Writing on Guardian Public, Eifion Rees describes the transformation becoming a co-operative trust has had on the school. The article explores the benefits entering into the Cressex Co-operative Learning Partnership, with partners including other schools in the area as well as Buckinghamshire New University, Buckinghamshire County Council and the Co-operative College, has had on both the school and the local community.

Read the article at http://www.guardianpublic.co.uk/cressex-community-school-partnership.

The publication can be downloaded here.

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Students and teachers at Sutherland Co-operative Business & Enterprise College in Telford celebrated dramatically improved results — due in part to the co-operative ethos at the school. The percentage of students with 5 A*-C grades at GCSE including English and Maths increased from 33% to 60%, with the school achieving the best results for a comprehensive in the borough with an overall GCSE pass rate of 97% 5 A*-C.

Sutherland serves a number of local estates in Telford and became a Co-operative School in 2008 with sponsorship from the Midcounties Co-operative Society. It promotes co-operative values and students are encouraged to feel a greater sense of ownership of the school through membership of the Trust.

The turnaround has been noticeable, as the school received a notice to improve from Ofsted only last September, and staff and students have worked hard to get better results.

Amber O’Sullivan  from Donnington, near the school, gained 10 A*s and 8 As in a total of 22 outstanding GCSE passes. She said: “I am over the moon with these results and am so happy to have done so well. I worked really hard and had lots of support from my teachers — this is just great!” Steve Wall, Headteacher, said: “We congratulate the students, their families and all of the staff here who have supported them. The results demonstrate the high quality and commitment of staff. It is a significant moment in the school’s history and one to celebrate with our young people. We wish them every success in the next stage of their lives.”

Ben Reid, Chief Executive of Midcounties Co-operative, commented: “These results demonstrate that the co-operative movement’s strategy for engaging with schools is working to the benefit of learners and the communities we serve. I hope that the new government will see the benefits of co-operative schools and support their development. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Sutherland.”

Other Co-operative Schools saw big improvements in their results. Amongst the highlights were:

Orwell High School in Felixstowe, part of the Felixstowe Learning Trust, where 50% of students achieved 5 A*-C GCSE grades including Maths and English, which is a 25% increase on 2009.

47% of students at Wrockwardine Wood Arts College in Telford gained 5 A*-C including Maths and English, a 17% increase on last year.

Temple Moor High School & Science College in Leeds, part of the Temple Newsham Learning Partnership, the Pegasus Co-operative Learning Trust, increased their GCSE results by 21% with 63% of their students gaining 5 A*-C including English and Maths.

Mervyn Wilson, Principal of the Co-operative College, which established the National Network of Co-operative Schools, added: “We extend our warmest congratulations to all of the students and staff on these truly remarkable results. We have always believed that working in a clear framework of co-operative values, and directly engaging the community through co-operative models, can help bring about a sustainable transformation in achievement.”

The graduate students come from Andalusia, which is an area in the south of Spain with massive youth unemployment. Each one received a grant from the European Union that covered their travel and living costs while in the UK and the host organisations gave them valuable work experience in a field that was relevant to their educational studies.

The students were responsible for their travel arrangements and finding living accommodation in the city. The College sought out a series of suitable work placements and then supported and monitored the students during their stay.

The students hoped to learn many things while they were in the UK. Their primary aims were to gain work experience and to improve their English language knowledge and skills. Other aims were to learn about British culture and they organised several visits to cities such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin, London, Chester, Liverpool, Leeds, Bristol and Bath.

Two of the students have been offered short term jobs in Manchester which will add to their experience, and others hope to be able to find employment on their return to Spain.

Quotes from interns:

“I have learned so much about the English culture, improved my language skills and have grown my experience of working with children’s special educational needs.”

‘I have really improved my organizational and management skills, computer skills and I have a better understanding of English. I have expanded my computer knowledge related to web developing and content management system (html and css) and I would like to be able to create my own web site using all the knowledge I have acquired at my work placement.”

“This is my first experience of working, so I am learning everything about working practice. I spent more than five years studying and this is a new life for me. I am improving my knowledge about technical vocabulary and I learning about tender action, public realm, calculations in structural engineering, software, etc. The opportunity to work as part of the team building the new co-operative head office has been great for me.”

Quotes from placement supervisors:

“We have really enjoyed having Lidia with us. She has added so much to the work of the school and enhanced the experience of our students who are learning Spanish.”

Kath Cunningham, All Hallows Catholic College

“Having a global dimension to learning includes welcoming interns to our school. We were more than pleased to host the placement, which gave a real boost to the work of the co-operative trust and gave our interns the opportunity to learn a great deal during their placement with us.”

