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New Community Schools
Issue 5: February 2002

Engaging the community

Getting started:

This section looks at how different New Community Schools have approached community engagement, including establishing networks and identifying 'key' people.

The approach developed in Argyll & Bute is similar to that developed in many NCS. In Dunoon a Steering Committee was established as the formal structure through which to secure community consultation and involvement. The group represents a broad community of interests:

Four Local Councillors; Community Councillor;
Three School Boards; Nursery Committee;
Local Voluntary Organisations;
Community Representatives; Police; Church; Business Community;
NCS Management Group (ex-officio)

The Steering Committee is involved in assessing needs and priorities, monitoring, project developments and consultative exercises. They have also successfully accessed external funding for project developments and sustainability beyond initial funding. A key person has been the local development worker of the Council for Voluntary Services, who has represented the views of a range of community groups.

In Aberdeen, the NCS team found that one of the difficulties in a new area is learning who the key people are. They knew that if they did not try to spread information as widely as possible they risked being aligned with cliques. Thus they were careful not to engage only through key people. It also took time to realise who local key professionals were and to find out what local issues are being identified by other agencies. Now that the NCS team is becoming established in the community, engagement is easier and some key people have been identified. Using parents to let people know what is happening is far more effective than other forms of publicity.

The East Dunbartonshire NCS team made contact with a local parent & toddler resource. It was felt that it was important to involve this group who were already active in the area and providing a valuable resource. Contact hasn't been overly extensive as the group value their independence. The Integration Manager has helped establish a local initiatives group to co-ordinate activities in the community. A conscious decision was made in the early days, to resolve some basic issues before involving local people fully, through a Community Conference in November.

Highland NCS arranged a Community Consultation Event which was a 'whole systems' event ensuring participation by representatives of all stakeholders. Over 100 people attended the event in the Council Chambers.

North Ayrshire NCS have run Community Information Days, intended to promote community links and provide information. In Irvine, the day was attended by 100 adults and 1100 pupils, with information provided by 32 statutory and voluntary organisations.

In Angus, Fife and in Perth and Kinross the NCS teams have run open days and have used questionnaires to try to establish community needs. Three newsletters a year are also produced in the North Perth NCS. A school janitor in one of their schools was invaluable in helping to get things started.

The NCS team in Moray has been involved in community consultations (participative appraisal) in three communities with follow-up work and continuing contact with local community associations. In Lhanbryde a Coordinator was appointed with the rural challenge funding, responsible to the community. She was key to providing the motivation, direction, access to training and support that community members needed to take things forward.

In a small area in North Lanarkshire, with few established community groups, it was important to establish contact with all groups as early as possible. There was little contact between these groups so there was no joint or cohesive planning - indeed there was vying between groups which hindered progress and encouraged divisiveness. It was very important that NCS was not seen as 'taking over' but as a hub, providing a supportive structure, enabling things to happen and supporting the community. Those regarded as 'community activists', were seen as the people with the 'power' and this tended to polarise the community. The NCS group was seen by some as competition, even as a threat, but some excellent work by the Community Support Worker has seen real strides being made, with real discussion and joint planning starting to take place.

In North Lanarkshire, as in East Ayrshire, the Home/School Link Worker was able to use an existing network of contacts. The Home/School Link Worker also made home visits to the parents of new entrants and established strong links in this way.

In Renfrewshire the home visiting programme was aimed at contacting interested people who had not had previous involvement with school or community organisations. The Renfrew NCS team were concerned that key people didn't inhibit new, less confident community members, so they set up small sub-groups to develop specific areas of work.

In Falkirk, each small initiative has depended on individual members of the community acting as champions within their own group and with the wider community. All staff adopt a community development approach throughout their work which has increased their skills and led to increased individual and community capacity.

In Scottish Borders, the Integration Manager has the key role in making contact with local bodies and fitting in to existing networks. The NCS initiative has also created new networks such as the Local Learning Partnership and Pre-school Partnership.

