate an improvement in all cases.
Feedback from parents and the Violence Reduction Team also provided evidence that attendance was improving, and anti-social behaviour was reducing.
The project has increased the understanding of education stakeholders on how the youth work sector can make a difference to attendance by offering an alternative curriculum. This has also led to stronger partnership working, as voluntary organisations now directly support the project and provide staff to participate in the delivery. Voluntary organisations have also stated increased capacity within their staff as they have had the opportunity to shadow experienced workers in this setting.
It has led to a clearer understanding about qualifications and the strength of a bespoke curriculum in engaging young people who have difficulty attending school. The project has also aided young people in achieving some formal educational outcomes in a non-classroom-based setting.
School attendance data is a strong indicator of progress and impact where available. This was triangulated against views from young people, parents and staff/partner observations. Police data about crime reduction demonstrated impact, alongside feedback from the community.
As a result of the positive impact of the project, it is being rolled out to other schools in Glasgow. There are also plans to do more outdoor activities as this proved to be positive with the young people who attended.
The Community Achievement Award has been taken on board by Glasgow Life as staff from the college could no longer provide it. There are new partnerships being formed to support the co-delivery of the project, especially with employability-based providers.
The project also looks to provide guaranteed interviews to young people with certain college courses at Glasgow Kelvin and modern apprenticeships provided by Glasgow Life.
