We are delighted that Nottinghamshire YMCA's Children and Young People's Department is nationally regarded as the current benchmark regarding PPA provision in schools. PPA (Planning, Preparation and Assessment) is a Government initiative which provides teaching staff with time away from the classroom to plan and prepare for lessons. We have created a programme where we provide staff to run sports and other lessons for pupils while teachers are taking PPA time.
We are currently working with 44 schools across Nottinghamshire and deliver 224 sessions per week. Due to the success of our PPA provision, we have employed a number of staff to teach the 8,900 children we work with in these schools.
The PPA pricing structure has recently been evaluated to tie in with new service level agreements issued to all schools participating in the PPA Programme. We deliver PPA cover in subjects including drama, art, music and modern languages as well as sports.
The Sport and Recreation in the Community Department delivered a highly successful conference at Trent Bridge Cricket Ground in April 2006. The aim of this conference was to share information regarding the concept of Planning, Preparation and Assessment (The Government's PPA initiative for schools) with other YMCAs/organisations nationally.
The conference was attended by forty-three delegates representing twenty-three YMCAs, some from as far away as Plymouth and Hove. The conference was also attended by delegates from outside of the YMCA movement including York City Council.
There were five presentations throughout the day, two of which were delivered by Nottinghamshire YMCA staff. An extremely informative presentation was delivered by a school head teacher, who expressed the benefits that working in partnership with Nottinghamshire YMCA had brought to his school. A presentation was delivered by Sue Winton from the National Schools Remodelling Team (NRT) who make recommendations to schools regarding what should be delivered during PPA time. The final presentation was delivered by Chantry YMCA who talked about their PPA project and how Nottinghamshire YMCA has successfully operated as a consultant in helping them set up the project.
No conference would be complete without an Evaluation Form, and we received over 95% feedback from those issued! The evaluations from the delegates were extremely positive and the following comments were made:
" ... It has been a great day. Very informative, very relevant and well delivered. Fantastic venue, enjoyed the tour immensely. Lots of practical advice, good to get view from NRT and a local school. I am sure that I will have lots of questions in the future so it is good to know that staff at Nottinghamshire YMCA will be available to help ... "
"Excellent, very useful."
"Overall a good conference ... Congratulations on what is clearly a valuable and respected community programme."
"Really informative."
"Really excellent day - great to share good practice. Thanks for inviting me to be involved."
"A very useful day, thanks."
The Children and Young People's Department have developed a package for other YMCAs and organisations to access, to work in consultation with us using our model as the benchmark.
Contact: Schools Services at Nottinghamshire YMCA. Tel: (0115) 855 3315 or email ppa@nottsymca.org