Context

Andover typically has many students who have the potential to benefit from Higher Education (HE), but whose parents have not attended university or college. In particular, the students tend to come from manual working class backgrounds and from wards with HE participation rates of less than 25 per cent. This initiative was of interest because it would target a vulnerable group of students and hopefully raise its aspirations through writing in a real workplace. Harrow Way Community School is a mixed 11-16 secondary school from which 113 year 10 students participated.

Aims & principles

The specific aims of the project were:

• To motivate and encourage students to see links between what they write in school and the real world
• To strengthen writing skills for GCSE coursework
• To focus students on the style, purpose and audience for their writing
• To encourage students to adapt style and language appropriately for their audience when writing

Summary

The project targeted year 10 students with the aim of improving writing skills and encouraging access to Higher Education. It involved appraising printed media, visiting a sports ground to see a first division football match, engaging with professionals in the sports stadium through writing workshops, engaging with other sports journalists and taking part in a journalism taster day at a local university. It was important that the project had direct links with the English and media GCSE courses. This was about writing beyond the classroom, based around a real event.

In Practice

The project took place over a period of two months and was ‘kick-started’ by the whole of year 10 watching a live football match at St Mary’s, the Southampton FC stadium. The follow up core activities at school included an exploration of sports journalism, prepared by the head of English, and a workshop led by a Setanta sports journalist and a journalism lecturer from the local university. These were then built upon by a one day visit to the Southampton football ground, where students had tours and met with the professionals who work there. They attended workshops during which time the professionals explained how writing is used in their day-to-day work. Ideas for workshops included:

• A day in the life of St Mary’s (Southampton FC stadium)
• Writing a press release
• Biography of a football player for the match programme
• Biography of the club owner
• Promotional literature for the stadium as a conference centre
• An audio tour guide for visitors to the stadium
• Feature article: Caring for the pitch
• A report on the football match
• Sports commentary

Each presenter was given guidelines about what was required and students were prepared for the workshops in the week leading up to the event and then chose one which would become the focus of a piece of GCSE coursework. They were also given a prompt sheet to maintain the impetus that was created during the workshops. For example, one workshop focused on media communications. The students had a presentation from a professional about what is meant by media communications and the types of writing that this encompasses. Students could choose between writing a press release or website copy. They were given the following tips for writing website copy:

‘Studies show that people reading web pages approach this differently from other texts. They expect to see short sentences, bullet points and bold text that highlights what the web page is about. They are not expecting to read flowery prose, but they do want to be entertained. So this is what you do:

• Use imperative verbs to command your reader to do something, e.g: ‘dig deeper into this section’, ‘Find out more by . . .’, ‘Don’t miss out on the chance to . . . ‘
• Use personal pronouns - you, yours
• Use the present tense and interesting verbs. These add powerful association to your topic.
• Select a few details and use them suggestively. For example, you can imply that you might miss a match if you don’t invest in a season ticket ‘Why miss a match? Buy a season ticket and be guaranteed a seat.”
• Use headlines that state a benefit and then substantiate them by putting the reader in the copy, e.g. The stunning St Mary’s stadium makes a perfect venue to entertain clients, friends or family on match days. Whether you’re rewarding staff for contributing to the success of your company or looking to give someone a birthday celebration to remember, enjoy the game in comfort and style with a hospitality package that suits your needs and budget.’

In the lessons following the stadium visit and workshops, students planned and wrote their coursework. The final day was a visit to the local university for a ‘taster day’. Students attended classes on journalism, law, business management, drama and sports studies, all of which emphasised why writing is crucial in these professions.

Partnerships

The project was run in collaboration with Aim Higher, Harrow Way Community School and Hampshire Inspection and Advisory Service (HIAS).

Outcomes

The outcomes were measured qualitatively and quantitatively:

Quantitative

A sample of coursework grades matched against predicted grades was provided by the school at the end of the project.  It was pleasing to see that 54 per cent of those sampled had an increase in grades from those predicted, with 33 per cent increasing their predicted grade by two grades. Of those that increased their marks by two grades, all but one student sampled were predicted a D or E grade, and rose to a C or B grade.

Qualitative

Students completed pre- and post evaluation forms and the key findings included:

• 64 per cent rated the project “Very Good” and a further 24 per cent rated the project “Excellent”
• There was an 11 per cent increase in those that commented that they were “Definitely” planning on applying to HE at the end of the project
• 28 students (37 per cent of those that completed both pre- and post- forms) were aiming to achieve at least one grade higher, if not two grades higher in their GCSE English, than the grades that they stated they hoped to achieve on their pre-evaluation forms

Lessons learnt: What worked well?

• Developing the project in collaboration with the school, Aim Higher and the Advisory Service worked very well as it ensured that the project content would meet the needs of the school and the curriculum.
• Taking the young people to a real event (football match) followed by a “Behind the Scenes” visit (stadium tour) helped to contextualise the experience and their writing whilst giving the participants a fresh approach to their coursework
• The coursework prompt sheet was particularly useful for helping the students draw together their experiences at Southampton FC and develop ideas into coursework.

Students

“It was a great opportunity to see how English and writing is important beyond school”
“It informed me about all the different choices and options I can take at university”
“The activities were enjoyable and are better than school lessons”
“They made it fun while you learnt”
“It was fun and interesting as well as a new experience”
“We got to learn stuff that we haven’t learned before”
“Helped to decide more on my future and explain a few questions”
“It was the best thing I’ve done all year… it was just smashing.”

Teachers

Teachers also completed an evaluation form. Comments were positive and reflective, showing a real engagement with the process:

“Excellent - especially taster day. Thank you!”
“Well-organised. Very pleasant people. Journalism particularly good!”
“Wonderful opportunity for students, thank you for all your time and effort”

Legacy

The planning that sits behind this project will remain as part of the GCSE English curriculum. It will also fulfil the requirements of Functional Skills, so the school will be able to build on this. More importantly, teachers have been able to focus on the specific needs of the grade C/D border and the students have been motivated by this work. This is a project that will be repeated year on year.

What might be done differently next time?

• The activities need to take place within a tighter time period (1-2 weeks ideally) to keep the momentum and motivation among participants. This was planned but we had to reschedule the whole day visit to the stadium.
• An alternative to sports could be considered so that young people/schools have the option of participating in a different themed activity, e.g. television/film/theatre/fashion.
• It is worth considering working with a much smaller target group of students e.g. year 10/11 C/D border, but in the autumn term.
• The project may be even more effective if delivered in the autumn term as some students commented that they wished they’d had the experience earlier in the year, and would have therefore engaged more with their schoolwork.

Resources

Download resources used by the teacher for this project

Contacts

Helen Bulbeck, Secondary English Advisor, Hampshire Inspection and Advisory Service (HIAS)

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