Vision

‘To raise aspirations and improve basic and key skills among the school population and their families, and to
 provide a wide range of opportunities for lifelong learning, with equal access for all.’

Goals

• To shape team players and encourage self starters among the school age population
• To provide employment related skills
• To identify gaps in educational provision and enable provision
• To provide informal opportunities for learning that can be accessed by the full age range
• To maintain and increase knowledge of crafts and rural skills.

Principles

• Skilled youngsters have higher aspirations
• Skilled youngsters have more personal resources to sustain them through difficult times
• Skilled youngsters find more openings to establish themselves in society
• Learning and education is a lifelong activity that renews and regenerates vitality at all ages
• Education is more than training and provides opportunities for greater satisfaction with life.

Values

• Education provides opportunity
• Education shapes and is shaped by community
• Education has positive value in terms of socialisation.

Strategies to move from the present position to the vision

• Broaden the range of learning opportunities among pre-school age children
• Work with strategic partners to enable all local children to benefit from the outcomes of Every Child Matters
• Enable children living in areas of deprivation to receive professional support and advice.

How the Projects embody the strategies

• The Kingfisher Nursery Outdoor Play area will provide the pre-school age children attending with a widened
  range of learning opportunities when the sensory garden has been established.
• The annual Family Festival planned to coincide with Families Week in mid October will provide a range of
  activities and events in schools and in the communities to encourage local families and children to raise their
  aspirations and to enable them to understand the benefits offered by the outcomes of Every Child Matters.
• Children’s Centre to be located at Wilcombe Primary School will provide a centre in Tiverton where families
  in difficulties can gain advice, support and assistance, and which acts as a hub for similar work in the
  surrounding villages.

The vision of our group is closely aligned with and supportive of the Tiverton Learning Council and the five
outcomes of Every Child Matters. Members included representatives from local schools, the library and East
Devon College, and members who support lifelong learning. These are at the core of the Devon Strategic Plan
and the Devon Children and Young People Plan. We support the project to set up a Children’s Centre at
Wilcombe School, and are keen that full access to the facilities it will offer to families with children under five
facing difficulties will be extended to Bampton when the new school there is built, through regular use of the
proposed community room. We support the extension arm of the Children’s Centre at Two Moors School,
which is located in the area of greatest deprivation in Tiverton.

The group has some concerns about the impact of the Extended School Day on young children, feeling that
many are often very tired at the end of an ordinary school day. However, we also recognise that many parents
of young children are working and that private provision for these children until their parents return home
from work may not always be of the standard that the organised Extended School Day might provide. We feel
that it is vital that provision caters for the real needs of these children.

The Snapshot (Part 5) provides data supporting the need to raise aspirations among students in the area,
particularly Tiverton. We feel this is best done by generating family interest in the five outcomes of Every
Child Matters. We have supported and are partnering the work of the schools and Devon County Council in
setting up the Family Festival Week in the Tiverton Learning Community area. The success of the first
Festival (7th -15th October 2006) has been very encouraging. Work is now starting on preparation for next
year’s festival, for which funding will be sought from the Big Lottery.

The Kingfisher Nursery, on the north side of the town where much of the new development is taking place,
has been given land on which to establish a sensory garden and play area for children under five. It also serves
the Lowman Ward, where the index of multiple deprivation is highest. Due to recent illness, work on this
project has been delayed, but fundraising and planning will start shortly. With some neighbourhoods in
Tiverton in the top quartile for the index of education deprivation, it is important that the best start possible
for these young children is provided.

In February 2006, we conducted a school survey with the Heritage, Arts and Culture Focus Group to
discover what children and their families liked about living in the area, what they least liked and what
improvements they would like to see. There was a good response, with the best things about the area being
the countryside, friendly people, quietness, nice neighbours and a good community life. The worst things
identified about living in the area were distance from friends for those in rural locations, and lack of local
amenities. Requests included more for youngsters to do, especially for sports facilities, and also for an
internet café and improved shopping facilities. We passed some on to other Focus Groups as appropriate and
we hope that the projects they have included will address some of these concerns. The Sport and Recreation
Focus Group are working hard to plan for a wider range of sports facilities. We hope that other projects, such
as the first phase of the Town Enhancement Scheme, will address other requests, and the work of the ICT
group with Friends of the Pannier Market might include an internet cafe. The analysis of the questionnaire is
outlined later in the Plan in Part 3, ‘Across the Parishes’.
Ruth Arnold, October 2006