HeppSY+ Deliver Staff Training in Rawmarsh Community School
In November, HeppSY+ staff helped to arrange and deliver a CPD higher education session at Rawmarsh Community School in Rotherham. The session was set up by Rachel Mullins, the HeppSY+ designated co-ordinator for the school. The session is a good example of how to use an INSET day to focus on the theme of progression.
The day covered how to support the progression of Rawmarsh students into higher education, with the aim of ensuring all staff understood their role in helping students to achieve their desirable destination. Rachel created an excellent model where she started by sharing destination data for Rawmarsh students and her desired aims for student progression. Rachel then updated staff on the national picture; including recent legislation requiring young people to be in some form of education until the age of 18.
At the event there was a variety of speakers to cover all progression routes, including a speaker for national apprenticeships, a representative from Job Centre Plus and representatives from HeppSY+.
During the input from HeppSY+, the programme was introduced with a brief synopsis of the offer. Speaking to a wider staff body was very valuable for the HeppSY+ team and feedback was positive.
After initial presentations, departments went away for 40 minutes to discuss how they could contribute to the priorities identified in the morning to support students’ progression. The Modern Languages department, for example, looked at how to interact with local businesses with roots in Europe to give students a broader perspective. The activity allowed departments to focus on what their individual aims were and what they needed to do to motivate students.
Gemma Styles, Programme Manager for HeppSY+, said: ‘I attended the event with two of our Higher Education Progression Advisers, Sonia and Suzanne, and we were all ‘parachuted’ into the departmental sessions to help facilitate the discussions and act as a sounding board for ideas. This was a real opportunity not only to harness ideas that individual staff and departments had but also to provide increased focus and thinking to their proposals.’
