centres evaluation of pilots uk

CENTRES

CENTRES (Creative Entrepreneurship in Schools) project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union

A New Direction: CENTRES School Pilots Evaluation Report

1. Context Entrepreneurship education is becoming increasingly important in the UK: there is a growing awareness that many young people leave education without vital skills sought by employers, and the employment landscape for young people is dramatically different now to how it is perceived to have been even just a few years ago. With continuing economic uncertainty, and a slow recovery, nearly one million young people aged 16-24 are currently unemployed nationally (965,000 young people aged 16-24 in July to September 2013, 21%1). The situation is worse for young people in London than it is elsewhere – here, 25% of 16-24 year olds are unemployed (compared to 10% of the adult population)2. For many young people, it is now more attractive to start their own business than it is to work for somebody else – a recent study by the Princes Trust found that while only 5% of young people are currently self-employed, 30% of them expect to be in the future3. The creative and cultural sectors are currently one of the UK’s only growth areas, contributing 6% of GDP, employing over 2 million people, and exporting over £12bn annually4. Employment in the arts, heritage, digital and creative sectors is expected to rise 32% nationally in the next ten years. One in six jobs in London is currently in the creative sector5. The opportunities for young entrepreneurs in the creative industries are significant, but, in general, schools do not currently equip their students with the skills they need to be entrepreneurial. There is no entrepreneurship curriculum and no obligation for schools to teach entrepreneurship at the moment. Our schools projects therefore set out to pilot an approach to creative entrepreneurship in schools that would give teachers and students a clear framework for learning, but the flexibility to be driven by the interests and abilities of the students.

2. Approach A New Direction has worked in partnership with schools in London since 2001. Our experience has shown that schools prefer to have a structured programme but with the flexibility to tailor the work to the needs of the school and the needs and interests of the

1 See Commons Library Standard Note on Youth Unemployment Statistics, 13 November 2013)

http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/sn05871 2 Trust for London, London’s poverty profile http://www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk/indicators/topics/work-

and-worklessness/young-adult-unemployment-over-time/. 3 The Start-Up Generation, Why the UK could be set for a youth business boom (May 2013)

http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/pdf/The_start_up_generation2013.pdf 4 CBI http://www.cbi.org.uk/business-issues/creative-industries/in-focus/

5 http://www.createjobslondon.org/content/506/Background

http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/sn05871

http://www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk/indicators/topics/work-and-worklessness/young-adult-unemployment-over-time/

http://www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk/indicators/topics/work-and-worklessness/young-adult-unemployment-over-time/

http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/pdf/The_start_up_generation2013.pdf

http://www.cbi.org.uk/business-issues/creative-industries/in-focus/

http://www.createjobslondon.org/content/506/Background



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students. We therefore decided to use the Social Enterprise Qualification to structure our pilots. The Social Enterprise Qualification (SEQ) is a recognised international accreditation developed by the Real Ideas Organisation, based in the South West of England. Young people undertaking the SEQ are accredited for learning about social enterprise and for setting up and running their own social enterprise, giving them real experience of being an entrepreneur and putting their learning into practice. In the context of the CENTRES pilot activity, this was centred around creative entrepreneurship, including the opportunity to meet and learn from successful creative entrepreneurs.

3. Rationale The rationale for this approach was to:

- Give schools a structure within which to teach and learn - Use a qualification to accredit learning and give the project increased value in the

eyes of the schools and of the participating students - Leave a legacy for continuing work within each school and extend its reach – two

members of staff from each school were trained to deliver the SEQ, meaning that the schools can continue to provide it in future.

- Give students real life experience of being a creative entrepreneur in a ‘safe’ context – most students would not normally be allowed to start their own business in school

- Give students (and teachers) the opportunity to meet ‘real life’ creative entrepreneurs and learn from them

4. Pilot Description

Our pilot took place across five London schools, each working with secondary age students. Schools were invited to apply to take part in the programme through an expression of interest process. Each school completed a brief application outlining their reasons for wishing to participate. Selection criteria were then applied to select five schools suitable to take part in the programme. The schools were selected to give a good range of school types in which to pilot the approach, in order to test it as robustly as possible. The schools selected were: Acton High School (London Borough of Ealing): a large secondary school in West London. Almost two thirds of students speak English as an additional language, and the proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals is significantly higher than the national average. The school is judged ‘Good’ by Ofstedi. Belvue School (London Borough of Ealing): a larger than average special school in West London. All students have a statement of special educational needs – 75% of students have either moderate or severe learning difficulties, and the remainder have behavioural, social and emotional difficulties or speech, language and communication needs. The school is judged ‘Good’ by Ofstedii.