Examples of activities:

In Aberdeen, West Dunbartonshire, Perth and Kinross, North Ayrshire and East Ayrshire NCS staff have commented on their involvment in the development of the local Community Learning Plan.

In Argyll and Bute, Greenfingers Challenge is a community-based environmental improvement project involving the three cluster schools and nursery working in partnership with EnviroKirn, a locally-based community group with a focus on improving the overall environment of the Kirn area. The pupils will be involved collectively in developing a neglected area of ground on the area's sea front. Dunoon NCS has established a Volunteer Tutor Organisation to train volunteers to provide out-of- hours adult support for children with particular learning needs.

Among other activities in Aberdeen there were Open Days to let local people get involved in the project. A local consultation exercise was organised by a multi-agency group including a rep of the NCS team. This Planning for Real/fun day was hosted in the school. One of the parenting groups has decided to make their own newsletter to publicise the work of the NCS team from their perspective.

NCS in East Ayrshire ran a Road Safety Initiative involving the school, wider community and all emergency services. A 'Parents Room' has been established in Hillhead Community School to be used by parents as a Drop-In facility and a One Stop Shop programme is being delivered for the community. At the end of the Summer Programme the Knockinlaw Dancers and Altonhill Arts Group were involved in a show which was open to the whole community.

The Arbroath NCS in Angus started with a focus on parents and then worked to involve the wider community. The NCS runs a parent and baby group and out-of-school clubs as well as a home safety equipment loan scheme. Parents who have undertaken an 8-week accredited training now provide a local crèche.

In East Dunbartonshire, a number of local people have had contact with the project through parents' groups, health events, adult education classes and parents' conferences, including consultation with the Elderly Forum. A November Community Conference was planned as the first event, which specifically targeted the local community in general - rather than children who attend cluster schools and their parents.

West Dunbartonshire has also been interested in involving all elements of the community, so they have run a number of cross-generational social and cultural events. The NCS team have also offered adult learner programmes, both vocational and non-vocational, including first aid, sign language, essential learning skills and computing, with the number of adults receiving certificates rising from four in 1999-2000 to 103 in 2000-2001.

Falkirk: Community Learning Resource Library

Through NCS in Falkirk a community-learning resource library has been established, linked to the library system. It allows opportunities to engage with individuals in a relaxed non-threatening environment. There is also a community-use ICT resource room for community use that is used for drop-in and more focussed classes.

At the end of Adult Learners week in 2000 a learning festival 'IT in the Park' was held in the grounds of the school. Other events have included a Community Barbecue, Soup & Stovies, and funding and supporting a monthly community lunch.

In Methilhill NCS in Fife a special event was held on World Book Day, offering storytelling, paired reading, stalls, free book tokens and prize draws. It was attended by 200 community members. Parent workshops have been run on baby massage and dental health and NCS awareness. An adult education programme has offered courses in food hygiene, parenting, alternative health and basic skills. Holiday programmes offered family events and adult summer schools.

Inverness NCS in Highland worked with local community organisations and cultural and leisure and Sports Council staff to host ACTIVE 2000. This was a sports, arts, leisure and uniformed organisations 'extravaganza' which allowed pupils to see and try out activities, talk to organisers and pick up information about community-based activities.

Efforts to engage the community in North Lanarkshire included a Community Health Day - which involved both adults and children; a 'Don't Do Drugs Day' - involving parents, pupils, staff and community members from two schools and a Community Gala Day - organised by the local Action Group, it was supported by NCS staff and parents. Most activities use both the school and the local Community Centre, partly because some community members felt that they would be more at ease in the non-school environment. This has led to an increased use of the Community Centre by local people.

In Scottish Borders, Eyemouth NCS ran a big summer out of school activity programme - lasting six weeks and consisting of 26 different activities engaging nearly 200 young people - engaged eight local clubs and societies and another seven individual adults from the community as workshop leaders and helpers. Local sports and drama clubs gave up their time to run specific parts of the programme, which ranged from golf tuition to puppet making and drama workshops to kayaking.

