The foundations of lifelong learning

Cabinet member for children's services Harry Harpham tells Richard Marsden about how the authority aims to create a new generation of brighter, better qualified youngsters

ALONGSIDE heavily-trumpeted investments in the education of Sheffield’s children - with almost 450 million being spent on new schools and better facilities - urgent efforts are being made to raise achievement among pupils.

In recent years, the average number of city teenagers leaving secondary education with five GCSEs at grades A* to C has been eight to 10 per cent lower than the national average, which last year stood at 57.1 per cent. This year Sheffield students again celebrated record passes.

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Coun Harry Harpham - the city councillor in charge of children’s services - knows the value of education. Growing up in Sutton in Ashfield, in the heart of the Nottinghamshire coalfield, like many other young men, he left school with no qualifications and went to work down the pit.

But he became politically active through the National Union of Mineworkers and, in his late 20s, took a degree at Sheffield University in politics, economics and social history.

‘Parental aspiration has a massive impact on whether kids achieve’

Coun Harry Harpham

Coun Harpham said: “Raising attainment is vital. There is a big gap between what the city achieves, on average, at GCSE, and results from the rest of the country.

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“Although Sheffield’s results have risen in recent years, this has also happened everywhere else and the really stubborn gap remains.”

City schools face a number of difficult challenges in raising attainment - particularly in deprived areas and those with a high proportion of pupils from ethnic minorities.

English can be a difficulty, where it is spoken as a second language at home. Teaching of the language is being aided at primary schools by the use of phonics methods, which focus initially on pronunciation rather than spelling.

The council is also trying to emphasise the importance of education to families in areas where people traditionally didn’t need to achieve at school - like Coun Harpham himself - and could find manual jobs in industry.

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Of particular concern is that, even compared with other industrial cities, Sheffield still lags behind in its exam results.

Coun Harpham said: “I think parental aspiration has a massive impact on whether or not kids achieve. Raising those aspirations in many parts of the city is critical.

“One way is to try to get parents involved but that is a struggle.”

Coun Harpham, who has two children at city secondary schools, believes new school buildings are not just for show but will improve both pupils’ and parents’ aspirations.

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Sheffield has secured 400 million from the Government’s Building Schools for the Future programme, which is enabling the authority to rebuild all its secondaries.

Coun Harpham said: “Buildings alone do not make a good school but the environment is very, very important. I used to take my children to school in Shirecliffe and the buildings were awful.

“If there is one computer between 30 and 40 children, books are ripped and tattered, how can you expect your child’s aspirations to be raised?

“The investment in school buildings is critical. It makes them more attractive and welcoming, plus it is more likely young people will have respect for their education if they can see it is viewed as something of value.”

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And increasing use of schools by community groups also means more parents are likely to visit and see what happens inside for themselves.

Sheffield has been given an additional 45 million by the Government to provide a network of children’s centres, which will be based at schools across the city, providing breakfast and after-school clubs, where children can go when parents are at work.

Alongside supervision, help with homework is also available from staff. Already, 15 centres are open and the extra funding will enable a total of 31 sites to be in operation by 2009. Help is also being provided with every baby being offered books and toys to try to stimulate intellectual development.

Where families are in “chaotic” circumstances at home, social services is intervening to make sure youngsters go to school - and regular truancy sweeps aim to find those who do not.

Early intervention is critical, according to Coun Harpham.

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He said: “The sooner we help families who don’t find life easy, the better-off they and their children will be in the long term, including with their education.”

There has been a divide between school achievement in the leafy western half of Sheffield and the inner city areas and council estates.

But changes overseen since Labour regained power in Sheffield are already having an impact in two of the toughest neighbourhoods where children’s attainment was among the lowest.

The replacement of Myrtle Springs school, Arbourthorne, and Waltheof, Manor, with Sheffield Springs and Sheffield Park academies, run by Christian foundation the United Learning Trust, has brought about an huge transformation.

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Coun Harpham said: “I have been to both schools and the children were all going around in uniform, had a sense of discipline and pride. I certainly hope this will lead to exam results in these areas that end up matching those from schools in the south west of the city.

“We are looking at good practice at the schools and will see what could work elsewhere in Sheffield.”

n How Sheffield Council plans to tackle climate change: Monday’s Star.