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Elm Court School (London Borough of Lambeth): a community special school for students with a wide range of special educational needs, including Autistim Spectrum Disorder, behavioural, emotional and social difficulties, and speech, language and communication needs. The school is judged ‘Good’ by Ofsted6. Fulham Enterprise Studio (London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham): part of the Fulham College Federation. FES is the first Studio School in inner London. Studio Schools are a new school model, and have a new approach to learning which includes teaching through enterprise projects and real work (often paid), offering vocational qualifications as well as academic ones, and giving work placements through local companiesiii. FES specialises in Construction and Performing Arts (Production). It has not yet been inspected by Ofsted7. Chingford Academies Trust, incorporating Chingford Foundation School and Rushcroft School (London Borough of Waltham Forest): two large secondary schools in East London, which have recently come together to form an Academies Trust, taking them out of the control of the Local Authority. Each school was offered funding to work with up to 30 students on the programme, and contributed additional funding from their own budgets, to cover staff training costs. Two teachers from each school attended a two-day project initiation meeting which included in-depth training to enable them to deliver the Social Enterprise Qualification with their students. For four of the five schools, this took place in December 2012. Once school was unable to attend this so an additional meeting took place with this school in January 2013. The core structure of the programme was the same for all five schools, but with the flexibility for each to be able to tailor their activity to the needs and interests of their students. The qualification was used to support delivery of a project that enabled students to learn about creative entrepreneurship through research and theory, and then through setting up their own creative social enterprise. Two mentors supported the project (one working with three schools, the other with two), acting as facilitators to support the schools through their activity and reflect their own experiences as entrepreneurs in the creative industries. A ‘Creative Enterprise Day’ was held midway through the pilot at the Barbican Centre in East London (a major cultural hub containing a theatre, concert hall, two art galleries and communal spaces). The day was an opportunity to meet mentors from a range of creative industries contexts:

Tori Flower, Creative Director, We Are What We Do.

6 http://www.elmcourt.lambeth.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Elm-Court-School-Ofsted-

Inspection-Report-2012.pdf 7 www.fulhamenterprise.net/



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Maria Lisogorskaya, Assemble

Kat Joyce, Tangled Feet

Sarah Byrne, Southbank London

Thor McIntyre-Burnie (freelance film maker) These mentors introduced the students to their area of expertise and worked with them to develop their SEQ projects (marketing, event planning, communication with clients and audiences, film making for viral marketing), giving them an opportunity to learn from established entrepreneurs who are successful in their field and improve their own enterprise plans. Beyond these core elements, each school was free to tailor their activity to the needs of the students they were working with. Case studies: CENTRES Pilot Schools

1. Acton High School The Students: Gifted & Talented Year 7 & 8 Students. Pupils were selected on the basis that they already possessed the skills needed to make the task successful. The Business: The idea the creative enterprise students chose to develop was how to celebrate the diversity of their school community while achieving something for others. To do so, they organised a fun day of cultural activities to educate other students and raise funds for an international charity. The challenge for them was to consult and design the stalls and research what would work best for the school community. They also had to decide on a charity for whom they would raise money for through the event, and that was Save the Children. The stalls featured food, information and costumes from different countries, and some traditional dances were learned and performed. The participating students undertook their own research to learn more about the different cultures, pulling together ideas from a number of sources. Acton High School did not attend the Creative Industries Day and opted not to put the students forward for the SEQ, due to constraints on time. Time: Six hours on three separate days for each year group, plus the event.

2. Belvue School The Students: A class of students aged 16+, with Mild Learning Difficulties (MLD), who were already participating in “Smashing Glass”, a growing school business. The Business: To design and make a range of high quality fused and stained glass projects to sell, using broken or found glass wherever possible. The main selling event was a stall outside a local shop. The shop had been approached as part of the students’ research and was very supportive of the creative enterprise. In just one day, £100 in sales was made. The three ‘market traders’ were each paid £10 for their time, leaving £70 to be channeled



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back into the business to cover expenditure, contribute to other school charitable work and to develop the business further to provide real future platforms for work for the students leaving school. A stall in a local market is planned in the near future. Time: Tuesdays - 1.5 hours on the entrepreneurship and social elements of projects. Wednesdays - 1.5 hours for making items for sale, and for learning about running a creative enterprise and making decisions.

