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An evaluation of a ‘transition to secondary school’ project run by the National Pyramid Trust
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Practitioners, policy-makers and researchers have identified the transition to secondary school as a key moment in children’s lives. Whilst many children make a smooth transition, some find this change very difficult. A children’s charity – the National Pyramid Trust – have developed an intervention to support withdrawn and vulnerable children at this time, on the basis that this group may find the move to secondary school particularly difficult.
TSA was commissioned by the Department of Health to evaluate NPT’s pilot project, which took place in eight London primary schools during 2004. In total 80 Year 6 children were selected (based on certain criteria) to take part in ‘Pyramid Clubs’, which took place for one and a half hours per week for 10 weeks. These Clubs involved groupwork activities and exercises, designed to build self-confidence, develop interpersonal skills, and help children deal with difficult situations. A number of the children then attended follow-up Clubs that were run in secondary schools in the area, in the first term of the new school year.
EVALUATION DESIGN AND DATA COLLECTED
A range of data was collected in the evaluation. This included:
Children’s data
Focus group discussions with 20 children
120 questionnaires completed by children
Feedback forms completed by 40 children
Parents’ data
21 telephone interviews conducted with parents
Teachers’ data
Feedback forms completed by eight teachers
Teachers’ comments about 49 children
NPT Project Workers and volunteer Club leaders’ data
Telephone interviews with the two NPT Project Workers
Club leaders’ comments about 49 children
NPT feedback forms completed by seven volunteer club leaders
TSA designed questionnaires completed by five volunteers.
It should be noted that the original design of the study involved having a control group of non-Club children, to compare with the Club children. Because of time pressures in the schools concerned, this data was not collected. The information reported in the evaluation therefore relates to Club children alone.
SUMMARY OF THE RESULTS
Children’s views and experiences
- The children who took part in the Clubs were very positive about them. They liked the Club Leaders, enjoyed the range of activities on offer, had fun, made new friends and developed social skills. Many of the children reported increases in their self-confidence. Some of the children described changes in their behaviour, attitude, and in some cases improvements in their school work, as a result of attending the Club.
- Before starting the Clubs, children had a wide range of concerns about the transition to secondary school. These included being bullied, getting lost, and making new friends. After the Clubs, most of the children said they did not have any specific fears or worries about going to secondary school.
- There was a mixed response from the children as to whether taking part in the Pyramid Clubs, was seen as ‘cool’ or ‘uncool’. Some felt stigmatized as a result of taking part, whilst others felt envied.
- The data suggests that the Pyramid Clubs had a positive impact on a range of factors, including how the children felt about going to secondary school, how they felt about their life at the time, how easy they thought it would be to settle into secondary school and how scared they were about being bullied in secondary school.
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The parents were very positive about their child’s experience of attending the Pyramid Clubs. They felt they had been well informed about the Clubs’ aims and activities.
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Parents described how much their child enjoyed the Clubs, and reported increased levels of confidence in their child as a result. Most parents felt that attendance at the Clubs helped their child to settle into secondary school.
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Parents’ worries about their child’s transition were mainly in relation to friendships and bullying, and their child’s shyness and lack of confidence. Despite their child’s attendance at the Clubs, these concerns persisted until the children had settled into secondary school. Most of the parents felt, in fact, that their child was happy at secondary school, and had settled in well.
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Most parents were very positive about the NPT project in general, and pleased that their child had attended the Clubs. Some thought it would be useful to receive feedback about their child’s progress during the Clubs.
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Teachers were generally positive about the process for selecting children to take part in the Clubs. There were some criticisms about the amount of paperwork involved in the project.
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The teachers were very positive about the impact of the Clubs on the children. They cited benefits to children such as making new friends, gaining in confidence, ‘belonging to something good’, and being more prepared for secondary school.
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The volunteer Club leaders believed the children benefited greatly from the Clubs. Increased self-confidence in children was cited as the main impact.
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There were mixed views about whether the volunteer training prepared the Club leaders well enough, and there were suggestions for improvements.
