In June 2014, the University of Brighton’s Hastings Exchange in collaboration with Education Futures Trust and Hastings Community Network (HCN) held a forum at the University’s Hastings campus. This event brought together university of Brighton academics, community and voluntary groups, The Hastings Youth Council and schools from the area to hear about how recent changes within the education system, including the introduction of academies, have impacted on the education of the pupils in the town. The event aimed to explore how different partners can work together to improve the outcomes for local pupils and offered opportunities to network, sharing information and ideas, in order to develop strong partnerships, alongside exploring opportunities for future research projects.

Throughout the afternoon the audience heard from a variety of speakers, commencing with Carole Dixon (Chief Executive of Education Futures Trust) who talked about how the ‘Underachievement in Education by White Working Class Children’ white paper, which had been published the previous day, had particular relevance for Hastings as there is a higher than average level of deprivation in the town. Carole did however note that schools can and do make a difference to the poorest pupils.

Next Martin Kaliszewski from The Centre for British Teachers looked how the picture in Hastings at both primary and secondary level compares with the rest of the County and the National Picture, demonstrating that there is an attainment gap locally at primary level which is further exacerbated by the time pupils reach GCSE level. Alongside this, Martin considered what the impact of new measures being planned for 2016 may mean for the town.

The Heads of three of the local academies were next to offer their contribution to the event from the perspective of the schools themselves, with Theresa Phillips from Hastings Academy showing us how the picture is improving for their pupils since the academy took over. Mark Phillips talked us through his experience at William Parker since it became an academy and his concern that some of the most vulnerable pupils had not been supported as well as they perhaps might have been. Following on from this Francis Robinson talked from a primary perspective, with a PowerPoint showing her pupils enjoying many educational experiences playing in the background, of the many positive things happening within her school, but accepted that there are still challenges to be overcome.

This followed with some questions from the floor such as

What about the possibility of co working with the voluntary sector? This was heartily welcomed by the heads who thought this would be of mutual benefit. What differentiates academies? Relation with sponsors, not money but help with strategic and organisational development, Specialist support from subject experts can more readily be delivered What is relationship with Local authority for supporting the most vulnerable? The response was that co-work is going on in a context of inadequate overall resourcing

The next part of the afternoon involved a presentation from Yvonne Hillier and Mandy Curtis about research they were involved with which aimed, amongst other things, to ‘Identify the barriers to learning and the levers to secure success’ and used parents as researchers in this process.

The final part of the afternoon saw the delegates split into smaller groups to explore the question ‘So What do we Know and What do we Need to Know? ’, the groups discussions were then fed back to the rest of the room, with the feedback from representatives of the Hastings Youth Council being a particular highlight.

Following the event Hastings Community Network published a position statement which details the main points raised by the event and future actions planned by HCN, the paper can be viewed at http://www.hastingsvoluntaryaction.org/sites/default/files/HCN%20Education%20Position%20statement%20June%202014%20final%20.pdf

Check out the Hastings Exchange event blog here
http://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/exchange/2015/05/27/education-and-accountability-going-to-school-in-hastings-in-2014/ Or go to the Hastings Exchange webpages to find out more https://www.brighton.ac.uk/business-and-community-partnerships/strategic-partnerships/hastings-exchange/index.aspx