3. Chingford Academies Trust The Students: 5 self-selected mixed ability groups, 11 students in total. Students were individually encouraged to take part in the project, as it was completely extra curricular. The Project: The students worked in small groups of 2-5 students per group. They planned a series of creative events to raise awareness of two community venues: a new library staffed only by volunteers and the library’s neighouring church. Both venues suffering from lack of visibility and the students wanted to help encourage people to visit. Each group was responsible for all aspects of developing and delivering their own event – such a Rockstock, a music evening in the church, or an Easter Eggstravanza in the library. This included developing the creative idea, doing own marketing, researching appropriate price to charge and delivering the event. The events brought together students from both schools.

3. Elm Court School The Students: 15 SEN students (EBD, SLCD, MLD), aged 13-14, in 2 groups, selected by age and timetable availability. The Business: To increase awareness of diversity and issues of the local community by making and selling branded handmade jewellery, using everyday disposable items as raw materials. Profits to go back into developing the business. Students worked with creative entrepreneur Thor, to create a flash mob selling technique, shooting a video featuring a Zombie performance of victims of knife and gun crime. Unfortunately, due to illness of lead teacher, the project ran behind schedule and the market stall didn’t take place before end of summer term. (It will now take place in September 2013). Time: Friday afternoons during regular KS3 activities for 1 hr 10 minutes - for learning about creative enterprise and for making items.

4. Fulham Enterprise Studio The Students: Small group of five Mixed Ability Year 10 students, all studying for a BTEC in Business. After being a given an overview of social enterprise, students went through a formal application and interview process to be offered a place to take part in the pilot and set up their own company. The Business: The group was divided at the beginning in terms of their ideas, with the girls determined to record a CD and the boys wanting to open a snack bar. With the focus being on creative entrepreneurship they eventually decided on the CD. Initially, they wanted to



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make a whole album, then as time went on they more fully understood the amount of work and creative input required within the time scale. Then they narrowed it down to a more realistic three songs. They still struggled with this and by the end of the project, they had not been able to produce one song. They became quite disengaged with the project despite joining the company with this idea in mind. As part of the project, students visited Shaylesh Patel, the founder of a local social enterprise company called Healthy Planet. The company champions grassroots and green causes that promote healthy living and encourage community co-operation. Students were able to ask about challenges of setting up such an enterprise and about Shaylesh’s business background. The students also met one of the ‘School’s Presenters’ working at Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity (GOSH). GOSH has a small team of Presenters that visit schools to talk about fundraising and the work of the charity. Importantly, they provide a fundraising toolkit, which includes useful tips students could incorporate into their plans, such as “Be creative: give people something fun and imaginative” and “Get the Word out: use social media networks to let people know what you’re doing”. Time: Three hours a week on Friday mornings during allocated blocked periods for Work Skills. Summary of Beneficiaries Data

School

Students

Teachers

Indirect beneficiaries

Fulham 5 2 6

Acton 14 2 240

Belvue 10 3 0

Elm Court 15 2 (+6 Teaching Assistants and 1 Assistant Headteacher)

2

Chingford 11 2 Local community

Table showing number of students, teachers and indirect beneficiaries, with information from the monitoring forms.

5. Impact & Legacy A. Impact

Evaluation data from the five pilot schools showed that participating in these projects increased students' knowledge and understanding of creative entrepreneurship, and equipped them with new and/or improved entrepreneurial skills: team working, creative thinking, planning, budgeting, product design, presentation skills.



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The SEQ activity proved challenging for one of the two special schools in particular as the level they needed to achieve was felt by the teacher to have been too challenging for the students given their learning needs. However, the subsequent introduction by the Real Ideas Organisation of a new Level 1 SEQ would in future make this more achieveable. Impact: highlights by school Acton High School Pupils now recognise the qualities of entrepreneurship: skilled entrepreneurs are innovative thinkers with relevant ideas. Previously students had focussed on the harder skills of successful entrepreneurs, such as marketing and budgeting. Teachers were pleasantly surprised to hear the pupils’ comments, as it had been their opinion that the project had deepened pupil knowledge rather than equipped them with new skills. The teachers felt that the pupils had already started to use their new skills in other subjects. Belvue School: Belvue was the only school at which students already had experience of entrepreneurship as they produced glass objects to sell. The structure and learning provided by the pilot gave them a better understanding of this work: the students now have an increased understanding of the context and background as to why they would undertake entrepreneurship activities. Previously they were just doing the making and selling without any goals or aims. They now have a much better understanding of how entrepreneurs come up with ideas and pursue them. Students have also learned how to deal with the public and how to keep standards high, solving problems creatively along the way. This has been really important to their motivation and engagement, as they don’t want people buying their products “out of sympathy.” They also have a much greater understanding of the need and importance to plan things out, and have developed their own skills in this area. Chingford Academies Trust: The students gained a greater understanding of entrepreneurship; that it’s not just about being brave. It’s about taking risks yes, but coupled with analysing strengths and weaknesses, market research, planning and evaluating. The need to find gaps in the market and to actively self promote are two key areas that the students’ activities really highlighted. They also learned that self-promotion is about celebrating successes and not just marketing an activity or event. Elm Court School: The project a whole was difficult for this special needs school. The level 2 criteria were too complex for many of the students to understand. To achieve it, they would have needed more time to deliver and complete. However, they found it a great creative subject that combines different areas of the curriculum very well. Despite the challenges,



