Departments

Citizenship

What Ruffwood offers in terms of Citizenship provision and Community Cohesion…

There are so many possible ways that Ruffwood can provide such opportunities for young people and our communities that it seems a difficult task to get them all down on paper. As a staff, our approach to teaching and learning, the things we say, the standards we expect and relationships we promote might all inspire pupils to engage with issues in a way they might not have previously.

Similarly, colleagues or acquaintances might themselves be inspired to offer such opportunities without us knowing. However, I will try to outline what we have done in recent years at Ruffwood, are currently doing, and plan to do in the future, to ensure our young people get the best possible entitlement whilst in school, part of Brookfield, or as members of the new Learning Centre, and are encouraged to ‘have their say’ throughout.

I will begin by looking at the provision for opportunities for pupils to engage with issues in the school communities, then go on to discuss wider ranging activities which promote involvement in local, national and international issues.

The Community

As previously discussed, all students in Years 8-11 spend the first term of the academic year looking at ‘the Community’. This involves looking at issues in school and locally, then UK and worldwide. This year it was a particularly interesting theme to investigate, given the school’s clouded future, Rhys Jones’s murder five miles away and the future of the town centre following decisions on Everton’s proposed move to Kirkby.

In terms of Anti-Social behaviour we are constantly looking at ways of promoting positive behaviour in the community. Recent events include a Merseyrail competition to design posters for trains, advertising ‘Hustle’ half term events for young people in Knowsley, and offering as rewards, tickets to the local ‘Frenzy’ events, popular disco nights held to offer alternative activities for young people.

SEAL

Year 7 pupils are currently experiencing the SEAL (Social & Emotional Aspects of Learning) resource, as part of our position as Secondary SEAL Pilot school. This can be viewed at www.bandapilot.org.uk/secondaryseal. This encourages group work, social skills and self-confidence as well as skills such as empathy, understanding, negotiation etc through varied activities such as Circle Time and learning readiness. Whilst this does not link directly to engaging with community issues, I believe it will prove a good grounding tool to offer young people the climate for learning, skills of enquiry, and confidence to want to become involved in the first place.

The SEAL experience has become whole school, with other teachers, Pastoral Leaders, learning mentors and even LBPs being involved in delivery. I genuinely think it can also improve staff morale and emotional health and well-being and this may have a knock-on effect on the community in the future. Part of the plan was to create a Circle Time room, which we have done in S15.

School Council

The school Council has this year has been re-launched by a dedicated colleague who has worked hard to make it more efficient and important. This will be vital as the school approaches its merger. I have attended meetings from a Healthy Schools point of view, but am also involved in several projects linking our young people with those of our partner schools in Namibia and South Africa.

School Council offer members the chance to not just ‘have their say’ and hopefully see changes being made, but also to experience formal meetings – indeed I have arranged for a couple of members to attend the next School Governors Meeting, the Chair and Vice-Chair of which are a councillor and a Rector respectively. Whilst this is clearly not an entitlement for every pupils, small gestures like this may well encourage not just the individuals concerned but also future generations of young people to ‘use their voice’.

Two young people every year also sit on Knowsley Youth Parliament, so can experience the council set-up directly.

Awareness Weeks / other initiatives

We also organise termly awareness weeks in school where the whole school, or a specific year group, focuses on a theme or issue. It might be a national event such as Anti-Bullying Week, international (e.g. World AIDS Day) or local, such as the Smoking Ban last July. Information on these can be found elsewhere on the website.

Another success is the Macmillan Cancertalk week – last year over sixty Year 7 pupils took part in the Big Hush when they were quiet for twenty minutes, plus attending a Drop-in session attended by Macmillan’s local fundraising officer. Staff play their part too, with The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning taking place in the staff room, for which some pupils baked cakes and biscuits this year.

Police / Fire

The school has a dedicated Police Officer who is on site every day. He has attended some of my lessons, and was a particularly useful resource around Mischief Night / Bonfire Night, as he was also working in the community in the evenings. He has brought assemblies in to school and items to display, including posters encouraging students to consider careers in the Police service.

Similarly we are about to start working with a Fire Safety officer. This role will involve some lessons joint delivery and general awareness, but also concentrate on anti-social behaviour and its consequences. We already have Road Safety plays and assemblies – hopefully this new provision will encourage students to be more careful and considerate in the community.

Outside Agencies

One of the school’s strengths is its relationships with outside agencies. Not just in terms of health (Drugs, Smoking, Sexual Health, Nurse etc) but also wider ranging – many of which are based in the local community. These include Young Enterprise, Connexions and Knowsley Business Enterprise – who run individual projects and attend Mock Interview days – but also initiatives for younger pupils. Working alongside Careers and Pastoral staff we have offered placements during and outside of school hours at local businesses and organisations such as YWCA and Centre 63 a local community centre. A particular success is the Peer Mentoring / Transition project offered to Year 7 & 8 pupils, whilst others also take part in the Mayor’s Award and Junior Youth Inclusion Project.

Assemblies

Many of the agencies previously mentioned regularly hold assemblies for year groups. This gives all pupils the chance to engage in initiatives or to gain access to more information if required. Sometimes students are even offered the chance to participate in and plan / deliver assemblies which gives them new experiences and the chance to make a positive contribution to an often overlooked aspect of school life.

Faith

Not only do the Gideons come in to do assemblies every year, but we are currently planning a Faith Week in June 2008 in partnership with Liverpool City Mission, a local Christian organisation.

PAYP

The Positive Activities for Young People project offers opportunities after school and in holiday time to some young people to make a positive contribution. Last Summer I planned and delivered a project entitled ‘Improving the school environment’ during which students came in for a week during the holidays and decorated areas of the school with murals, displays and graffiti signs.

Other staff have also run trips and residentials which have had a positive effect on the young people involved.

Transition

We are currently organising activities which will help our young people – and staff – as they prepare to merge with another Comprehensive in Kirkby. This will help not only the individuals involved but also the community as it adapts to the changes.

Linked schools

Another ongoing project is to link up with our partner schools in Namibia and South Africa. Two members of staff have already visited the schools, showcasing aspects of each country’s culture, and we are looking forward to welcoming visitors next year with a view to arranging a sports competition.

In previous years we also engaged in the Comenius Socrates project, offering young people the chance to exchange with students from France Spain and Romania.

These could be vital tools to encourage understanding of other cultures as new communities are growing in Kirkby, and what has in the past been quite an insular environment opens itself up to new developments.

KCCR

The final opportunity we are negotiating is a link-up with the local college radio station which is currently going for community licence. As a result, they got in contact with the school and myself and Lisa Davis have been arranging suitable projects, aimed at helping the transition into the new Learning Centre.

The aim of this plan is to help students and staff prepare for the merger, and to include local community residents in the whole process. Ideas so far include visits and workshops in the studios, guest-presented programmes, and live feeds in to school so that pupils can become more involved in community issues and vice versa.

Ruffwood School