In Stirling, as in Scottish Borders, two Cowie schools and a nursery held a community 'Teddy Bears Picnic'. Allans Primary School pupils ran ICT classes for the community and the school worked with community groups to raise £16,000 to refurbish a 16th-century bastion in the school grounds. The Castleview NCS schools worked with local groups, using Scottish Arts Council support, to make an animated film about Stirling Castle and King James V. The film premier was attended by over 500 people from the community. Castleview NCS also runs community Spring Fling and Hallowe'en Fun events, open to all, in the local community centre.

Stirling: Animated Film Project

The NCS team in Moray have worked closely in partnership with Lhanbryde Challenge (Rural Challenge funded and managed by the community). Through multi-agency work, Lhanbryde has a rejuvenation of community activity and active positive developments, e.g. drop-in for teenagers; credit union; playschemes; out-of-school care facility; community newspaper; women's group; young parents support. An event took place on 30 September to celebrate what has developed through community activity over the last two years and the publication of a Social Audit Report. This was also an opportunity for further (participative) consultation with the community on future priorities for development in general and, in particular, the health-related priorities for the village.

In North Ayrshire, Irvine Royal NCS cluster and the Auchenharvie NCS both fund a community food worker who can support established groups and assist in the formation of new groups such as young carers, family support group, retired people and cardiac rehab patients. The PE department at Irvine Royal Academy also works with seven local GP practices to offer exercise sessions to patients who are referred by the GPs. Community volunteers and local school pupils in Auchenharvie NCS organised a Community Information day, involving 20 community groups.

North Ayrshire: Community Food Group

In Renfrewshire, West Johnstone NCS working group, which included six local people, developed a 'Have your say day' format which has now been adopted by the authority as a community consultation mechanism. A group of NCS parents began an NCS newsletter which has now developed into the West Johnstone Community Newsletter covering the whole area. In the North Paisley NCS, community capacity building has included encouraging local parents to take up job opportunities generated as playground or crèche workers, parent educators and classroom assistants.

Glasgow City's Lochend Community High School's health co-ordinator has provided a range of health activities for pupils, including an S3 health group which has won a health promotion award. The school offers an adult health class offering fitness, healthy eating and well-being advice for a group of parents. Also, in partnership with the local FE college, there are a number of other courses for community members including cookery, introduction to computers and a European Community Driving Licence course.

The annual open day in Thornliebank in East Renfrewshire has been extended to include adult education and guidance opportunities and a range of sport and exercise activities for children and adults, as well as a celebration of achievements.

In Perth and Kinross, Glenricht and Isla NCS have encouraged adults to get involved in child development by learning through play. They have set up a Family Learning Centre and family activity days take place in school holidays as well as a school/community playground development project. Adults who have become involved have gone on to support other community initiatives. The North Perth NCS has focused on extensive consultation and has evaluated all activities, which have included adult groups and staff and parent training sessions. The NCS plans are integrated into school and community plans and they believe that this is the way forward for the future. (See photo).

South Lanarkshire's Cathkin NCS involved the community in the initial launch of the pilot project and the mid-term evaluation seminar as well as bids for a Healthy Living Centre and a specialist youth mental Health support worker. They have run a Wide-scale Returning Adults Programme for all the communities served by the school with 80 adults involved in the first run. At Greenburn/Maxwellton community School, 23 young people from the local community joined the Millennium Volunteers programme in the school. They have taken courses and certificates, with nine going on to find employment. The MV Award of Excellence has been gained by three volunteers for 200 hours work and six others have completed more than 100 hours.

Creative approaches

New Community schools have aimed to learn from the experience of others in establishing contacts with their local communities and involving the community in establishing the focus for NCS work. This section looks at approaches that were taken and barriers that had to be overcome.

In Aberdeen, the NCS team was warned that local people were likely to be apathetic and had been 'surveyed to death!' There were also a few professionals who felt that there was no need to consult as 'we know what people in this area want' or 'children need to be told what they like'. A low-key approach was adopted, meeting people on their own terms and involving them only when they could see benefits for themselves and their children. This has paid off and there is now a core group of local people, committed to the project, who spread the word locally.