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students learned about identifying social issues and how to design products to make people aware of them. Fulham Enterprise Studio: Students now understand what it takes to set up a company and have an appreciation for the amount of hard work and time it takes to be successful. The group still struggle to put their ideas into practice and to stay focussed. Like the others schools, the students have learned that it’s not just the hard skills that makes things successful, and have improved their communication, team work, design and creativity, professionalism and time management. Creative Enterprise Day: A specific evaluation was carried out for the Creative Enterprise day, which demonstrated that both staff and students valued the opportunity to meet and work with a range of creative entrepreneurs to improve their understanding of creative entrepreneurship and their skills. It also made the students more aware of the 'real' opportunities for entrepreneurship in the creative industries, and of the creative industries as an area for possible future careers. Following the event, Elm Court school invited Thor McIntyre Burnie to visit the school to work with students a second time. Unexpected outcomes Acton High School:

Staff were surprised by the depth of student learning and how they are applying it across all subjects.

Belvue School:

Teachers have witnessed just how hard working and focused the students can be, and how creativity inspires them.

This accreditation will give students the opportunity to engage and show future employers what they have been achieved. Learners at this school find it hard to achieve conventional accreditations (eg GCSE), so the SEQ will provide an alternative method of accreditation of students' achievements that will demonstrate their skills to potential future employers, as well as equipping them to be entrepreneurial in their own right.

Chingford Academies Trust:

Although the school offers Business Studies GCSEs, this project has taught more unique skills that have helped students think creatively about ideas. For many, that creativity may lie dormant in normal lessons.

Teachers learned they could have more confidence in students’ outcomes, which are good to enough to warrant local press coverage.



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Elm Court School:

The opportunity to work with a creative practitioner (Thor) was very valuable and hugely motivated students. It brought fresh ideas.

Fulham Enterprise Studio:

Staff learned about the potentials of social media and online marketing.

Staff also recognised how competent their students are in this area, with potential to be leaders in sharing skills.

Pupils felt they used their skills in all areas of their lives. For example, at home, at school and in other subjects – just about everywhere they found it necessary to negotiate with others.

B. Legacy and sustainability of teaching Creative Enterprise. The training provided at the induction day helped to cement a project legacy from the start, as the teachers that were trained will continue to be able to deliver the SEQ with their students:

Belvue will continue to offer the SEQ as an accreditation to all post 16 students.

Fulham will offer SEQ as part of its BTEC provision.

Acton. Although the school acknowledges the programme to be to be a good way of teaching entrepreneurship, they are not sure whether they will continue to offer it, due to time constraints on staff.

Elm Court. Will continue to incorporate SEQ in their school plans, as “it teaches students valuable skills they will need in the future”. Although the level 1 accreditation is more realistic, they may not formalise the learning in this way.

Chingford will continue to offer the SEQ, as “it’s a great way for young people to challenge themselves and achieve in a way that is not about exams and results”. They won’t offer in the same way though, as having numerous small groups was too time demanding of the teachers.

6. Quality “ It has been a good way to teach creative entrepreneurship, it’s a great opportunity to give students total freedom in what they would like to do, but then hard to make sure staff had the skills, availability to support or find the right partners to work with the students.” Gemma Powell, Fulham Enterprise Studio “We would be really keen to have more access to inspiring people from our age who has been through the same process.” Year 8 Students Overall, the project can be considered to have been of good quality – students had valuable experiences which had good impact on their learning and skills, and teachers reflected that they had also learnt throughout the process.



