From: aimhigher [mailto:aimhigher@harrisoncowley.com] 
Sent: 15 December 2006 09:57
To: aimhigher
Subject: Aimhigher Practitioner Bulletin - December 2006

Welcome to the December 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 any 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.

December contents:

1.	Widening Participation Review published 
2.	Aimhigher Topic Paper 
3.	Feedback from Regional Partnership Boards on monitoring reports 
4.	Aimhigher national resources for 2006/07 
5.	Payments to local authorities 
6.	Aimhigher roadshow update 
7.	Evaluation of Aimhigher: Excellence Challenge – final reports available 
8.	Analysis of the National Student Survey results 
9.	Hollyoaks ambassadors promote Aimhigher 
10.	Aimhigher Greater Merseyside’s evaluation toolkit 

1. Widening Participation Review published
HEFCE’s review of widening participation, launched at the end of November, acts as a check on work in progress and provides an opportunity for Aimhigher practitioners to consider how their work could be strengthened. The review highlights the achievements made so far, while emphasising the work that needs to be done to maximise the impact of the Aimhigher programme, as well as other outreach work by HEIs.

Minister for Higher Education, Bill Rammell commented: “I’m asking Aimhigher partnerships to prioritise those from lower socio-economic groups in all of their activities including their work with gifted and talented pupils and I am also asking HEFCE to develop a set of practical recommendations on how to better target outreach activities by April next year.”

HEFCE has set up a short term task group with a focus on targeting activities and is inviting contributions from practitioners. The group would be particularly interested to receive case studies or examples of issues, outcomes and good practice with regard to targeting the Aimhigher resource at the following audiences:

·         Young people from socio-economic groups 4-7
·         Gifted and Talented pupils in Key Stage 4 and post-16
·         Vocational learners

If you or others in your partnership are interested in making a contribution to the work of this task group, please contact Chris Leonard at HEFCE by email to c.leonard@hefce.ac.uk. 

A copy of the widening participation review is available to download from the HEFCE website at www.hefce.ac.uk/widen

2. Aimhigher Topic Paper
A topic paper on Aimhigher, summarising the evaluation evidence that answers key strategic questions about the impact of the programme, has been published by the DfES. The paper is focused on the following key questions:
·         Has Aimhigher increased aspirations to HE?
·         Has Aimhigher increased attainment at school?
·         Has Aimhigher increased participation at university?

The findings are mainly drawn from the tracking surveys of young people but some evidence from the area studies and surveys of educational providers is included where relevant. A copy of the topic paper, and a summary presentation given by the DfES at a recent Aimhigher networking event, can be found on the following page of the Aimhigher practitioner website:
www.aimhigher.ac.uk/sites/practitioner/programme_information/monitoring_and_evaluation.cfm

The NCRT plans to use the topic paper as the basis for a template press release which can be adapted by regional and area partnerships to promote their activities.

3. Feedback from Regional Partnership Boards on monitoring reports
The nine Regional Partnership Boards (RPBs) met during October and November to consider partnerships’ annual monitoring reports for 2005-06. A report of the outcomes of these meetings will be presented to the National Partnership Board on 12 January, at which time HEFCE will provide partnerships with further feedback. In the meantime, please click on the link below to read general comments from the RPBs:
www.aimhigher.ac.uk/practitioner/programme_information/monitoring_and_evaluation/5___regional_and_area_monitoring_and_evaluation.cfm

4. Aimhigher national resources for 2006/07
Updated versions of the national Aimhigher information booklets are now available to download from the practitioner website in PDF format. Practitioners may also be interested to know that an updated resource leaflet, providing details of all nationally produced Aimhigher materials, can now be downloaded from the website and ordered as a stand-alone resource. For further information on what is available, click on the following link:
www.aimhigher.ac.uk/practitioner/communications/resource_materials/ordering_resource_materials.cfm

5. Payments to local authorities
Payments to local authorities will be received today (15 December) under the heading 'Grant 110b - Aimhigher'. Payment of partnership funds to banker institutions were included in HEFCE grant payments on 14 December.

Dates of future payments will be made available to local authority employees through the Standards Fund website and the funders will also try to keep partnerships up to date via the Aimhigher practitioner bulletin.

6. Aimhigher roadshow update
Now into its sixth year, the Aimhigher roadshow has already had a positive impact on young people throughout England. The FE tour, which began on 25 September, ran until 17 November and visited 172 venues, reaching 11,000 students. The school tour is now well underway and regular updates on its progress will be provided via the practitioner bulletin throughout 2007.

