Students from Islington Arts and Media School
get their hands on the FA Cup during one of the learning sessions
at Arsenal Football Club
Helping young people make the most of their opportunities and
fulfil their potential is what CEA@Islington – our education
partnership with the London Borough of Islington – has been doing
for six years in providing services for over 60 schools. We have
won widespread recognition in the process and are now building on
the successes to take our partnership into an exciting new
phase.
Cambridge Education was awarded the contract to run the Borough’s
nursery, primary and secondary schools for seven years from April
2000. The partnership CEA@Islington has been so successful that
Islington Council decided to renew it for a further five years from
April 2006 before the contract had expired. Islington is the first
local authority in the country to voluntarily renew a contract of
this nature.
Since the 400-strong CEA@Islington team took over running
Islington’s schools the results for Key Stages 2 and 4 (national
tests for 11 and 16 year olds respectively) have improved faster
than national improvement levels and there has been substantial
improvement in GCSEs (exams taken at the end of compulsory
secondary education). From 2003 to 2004 Islington was the most
improved local education authority for GCSE results in England.
CEA@Islington’s aim is to continue improving the academic
aspirations and achievements of all pupils in Islington through
maintaining a range of high quality services to schools, teachers,
pupils, governors and the wider school community. One of the key
areas that the team has been working particularly hard to improve
is the extended services to schools and out of school hours
learning. An aspect of this is the Learning Plus team which builds
relationships between schools and local providers to set up
resources for children – such as the learning programme developed
with Arsenal Football Club. Children attending the club work for 40
minutes in improving literacy and numeracy skills within a football
theme, then enjoy 40 minutes football coaching.
Winning the UK’s top customer service award, the Charter Mark
assessed and awarded by the Cabinet Office is another indication
of customer service excellence. Islington is the only education
authority in the country to have been awarded a Charter Mark for
its entire service and the award was recently renewed for another
three years.