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The schools faced some challenges in delivery in terms of the amount of time they needed to run the project – all of the teachers involved had taken on the CENTRES pilot in addition to their usual work, which meant that time for planning was sometimes hard to find. This was challenging when they were dealing with a new subject, a new structure, and a new accreditation. They also found that although they were intially keen to work with the full number of students for which funding was available (30), this was too challenging, and so all five schools worked with a smaller core group of students. Successes: The following were perceived to have worked well:

The Creative Industries Day and opportunites for meeting/interviewing other entrepreneurs and business people/future customers. An area identified for development in future was to give students the chance to meet entrepreneurs of their own age.

Opportunity for accreditation – this was valued by students and teacher

Giving students scope to do what they want within the business – self-led learning was empowering for students.

Students being able to do something 'real' that wasn’t curriculum and exam driven.

Challenges:

Based on teacher feedback of students, the language used in SEQ the model was challenging for some students. For the students with learning difficulties, the concept of creative entrepreneurship was difficult to understand. However, most students did understand the nature of social issues and doing what they can for to raise awareness or to reduce impact. But, the prominence of TV role models of successful entrepreneurship being one of profit that was difficult to reconcile.

Finding a pathway into the project and planning delivery was challenging. Two main reasons cited:

Staff had little experience of enterprise, so were teaching an unfamiliar subject. The case studies provided during SEQ training helped with this but teachers still found the project challenging

Time. Teachers had limited time for advance planning and struggled to feel on top of the project. This led to a risk that students – who had high ambitions – could start to feel disengaged when things scaled down from what they had originally hoped to achieve. This could be helped in future by allowing a full academic year for the work, and by managing student expectations given the time available.



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Recommended improvements for delivery

Teaching materials. Video case studies provided by the Real Ideas Organisation were found to be very useful but feedback suggested that more case studies would be useful, as would examples of evidence required, to guide teachers undertaking the work for the first time.

More time for planning and for delivery.

More opportunity to meet or to hear from young creative entrepreneurs. What might be changed/adapted:

For the work to be sustainable, teachers agree they would need to do something on a smaller scale. It was unanimous that ambitions were too high and needed to be scaled down.

Allowing a longer period for business development would also be beneficial. Businesses take a while to get up and running and then actually doing something.

Have a package of creative teaching resources, which can be linked to accreditation evidence needs.

7. Insight

This successful pilot has demonstrated the value that schools place on creative entrepreneurship education, with all five schools planning to continue the work begun through the pilot activity with additional students in the future. The SEQ provided a valuable tool in structuring the project, and the accreditation it provided was a key part of what attracted schools to take part in the pilot. It was not entirely successful in all contexts, as the extra level of complexity it added to the project (either in terms of the students’ own learning or in terms of the input required by teachers) proved one challenge too far for some settings, and not all students gained the accreditation. However, the framework provided a solid basis for activity, and the introduction of the new Level 1 SEQ qualification should mitigate this level of challenge in future. The concept of creative entrepreneurship education was new to all of the teachers involved in the pilot. This meant that there was a significant amount of learning for them in order to be able to support their students, and for some this was challenging. However, their evaluation comments demonstrate that they have seen the value of this work for their students, and all five schools have expressed a commitment to continuing the work in future. It is fair to anticipate that with familiarity and increased expertise through participating in the pilot, the level of challenge for these teachers will decrease in future. The five participating schools did not, during the pilot, integrate the SEQ fully into their curriculum provision, which meant that time was a challenge. Following the success of the pilot, it is likely that Belvue school, Elm Court School and Fulham Enterprise Studio will incorporate it into their curriculum time, which will both emphasise the value placed on the



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qualification, and give staff more time to support it. Chingford Academies Trust will continue to offer the SEQ as part of their extensive extra-curricular provision. The accreditation was valued by both special schools, who are keen to find ways to accredit the learning of their students, who may be unlikely to achieve ‘mainstream’ qualifications such as GCSEs. Findings/Recommendations:

Accreditation is valued by staff and students, and may be of particular value to schools working with students who may not achieve mainstream qualifications

Teachers require support and resources to enable them to feel confident about delivering a high quality project with their students, particularly when creative entrepreneurship is likely to be an unfamiliar topic

Students respond well to creative entrepreneurship activity and are ambitious about what they want to achieve

Students and teachers value the opportunity to meet entrepreneurs and learn from them directly

Students are particularly keen to meet entrepreneurs of their own age, which could be challenging to achieve

Teachers require plenty of time to plan projects in order to feel confident about delivery

i http://www.actonhighschool.co.uk/Mainfolder/About-Us/Documents/June2013/Acton_High_School_Report_WF12129909.pdf ii http://www.belvueschool.org/Mainfolder/aboutus/pdf/BelvueInspectionSept2011.pdf

iii http://www.studioschoolstrust.org/node/3