1. Project This project sought to continue addressing how educational interventions affected individual decisions of young people at 16 in continuing to study and their contribution to ‘education led’ regeneration. The project forms part of a larger research focus of the Coastal Regeneration Research Centre to identify how regeneration is affecting the lives of Hastings residents. It draws upon a HEFCE funded research project which examined how one cohort of young people who took their GCSEs in summer 2009 made the transition to further study (HEFCE, 2010). This particular project sought to address the following questions How have young people made the transition from school to further learning post-16?

How has the increase in attainment at GCSE affected their learning experiences at college?

How have families (siblings, parents) and peers been influenced by their increased attainment?

How has the subsequent cohort of young people in Year 11 responded to educational regeneration in terms of education attainment and attitudes towards further learning?

The project was undertaken through a series of interviews (14 individual and focus groups) with learners of the original cohort in Sussex Coast College Hastings (SCCH), a focus group interview with four parents who took part in the HEFCE study and now have children at SCCH and discussion with three members of staff at SCCH and two from Hillcrest school. Data from learners at the college who progressed from Hastings schools in 2009 was examined to identify if there have been any changes to retention and achievement compared with previous cohorts. 2. Partnership working The project worked with members of the Ore Valley Forum who supported previous work examining educational regeneration in Hastings. This particular project worked with members of the Ore Valley Forum from Hillcrest School and SCCH. The project was monitored and supported by the Ore Valley Forum and reports directly to the forum. The forum is part of a number of activities reporting to the Learning Strategic Partnership (LSP) of Hastings Borough Council.

1. Outputs The project has just been completed. A report was made concerning all the activities of the research supported by the Ore Valley Forum on 11th April 2011 to the LSP. A research seminar at CRRC will be held in the autumn term along with an ERC seminar at the School of Education. It is expected that a research paper will be presented at the SRHE annual conference 2011 and a research article published. The report of the project will be hosted on the Ore Valley Forum website and a report made to the Hastings LSP.

2. Outcomes This research attempted to track how a small group of learners from the original 2009 cohort had made the transition to college. Support from school

Although learners and their parents found it hard to remember what they had experienced at school, mentoring was noted as being important. Some learners expressed concern that the mentoring mainly went to their peers who were ‘needy’ but staff from the school did specify that such mentoring was far more proactive for this category of young people. The role of the head teacher was particularly noted by all learners and their parents as being strong and supportive. Parents and staff were supportive of the plans for the new academy and hoped that the strong leadership would continue into the new phase of secondary schooling available in the town.

Transition to college

We suggest that there are indications that the transfer to college at SCCH is well managed, particularly during the first month. Although none of the people we interviewed were able to name this process (Right Choice), they were aware of its activities and in one or two cases, had been able to transfer to a more appropriate learning programme as a result. We were successful in talking to two groups of young people at the college through the support of two very actively involved tutors. It is clear that such involvement provides enormous benefit to the learners. Whilst we are not able to suggest that all personal tutors are responsible for the successful transition to college at SCCH, we can see how important this role is.

We found that parents were generally pleased with the way in which college was supporting the learning of their children, although they were also aware that their children were no longer in the compulsory system and felt they did not need to be so thoroughly connected to the college in the same way as to the school when their children were younger.

Learners suggested that college students could act as role models to their younger counterparts in school to help strengthen progression to further study.

Information, advice and guidance

We identified the importance of the role of information, advice and guidance (IAG) in helping young people make choices not just of learning programmes but for future work. However, one of the areas we feel could be investigated further is in how IAG needs to take account not just of progression to further and higher education but also to the world of work. The strongest theme to emerge from our discussions with learners and their parents was about the lack of job opportunities in Hastings. We found, as with our HEFCE research, that there was no poverty of aspiration in Hastings but there was a clear perception of the lack of opportunity for work in the town.

We found some of the young people had made a number of ‘false starts’ or changed their minds about what they wanted to pursue at college which supports the claims made in the Wolf Report (2011). Parents had not experienced further let alone higher education and were at a loss to know how best to support their children in relation to making decisions – and they firmly placed their faith in the professionals.

