Welcome to the April edition of the Aimhigher practitioner bulletin, designed to provide all those working for Aimhigher with relevant programme news and details of national resources.

 

If you have comments or suggestions on the content of the practitioner bulletin or website, or any other communications enquiries, please contact the National Communications Resource Team (NCRT) on 0117 929 7096 or email aimhigher@harrisoncowley.com.

 

 

Strategic plans for 2006-08 submitted
Partnerships’ revised strategic plans for 2006-08 have now been submitted and will be considered for approval by the Regional Partnership Boards (RPBs) during April and May. Feedback and 'in principle' approval (where this is appropriate) will then be provided by the RPBs to Regional Forums and Area Steering Groups. Any plans that are not approved by RPBs will be referred to the National Partnership Board (NPB) for consideration at its meeting in June. RPBs may request that further information be provided for the NPB to consider. We hope that this approach will reduce the amount of time taken to approve plans and will allow partnerships to take immediate action on the recommendations made by the RPBs.

Click on the link below for a list of programme milestones.
http://www.aimhigher.ac.uk/practitioner/resource_material/about_aimhigher/future_of_aimhigher/key_milestones.cfm

 

 

Roadshow funding confirmed for 2006-07

The DfES has confirmed funding for the Aimhigher roadshow for the 2006-07 academic year, which will continue to promote the benefits of HE to Year 9 pupils and Year 12 students in areas with traditionally low levels of participation.

 

The team at Geronimo Communications will shortly be in contact with the Regional Directors to confirm the number of days that have been allocated to their region and to work with them to identify the schools and colleges that they would like the roadshow to visit. Once again this allocation has been based on HEFCE's funding formula for Aimhigher, taking into account information such as educational attainment and HE participation rates.

 

The Geronimo team will also be recruiting for five roadshow presenters – young people from Aimhigher backgrounds who will share their own recent experience of HE with around 500 young people a week. If you know of anyone suitable, please email aimhigher@geronimocommunications.com.

 

The roadshow is currently two thirds of the way through the 2005-06 tour and has made over 500 visits to schools and colleges, reaching approximately 50,000 students. Evaluation forms collected from tutors and teachers during February and March reveal that 99% of teachers gave the facilitators the top ratings of ‘very good’ or ‘good’ for both their knowledge and their effectiveness to relate to the target cohort. 

 

Following a break during the Easter holidays and Year 9 SATs, the roadshow will be back in early May visiting Kent, Birmingham, Manchester, Redcar and Halifax. To download a copy of the 2005-06 roadshow schedule, click on the link below.

http://www.aimhigher.ac.uk/practitioner/events/roadshow/2005_06_schedule.cfm

Practitioner website to be restructured

In response to the feedback obtained from practitioners via HEFCE’s communications survey, the NCRT will be making a number of revisions to the Aimhigher practitioner website during April, which are scheduled to go live towards the end of the month. The currently under-used Events and Discussion Forum sections will be removed and the volume of information contained within the Resource Bank redistributed, creating new sections for core programme information, current practice examples and communications.

For more information about the changes to the practitioner website, click on the link below.
http://www.aimhigher.ac.uk/practitioner/news/index.cfm

 

A new section highlighting national press coverage of Aimhigher has been added to the practitioner website. Click on the link below to download PDFs of recent articles.

http://www.aimhigher.ac.uk/practitioner/resource_material/about_aimhigher/aimhigher_in_the_national_news.cfm

 

 

Aimhigher student portal

A meeting to discuss the next phase of development of the Aimhigher student portal (www.aimhigher.ac.uk) has now been confirmed and will take place at HEFCE’s offices in Bristol on Thursday 27 April, from 12.30 – 2.30pm. If you are a web-master or simply have experience of using the Aimhigher portal and would like to attend the meeting, please contact Alasdair Liddell at HEFCE on 0117 931 7312 or email a.liddell@hefce.ac.uk.

 

 

New remit for the National Communications Resource Team

The NCRT’s contract has been renewed for a further 12 months until February 2007. As well as continuing to support Aimhigher practitioners in delivering their communications activities, the team’s remit has been extended to include a key role in the work to enhance Aimhigher’s national profile via the education press and stakeholder organisations. The need for greater national promotion of Aimhigher was identified as a key priority by a number of respondents to HEFCE’s communications survey, who highlighted the importance of disseminating positive messages about achievement and progress via the media and in improving understanding amongst a wider audience of the aims and objectives of Aimhigher.

More information about this communications campaign will be made available on the practitioner website in due course but if you have any queries, please contact the NCRT on 0117 929 7096 or email aimhigher@harrisoncowley.com.

 

 

Financial support for part-time students

A PDF of the DfES’ part-time grants leaflet – which highlights the increase in the amount of financial help available to part-time undergraduate students in 2006-07 – is now available to download from the following page of the practitioner website. Alternatively copies can be ordered by calling the DfES resource hotline on 0800 587 8500 and quoting reference PTFLYER06.

http://www.aimhigher.ac.uk/practitioner/resource_material/promotional_materials/information_booklets.cfm

 

 

Lifelong Learning Networks: practitioner group established
HEFCE has announced funding of £64,000 to establish a self-managed practitioner group which will support the development of Lifelong Learning Networks (LLNs). The group, which will be hosted by York St John University College, is intended to act as a forum for sharing ideas, good practice and policy developments, and will also provide a two-way conduit with others in pursuit of the wider objectives of LLNs.

Specifically, the group will:

 

·         develop a website available to other LLNs to act as a repository for information, expertise, policies, and protocols that will be shared among the LLN community

·         organise an annual LLN practitioners’ national conference

·         co-ordinate regular, themed meetings of practitioners

·         map curriculum areas to identify the range of vocational provision being targeted with a view to networking over curriculum issues

·         help compile a register of those involved in the LLN community with a view to shared experience and self-help

·         provide a focus for evaluation and research around the work of LLNs

·         seek other means of sharing good practice and influencing the development of LLNs

·         act as a resource and mechanism for supporting and informing HEFCE in the development of LLN strategy.

 

The group plans to produce an electronic newsletter for LLN practitioners within the next couple of months which will provide further information. To register for the newsletter, please contact Claire Newhouse on 01904 716350 or email c.newhouse@higheryork.org.

 

The HEFCE website has also been updated to include contact details for all LLNs and summaries for the fully funded networks – click on the link below for more information.
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/widen/lln/funded

 

 

ESF/HEFCE Summer Schools 2006-08

The European Social Fund Division has provided HEFCE with an "Approval in Principle" for the bid to provide funding for summer schools as part of the Aimhigher programme for the period 2006-08.

For more information about summer schools, click on the link below.

http://www.aimhigher.ac.uk/practitioner/events/summer_schools.cfm