Being based in a school means that some people were inhibited from participating, so holiday times were a good opportunity to let people see the school in a different light and appreciate a less formal structure.

The multi-disciplinary nature of the work has enhanced local involvement by creating a wider network of links within the community than would be the case where workers had a different type of contact with each other.

The approach taken in Argyll and Bute was consistent with the Health Promoting School group's policy of engaging with the wider community, the key priority area of the environment, and it's relation to health. It was agreed that the environmental project would be stronger and more sustainable if linked to an existing group with environmental focus. A local Councillor and member of EnviroKirn developed a well thought out plan which linked the proposals to the aims of New Community Schools. However, the NCS team found that they had to win the hearts and minds of some school board representatives who were unsure of the benefits of wider community involvement.

In Falkirk, the emphasis is always on fun and informality - taking learning out of the classroom. As many events as possible are family orientated. Staff try at all times to be friendly and approachable to encourage use of the facilities and to remove some of the barriers to community and parental involvement within the school. The barriers encountered have been those faced in working with any community. These include the 'it will never work' attitude from both professionals and community groups, local community politics and rivalry, difficulty in keeping everyone informed. It is also sometimes difficult to see immediate results from the work and convince others of its worth. There are now closer working relationships with community groups which have lead to further events and activities. The community are seeing school as a resource and, with support, individuals are moving through the lifelong learning agenda.

In Glasgow City, two NCS approaches addressed particular issues of community concern with respect to health. Lochend Community High School, working with the Greater Glasgow Health Board and Primary Care Trust, established a Hepatitis B research activity with S1 pupils. This research and consultation activity helped to gain parents' agreement to a full S1 immunisation programme for Hepatitis B. Drumchapel NCS, GGHB, Social Work and the Princes Trust for Carers ran a 5-week 'Foods of the World' course for young carers to help them to cook take-away style food at home. This also allowed them to offer young carers access to respite care.

In Scottish Borders, senior pupils at the local high school were targeted to link with the community. Eyemouth High School S6 pupils became members of a summer programme management group and they were tasked with contacting local community clubs and organisations with a view to contributing to the summer programme. S6 pupils met with local groups and negotiated participation. This led to a greater understanding of the local groups by pupils and also to a good commitment from organisations to the programme.
Within the pre-school partnership there were some difficulties in reaching agreement between public and private-sector bodies that it was possible to work together without 'doing each other out of business'.

The Auchenharvie NCS covers three towns in North Ayrshire. Among community links, the close relationship established with the community police in the area has been supportive to young people. In response to the geography and transport problems, a yellow NCS minibus is often seen in the three towns, assisting local groups in their ventures.

With each successful activity in North Lanarkshire, community representation and involvement increases. There has been a noticeable increase in confidence amongst those who participate, especially those who do so regularly. Verbal feed-back suggests that people feel more involved and that activities are more relevant. This is borne out by increasing attendances. School is seen as being more relevant to more people, increasingly it is not perceived as just a place for children. For some, however, school is still not within their comfort zone.

In Renfrewshire, NCS staff have been concerned about the potential tension between timescales for fulfilling the outcomes of NCS and allowing local people the opportunity to participate on an equal footing and address individual learning needs. However, now a positive two-way relationship has been established, individuals within the community are becoming advocates for NCS work with the local community. Some parents have moved into employment and training as a result of the increased confidence and support gained through NCS involvement.

The approach of the North Perth NCS in Perth and Kinross rests on building relationships through focusing on the details to make people feel comfortable and valued. Food (healthy!) is offered and all initiatives are multi-disciplinary; many are parent or pupil initiated. All events are carefully planned and evaluated. There is a welcoming approach and a crèche is always provided, encouraging parents to become involved.

Perth & Kinross: Parents working with children

In West Dunbartonshire, the 'Friends of Braidfield' is now a constituted group taking on responsibility for planning community initiatives. Its membership comprises representatives from local tenants' association, Elderly Forum, parents, adult learners and young people.

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