Phil Arnold, Director of Schools Improvement, Reddish Vale Technology College

Uganda Co-operative College has a rural setting, about 60 kilometers from the nearest town of Masindi, in the north west of Uganda. It can be found at the end of a bumpy road surrounded by fields of crops, including maize and sugar cane. Despite its modest surroundings and some dilapidated facilities, the College houses 350 students, all pursuing co-operative related diplomas combining ideas on business, micro finance or co-operative management. This makes it one of the central providers of education on co-operatives, particularly for youth in Uganda.

The College was established in 1954, and was managed by the co-operative movement in Uganda. It primarily provided in-service training to members of co-operatives. Since then, the ups and downs of the College have to some extent reflected the rise and fall and changes to the co-operative movement in Uganda. The Ministry of Education and Sports took control of the College in 1998 and turned it into a tertiary institution providing diplomas – this in part was due to the massively decreased number of co-operatives and a reduced demand from members for training on co-operatives.

Today, the College focuses on offering tertiary education in the form of diplomas to young people leaving school, with students generally being between the ages of 19-35 (although the average age is 23-24 years old). And whilst a stroll around the college gives you a sense that it lacks facilities, funding and staffing, with some classes having over 100 students, when you meet and talk to the students you begin to realise the quality of the education that is taking place there.

Students are taught about the technical skills that they need to run a co-operative, such as accountancy and marketing. They also learn about the history of co-operatives in Uganda, what a co-operative is, how its structure works, how it should be governed and the current debates and ideas in the co-operative arena.

This is effectively supported by an internship with a co-operative or related organisation, where students spend one term getting work experience and contributing their knowledge to different organisations. Overall this gives students a holistic and practical foundation from which to set up their own co-operative or join an existing co-operative. However, the ‘real’ education starts when they learn about and engage with what it is to co-operate and to be a co-operator, and this is under-pinned by the principles and values of co-operatives.

This style of education means the students are developing as individuals as well as developing technical skills. They talk about how their views on society have changed the need to care for their community and work with others to achieve what they aim for in life. They are changed by their time at the college, and this type of personal development transcends the diploma that they get when they graduate – it affects how they live their lives, how they do their jobs and how they view society.

It produces a group of young professionals that are a human resource for the co-operative sector in Uganda. They are trained co-operators who understand how co-operatives have changed in Uganda, are committed to developing and supporting grass roots co-operatives, able to train other members in the core principles of co-operatives and ready to sensitise the public at large to the potential of co-operatives.

However, many of the students do not go onto work for co-operatives. Some aspire to work for co-operatives but the majority want to do other things. They want to go on to further education (looking to upgrade their diploma to a degree), or work as an accountant or for the government. Despite their education, they do not necessarily see the co-operative sector or the setting up of a co-operative as a viable business. This is due in part to the history of co-operatives in Uganda and their reduction but is also due to lack of demand for their services from the co-operative sector.

The potential of these young people is not yet recognised by key co-operative stakeholders in Uganda. BUT, with the ever increasing revival of co-operatives, especially grass roots and primary co-operatives in the country, they have a pivotal role to play.

In addition, Sally Hartley, who has been working with the Co-operative College and the Open University, reports about youth co-operatives in Africa, and Linda Shaw feeds back about a conference she attended in Seattle on women in supply chains, hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Other items include news about a project the Co-operative College will be undertaking with co-operative archives in Tanzania, funded by the British Library, research into the history of the co-operative movement’s campaigns and news about links the Co-operative College is making with the Middle East via a new project in Bahrain.

To read the newsletter, click here or visit the Researching Co-operatives page of the website.

Co-operate for Change can be explored on the Enterprise Village website at

www.enterprisevillage.org.uk/cooperateforchange/welcome.html.

When Sutherland Business and Enterprise College teamed up with the Midlands Co-operative Society in 2008, it became one of the first co-operative trust schools in the country.

The Midcounties Co-operative was recently named as a national ‘Example of Excellence’ by Business in the Community (BITC) for its ‘Co-operative Approach to Education’, and the partnership was recognised as the best in the country. BITC Judge Anthony Salz said: “The partnership has delivered a wide range of impressive interventions, including a programme on knife crime that the judges thought both highly innovative and impactful. They are a deserving winner of the BITC 2010 Education Award for Excellence.

“The Midcounties should be applauded for developing a partnership that is truly embedded within the visions and missions of both the business and the school and that is seeing real return on investment in the shape of attainment and aspiration levels of the young people.”

Sutherland also recently received an award from the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust for improving its GCSE results from 34% attaining GCSE grades A*-C in three years to 76% in four years.

Midlands Co-operative Society President John Boot remarked on the embedding of the co-operative values into a school’s ethos, saying: “The partnership promotes co-operative values throughout the school, which include democracy and equality as well as ethical values of honesty, openness and social responsibility. We are looking forward to developing projects already in place and expanding on the work we do at Sutherland.”

For more information visit www.bitc.org.uk/resources/case_studies/afe_2583_1.html.