For more information, or to find out when the roadshow is due to visit your area, click on the link below:
www.aimhigher.ac.uk/practitioner/programme_information/roadshow/2006_07_schedule.cfm

7. Evaluation of Aimhigher: Excellence Challenge – final reports available
Four reports which complete the evaluation of Aimhigher: Excellence Challenge were published by the DfES at the end of November. The first two reports are based on an analysis of data collected through surveys of young people and show that higher than expected levels of attainment were associated with being designated in one of the two Aimhigher cohorts. In the future, it is hoped to match this survey data to other sources to enable tracking of the progression of participants into FE and HE. Commencement of this work is planned for summer 2007.

The remaining two reports use econometric techniques to analyse data from surveys of young people, seeking to isolate the early impact of Aimhigher: Excellence Challenge. One provides an update on previous estimates relating to the proportion of young people aspiring to HE in Aimhigher schools compared to non-Aimhigher schools. The other report attempts to identify an effect using the Labour Force Survey data to compare across LEAs. These two reports complete the economic evaluation of Aimhigher and, due to the lack of a comparison group, there are no plans for any similar analyses in future.

Copies of each of these reports (numbered 10-13) are available to download from the following page of the practitioner website: www.aimhigher.ac.uk/sites/practitioner/programme_information/monitoring_and_evaluation/evaluation_of_aimhigher__excellence_challenge.cfm (scroll down for links to PDF files)

8. Analysis of the National Student Survey results
HEFCE-commissioned research into the results of the 2005 National Student Survey (NSS) has been published, which explores in more detail how student, course and institution characteristics influence the results.

The research, conducted by the University of Bristol, will inform future use of the NSS data to support policy development. Students who participated in the 2005 survey were positive about all aspects of teaching quality. However key findings of this research indicate that: 

•	Students from ethnic minorities had different responses to their experiences than white students, and students from Asian backgrounds were generally less positive about all aspects of their courses. 

•	Older students were broadly more positive on the groups of questions relating directly to teaching quality than their younger counterparts. 

•	Those living at home with a parent or guardian, and students from outside the UK were, in general, more positive about their courses. 

Bill Rammell said: “These in-depth findings will help institutions to refine the quality of their provision by acting on student feedback and targeting specific areas for improvement.”

More information can be found at www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/rdreports/2006/rd22_06/. Further work will now be done by the University of Bristol to analyse the 2006 NSS results, with a second report due to be published in spring 2007.

9. Hollyoaks ambassadors promote Aimhigher
As practitioners may be aware, the DfES has an ongoing relationship with Mersey TV, producer of teen soap Hollyoaks. Members of the Hollyoaks cast have been recruited as Aimhigher ambassadors and have been doing a great job promoting Aimhigher in the national and regional media. 

Kevin Sacre, who plays Jake Dean, talked about the influence his favourite teacher had on his decision to go to university in teachers' weekly SecEd, and consumer magazine Soaplife. Jennifer Biddall, whose character Jessica Harris studies at university on the programme, appeared with her mum in her local papers about her choice to go into higher education. Meanwhile Kent Riley, who plays Zac Ramsey, went back to university in a 'day swap' that was covered by local print and radio, and is soon to be featured in the girl's magazine Shout. He also took part in an interactive webchat where young people quizzed him about higher education and Hollyoaks.

Click on the link below to view copies of the press coverage:
www.aimhigher.ac.uk/practitioner/communications/national_campaigns/other_media_activity/aimhigher_ambassadors.cfm

10. Aimhigher Greater Merseyside’s evaluation toolkit
Aimhigher Greater Merseyside (AHGTM) has developed an evaluation toolkit as a resource for anyone delivering AHGTM programmes and activities. However, the toolkit, which contains a number of different methods for measuring the impact of AHGTM programmes, could potentially be adapted by other Aimhigher partnerships. The key components are as follows:

•	Easy steps to evaluation, an overview of the principles of evaluation and guide to planning an evaluation. 
•	Seven How to… guides on specific topics from monitoring race and disability to dealing with data. 
•	Evaluation instruments such as the AHGTM generic questionnaire, extended categories for monitoring race, and the AHGTM attitude scale. 
•	Samples of documents such as invitation letters for focus groups and consent forms. 
•	Templates for evaluation plans and reports. 

A PDF version of the toolkit is available to download from www.ahgtm.ac.uk/toolkit. For more information, please contact the AHGTM Evaluation Support Officer, Joanne McNeill, on 0151 794 1313 or by email to JMcNeill@liv.ac.uk. 

The NCRT is always keen to hear from practitioners who have developed resources which may be of interest to other partnerships. Please send details to the NCRT by email to aimhigher@harrisoncowley.com.