Ipsos | Uni Connect Phase 3 : Attainment-raising Activity – Final Report
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“ When you ’ re reliant on a third party in some way , shape or form , you have limited control sometimes and things can change quite quickly and easily . And for me , that ’ s sometimes not a risk I ’ m always interested in taking , which is why we tend to do very , very little third-party activity now .” ( Partnership lead )
Utilising existing resources was another way in which partnerships could access and improve their expertise for delivering attainment-raising activities . For example , Causeway Education were commissioned by the OfS to produce a toolkit to support Uni Connect partnerships when planning attainment-raising activities , and this was used widely . The toolkit provides information on and support with planning activities and interventions to raise attainment in learners from Years 7 to 11 . The Causeway Education toolkit was widely considered useful as a framework for partnerships to adapt , though many felt it was not sufficient and took additional measures . The partnerships that did not have access to internal and external support used publicly available resources , conducted their own research and had conversations seeking advice . Partnerships also referred to the OfS-commissioned support package provided by the Centre for Education and Youth ( CfEY ), to facilitate delivery capabilities . Though partnerships felt the resources provided by the OfS and partner organisations were useful , access to sufficient support remained a challenge for some partnerships that were unable to leverage wider partnership expertise or fund external provision .
“ We did a lot of talking with Causeway and CfEY about how we could do this [ metacognition sessions ] because basically it was down to us to deliver it [...] we weren ’ t going to get any help from the university as there was just no capacity , there ’ s no resource . We ’ re not teachers , we ’ re not maths teachers , we ’ re not English teachers , [...] we couldn ’ t afford to pay for the postgrad or graduate ambassadors and even if we did have money , there ’ s no capacity .” ( Partnership lead )
However , there was also broad consensus among partnerships that these resources and planning conversations with CfEY could have been improved with clearer guidance and swifter communications . For example , some partnerships experienced frustrations when putting forward plans that were not deemed suitable for the attainment-raising strand , later to find out that another partnership was allowed to proceed with similar plans . In another example , one partnership decided to remove a strand of activity because they received feedback later than expected and it would have proved too challenging to address the feedback and simultaneously start planning delivery . This was particularly the case for more ‘ ambition-raising ’ activities , such as university campus visits . Partnerships reflected that they were well positioned to understand local school need and felt more flexible guidance would enhance the activities being delivered .
“ Working with an external programme trying to upscale and talk about all the problems and challenges with partnerships over the year last year with Causeway Education . So , I think that really helped . I think having that year of thinking and plan [ ning ].” ( Stakeholder )
3.3 Use of local HEP expertise and resources
Summary : Partnerships drew on resources provided by local HEPs , and to a lesser extent also accessed academic expertise on attainment-raising . However , overall engagement with HEPs has been a challenge for partnerships .
Academic expertise from local HEPs was provided with varying effect . Some partnerships were able to access academics ’ expertise , particularly for subject-specific interventions , and felt collaboration was successful . However , partnerships more frequently reported that HEPs lacked the resource to engage
20-048464 | FINAL | Public | This work was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the international quality standard for Market Research , ISO 20252 , and with the Ipsos MORI Terms and Conditions which can be found at http :// www . ipsos-mori . com / terms .