The GLC Model

Working with young people, Globetown Learning Community aims to build
confidence, provide family support and maximise educational achievement.

The young people are often from households suffering from
multiple deprivations and live in overcrowded conditions.

Many have English as a second language and parents with little or no further education.
To ensure a young person is educated properly, continues learning, and reaches their full potential,
we need to look at the life of the young person in its entirety and intervene appropriately.
It is this comprehensive approach which makes GLC unique.

Globetown Learning Community’s work has emerged out of the principle that
a caring and stable home environment and a very high quality of learning in school
are the key elements that need to be managed to achieve our goal.

Achievement
Educational achievement has been identified as a key factor in either
escaping from the cycles of exclusion or contributing to them (Sparkes 1999).
A school recognises it has prime responsibility for education; however, by working in partnership
with GLC, collective responsibility ensures young people reach their full potential academically.
The GLC model focuses on enhancing attainment through academic support but also tackles
those issues that indirectly affect attainment such as attendance and motivation.

Support
Support will be offered through a case worker (mentor), providing
a single point of contact for the young person and the family.
We have found that for more disadvantaged families, having one person working with the family,
bringing together the education, health and social work agendas is key.
Mentors also provide ongoing academic and personal support in either one to one or group sessions.
The case workers will work with partner agencies when needed addressing issues such as
anger management, conflict resolution, drug and alcohol addiction and gang membership.
The mentoring sessions address personal and emotional issues and enable young people
to make appropriate choices on issues that impact on their future life chance.

The benefits to young people of on the spot support, more timely interventions and a
‘professional friend’ who is able to look at and support the young person holistically are significant
and can lead to an increase in educational attainment.

Parents
Parental involvement is often associated with social class, the level of the
parents’ education, material deprivation and single parent status.
‘Its Your Life’ offer parents encouragement to help them become involved with their child’s education.
A parent may want to fully support their child educationally but may
lack the awareness and know how to do this effectively.
‘It’s Your Life’ helps give parents the personal knowledge regarding what action
they can take to support their children to achieve academically.

The Project encourages parents to get involved in learning themselves,
which has a positive effect on young peoples’ achievement.
Parents are invited to join classes which lead to qualifications ranging from Entry Level ESOL
to GCSE Maths, if needed parents are also supported in taking their first steps to work.

Relationships
The existing programme owes much of its success to the strength
of the peer group networks that have been developed.
Our experience strongly suggests that as well as the raising of aspirations, and support
provided by a mentor, at challenging times the fact that there is a group
of young people who are sharing similar experiences has proved critical.

‘During adolescent years greater significance is given to peers as companions,
as providers of advice, support and feedback, as models for behaviour and as sources
of comparative information concerning personal qualities and skills.
Relationships with parents alter in the direction of greater equality and reciprocity’.
(Coleman and Hendry 1999)

‘It’s Your Life’ therefore develops strong peer group networks and also vocational networks.
Networking can be a highly effective tool when applied to other aspects
of our lives including employment and it is a skill we work to develop.
A range of topics covered will include the help contacts can offer, developing contacts from scratch,
making an effective use of contacts and how to approach contacts.

Experiences
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2007) found that just 14% of variation
in individuals’ performance is accounted for by schools' quality.
Most variation is explained by other factors, underlining the need to look at the range of
young peoples’ experiences, inside and outside school, when seeking to raise achievement.
What young people do after school hours does influence their future outcomes.
Evidence shows that participating in organised evening activities, as well as offering enjoyable and
exciting experiences, also supports the development of resilience by improving social and emotional skills.
These opportunities help young people plan for the future, develop maturity and
bridge the gaps between young people from different class and cultures.