Progression to higher education

We began to uncover a deep concern about the prospective rise in tuition fees. Members of this cohort are about to progress to HE and there is a sense of urgency about doing so before the rise in fees. Concern over debt is the strongest factor in the reluctance to attend HE. Parents continued to want the best for their children and to remain supportive without being directive. They, too, were aware of the ongoing economic problems and wanted the choices their children were making to be most likely to lead to secure employment.

Interestingly, the position of UCH was not strongly featured in option choices, although some of the learners discussed studying at the University of Brighton. This can be seen in the context of leaving Hastings to go to Brighton. Brighton is perceived as a place of opportunity (as well as the fact that the Brighton campuses have more subject options attractive to this cohort)

Recommendations

Caution is required in drawing firm conclusions from our fieldwork. However, we suggest there are indicative issues for further testing which may lead to strong recommendations, particularly as the new academies take route in the town.

We suggest that the existing practice of Right Choice, the role of personal tutors and the advice and guidance provided by the college plays a vital role in supporting young people as they undergo the transition from school to college. These activities clearly need ongoing support.

We suggest that IAG for employment needs to be developed. We believe that there is good information about progression to college and on to higher education but there may be more limit sources of IAG for the world of work. This may be linked to the perceptions of limited employment opportunities in the town but our community partners from across Hastings may wish to consider how to strengthen this important activity.

UCH does not appear to have become a strong factor in decisions relating to progression to higher education. This may well reflect the subject areas of the learners we spoke with but it suggests that there is a missed opportunity to engage with learners particularly whilst they are at the college. We realise that the demise of Aimhigher in July 2011 leaves a gap which will not be filled until after the new fee regime of 2012 and we suggest that this is an area that requires urgent consideration by the University and our partners in Hastings. Methodological issues We encountered practical difficulties in gaining access to this group, not through any intransigence on the part of our community partners but more as an indication of how pressed tutors and teachers are in the institutions concerned to take on extra-curricular activities whilst managing the high volume of work when facing Ofsted inspections and other commitments. We are extremely grateful to the time and support that was given to this project.

We are not able to draw strong conclusions from our fieldwork, given the small numbers of participants involved. We do, however, wish to strengthen our commitment to the setting up of a full cohort study of young people in Hastings. With the threatened demise of the Excellence Cluster (see below) and threats to education more generally through the economic context facing Hastings, the current three cohorts who have passed through the school system and are embarking on further education and training provide a golden opportunity to understand how educational regeneration has affected their progress. We are not in a position to identify specific activities which have directly resulted in particular achievements but we are in a position to identify a number of issues that could be tested across a larger number of individuals.

We believe that the next cohort of individuals should be recruited now so that we can develop a close research relationship with them, their families and the staff responsible for them at school and college. We would be able to employ a range of research tools including social networking and the use of video diaries over the course of a year to track their experiences as they transfer from school to college. It may be possible to build in a reflexive module whereby students receive educational credit (e.g. Open College Network certificate) for this reflection on their transition.

We also can see the importance of making use of the wealth of data that accrues to the college in relation to individual student records. It is particularly important to examine how young people who have a better range of GCSE results than their peers from cohorts before 2009 experience further education and beyond. There is a real danger that all the hard work that has gone in to giving them such a boost in their education trajectories will be lost to subsequent cohorts, particularly if we are not in a position to identify the individual and collective impact of this educational regeneration.

Overall, we can see that it is the individual time and effort of college and school staff that has the potential to make a difference to the lives of young people. We anticipate that our community partners will wish to continue exploring this relationship as we progress other research agenda concerning the fortunes of Hastings residents. 5. Sustainability There has been an agreement to create a university community research partnership which comprises many of the partners who have been involved in supporting the research agenda examining the impact of educational regeneration in Hastings. It is anticipated that this work will form part of a longitudinal study examining the fortunes of young people who have received additional educational support to enable them to gain GCSEs and progress to further study.

Unfortunately, some of the educational regeneration activities, particularly derived from the Excellence Cluster and from Connexions, is subject to cuts in expenditure in Hastings and the level of educational regeneration may not be sustained in the near future.

In the meantime, the work of the research group and the Ore Valley Forum will continue to press for resources to support the educational and social regeneration of Hastings residents. 6. Contact Who can be contacted for further information on the project?

Professor Yvonne Hillier

Education Research Centre/Coastal Regeneration Research Centre

University of Brighton

y.g.j.hillier@brighton.ac.uk