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The Club leaders were very positive about their experiences of being involved in the Club, and felt they benefited personally and professionally.
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Both Project Workers considered the Clubs to be a great success for the children, particularly in relation to confidence building.
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Project Workers believe that training for the volunteer Club leaders is generally successful, although they had some suggestions for improving it. However, they mentioned that not all volunteer club leaders took part in the full training. They believe that what is available is good, although they are not always able to deliver it as they would like.
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The Project Workers considered that some improvements could be made to achieve the aims of the project. These included improving the administration and paperwork for schools, developing better ways of working with the secondary schools, and extending the training and support provided for volunteer club leaders.
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Project Workers experienced difficulties in being able to offer follow-up support to all children in the secondary schools. This was mainly due to the large numbers of secondary schools in the two boroughs and the fact that the Wandsworth, Project Worker’s post was only half-time.
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Attendance at the Pyramid Clubs run in the secondary schools was low. The Project Workers believed this was due to a number of factors; girls in particular did not want to walk home on their own in the dark, children had other activities they preferred to take part in on those days, playing with new friends, Year 7 Clubs were regarded as ‘babyish’ (given their link to primary school) and some children were unable to attend because the Clubs coincided with Ramadan.
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The NPT Project Manager believed that in order for schools to take the evaluation seriously in relation to ensuring that children complete the pre and post measures they need to see the benefits themselves. They would therefore like to work more closely with teachers to develop measures which teachers could use.
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The Project Workers proposed three new models to offer transitions support:
- Year 6 Clubs as a ‘stand alone’, without Club follow-ups in the secondary school
- A summer holiday Club at secondary schools, but offered to children in the primary feeder schools, then follow-up these children at secondary school
- Work with secondary schools to identify children who are having difficulty settling in, and offer them Pyramid Clubs
RECOMMENDATIONS
The following recommendations are made, as a result of the evaluation of the pilot project described in this report:
- The selection of children – it is recommended that NPT review the use of the long version of the CISS selection scales. These are lengthy and time-consuming, and many schools did not feel able to administer them in full. If NPT is to continue with this version, then the administration process needs to start earlier.
- The role of parents – it is recommended that NPT consider developing the ways in which it relates to and involves parents in the project. This may include encouraging more parents to attend the pre Club meetings, and/or running support groups for parents. It might also involve giving parents regular updates on their child’s progress, and enabling them to support the learning and development that is taking place each week at the Clubs.
- Training of volunteers – a number of issues are detailed in the report, in relation to the training and support provided for volunteers. It is recommended that NPT consider making these changes to this aspect of the project.
- Links to secondary schools – if NPT continue to use transitions models which involve following-up children into secondary schools, this process could be improved upon. Whilst it is appreciated that the primary children go to a large number of secondary schools, and that school staff are extremely busy, links between NPT and the secondary schools need to be strengthened, to ensure that feedback on children’s progress is received. Where progress is not considered to be satisfactory, then arrangements can then be made to offer the child follow-up support.
- Involvement of schools in the evaluation – NPT to work closely with the schools to develop pre and post measures which are meaningful for the school, so that they find the results useful and this then becomes an incentive for them to ensure that they are completed. If this takes place for all schools, NPT would have better evidence of the effects of the Pyramid Clubs on a whole range of attitudinal and behaviour indicators.
- Relationship with BiP workers– it is recommended that if NPT continue to work with Wandsworth, then they hold discussions with the BiP team, in relation to the involvement of workers in the project, to discuss what could be improved.
- Pre and post data – it is recommended that NPT continue to administer the pre and post smiley faces measures. However, they should adopt a 5 point scale, rather than 3 point. This would provide a more robust measurement.
- Consideration of other models – NPT have suggested a number of alternative models for Pyramid Clubs which are described in the report, such as running summer Clubs for children going to the same secondary school. It is recommended that NPT consider running further pilot projects based on these models.
- Evaluating future projects – If new models, such as those described above, are implemented, they must be fully evaluated. In particular, it is important to have more funding and time to enable the evaluators to work with all the schools involved, to get pre and post intervention data for Club children and a control group.