By Gavin Mackintosh
Young people in some of the most disadvantaged parts of England are set to benefit from an extra £18 million investment designed to build on improvements in educational outcomes, careers advice and attracting teachers.
The huge investment is to be directed at the British Government’s Opportunity Areas (OA) programme aimed at closing the gap between educational attainments between the privileged and the under privileged. Announced by Education Secretary Gary Williamson(pictured), the excellent initiative will be extended for an additional year, building on its success so far in areas of the country where children have for too long been left behind.
The long term scheme by the Department Of Education is aimed at achieving a desirable level of parity across cross sections of society in educational standard by broadening the opportunities available to the most disadvantaged. Extra support including private tuition and academic youths clubs to foster the desired spirit of progress and inclusion is set to continue for another few years.
The programme is also said to be showing impact in a wide range of areas from early years education to employment, following an initial £72 million boost for interventions across literacy, maths, attendance, teacher training and recruitment, post-16 options and careers advice since its launch in 2017. The right level of teacher training to cater for disadvantaged pupils calls for special expertise to identify the unique problems faced by the relatively deprived pupils who fall under this category .
OBSTACLES TO SOCIAL MOBILITY
The 12 Opportunity Areas across the country includes Blackpool, Derby, Norwich, Oldham, North Yorkshire Coast, West Somerset, Bradford, Doncaster, Fenland and East Cambridgeshire, Hastings, Ipswich and Stoke-on-Trent. The D&E say these areas were chosen as opportunity areas because of the deep seated obstacles to social mobility they face. They were set up to improve outcomes and increase opportunities for all young people in these areas.
A representative from the Department Of Education(D&E) explained to The Eye Of Media.Com that the opportunity areas ”face some of the greatest challenges and fewest opportunities based on the Social Mobility Commission’s 2016 index and the Department’s school standards/capacity to improve data published alongside the D&E’s White Paper in March 2016”.
”They also represent a geographical spread of coastal, rural and urban areas to test what works in different communities”, the representative said. The D&E is scheduled to spend a total of £72 million in the 12 opportunity areas over the next 3 years, 2017 to 2020. That’s an additional £18 million funding which will extend the running of the programme until August 2021. The opportunity areas have also benefited from a share of £22 million from the Essential Life Skills programme to help young people develop skills such as resilience, teamwork, leadership, and self-control.
Overseeing the long term multi-million scheme is Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, who is committed to achieving notable progress among disadvantaged pupils. He said:
”I grew up in Scarborough, now part of the North Yorkshire Coast Opportunity Area, and having returned recently for a visit I’ve seen for myself the progress being made and the difference it is making to young people living there.
Ability is evenly spread across the country, but opportunity isn’t. We’re determined to put right the wrongs of places left behind and see the Opportunity Area programme grow – helping local leaders and schools to tackle some of the greatest challenges young people face.
It’s not just about what happens now in these 12 areas but the impact these projects will have on future generations and paving the way for them to overcome obstacles to success.
The programme has been operating in 12 Opportunity Areas across the country – Blackpool, Derby, Norwich, Oldham, North Yorkshire Coast, West Somerset, Bradford, Doncaster, Fenland and East Cambridgeshire, Hastings, Ipswich and Stoke-on-Trent. Areas were chosen because they face some of the most entrenched obstacles to social mobility and were set up to improve outcomes and increase opportunities for all young people in these areas.
West Somerset has shown progress in early years’ development, with performance historically below the national average for pupil outcomes at the end of reception year, but now showing year on year improvements. The Story Start scheme is one of a range of early years’ initiatives, supporting families in rural areas to play, chat and read to boost their child’s development so they can start school with the skills needed to thrive.
Across all the Opportunity Areas around 60,000 young people have also been given the chance to develop life skills like resilience, teamwork, problem-solving, confidence and leadership thanks to a share of the £22 million Essential Life Skills programme.
Today’s funding extends the programme into a fourth year, which will run until August 2021, to help sustain long term improvements and outcomes.
Schemes put in place to improve maths are showing signs of success across some Opportunity Areas. In Ipswich, six weeks of Saturday maths classes provide targeted support, free bus travel and food for disadvantaged Year 11s at risk of not getting a GCSE level 4 or 5, with the first 75 pupils enrolled showing an average boost in predicted grades of 1.3 in comparison to the start of the programme”.