Friends of the Isle of Eigg

Small Isles Learning Network

Newsletter October 2004

Welcome to our first newsletter, hopefully the first of many where we aim to keep you informed of our progress on research we’re doing to establish the demand and feasibility for setting up a Learning Network for the Small Isles and Knoydart with a base on Eigg.

INTRODUCTION

First of all, why did we set up this project and what is it about?

At present, secondary school children from the Small Isles (Eigg, Muck, Rum, and Canna) and Knoydart have limited choices regarding their education:
- Children attend Mallaig High School which entails boarding with local families and visits home every second weekend. The Small Isles and Knoydart are the only areas left in the UK where children are unable to go home every weekend.
- Travel often involves missing school at the end and beginning of the school week. The situation is compounded by the number of times boats are disrupted by strong winds and gales leaving children either unable to return home or missing even more school because they are stuck at home.
- Having children as young as eleven living away from the family home is disturbing and upsetting for families. These are not the best conditions for children to carry out their secondary education.
- Home education -- This option is rarely chosen, as it involves a large degree of social exclusion.
- Moving the whole family to live nearer a local authority school -- many families have chosen to leave the area when their children reach secondary school age, as parents of children in the Small Isles and Knoydart are less and less willing to be parted from their children.
Availability of new technology
- Broadband and other IT innovations such as video conferencing mean that it is now possible to have a virtual school which covered all the islands and Knoydart. Operated from Eigg, this would give children the opportunity to study part of their secondary education near to home.
- They would still be required to attend a secondary school for some of their time to study the practical subjects, take part in sporting activities and for social inclusion.
- We envisage this solution of part time virtual school and part time secondary school would attract younger, forward thinking and innovative families to move into the area and help stabilise the population of a fragile community.
Further and Adult Education

After leaving school there is no opportunity for further education in the immediate area. A Learning Network would provide this choice and all adult residents would have the opportunity for further education which would have knock on effects to the community and economy.

Access to ICT equipment
- A Learning Network would provide the same standard of ICT hardware other children in Mainland schools have access to.

WHY THIS IS BEING CONSIDERED NOW

We have focused our research on an island based Learning Network at this time because:

A Virtual School Co-ordinator has been appointed by the local education authority making this method of teaching a realistic option.
Earlier this year, yet another established family left one of the islands when their children approached secondary school age.
There may be available an area in the old school house (soon to be partially converted to a nursery and office) where a Learning Centre to support a learning network for the Small Isles and Knoydart could be accommodated.

WHO IS DOING THE RESEARCH

Sue Hollands, Sue Kirk and Sheena Keen from Eigg with help from new Eigg resident Lucy Scott.

Our research team are supported by our primary school teacher, the directors of The Isle of Eigg Trust and our Development Co-ordinator. This team applied for and was awarded funding from Rural Voices 2004 which allows us to carry out a feasibility study within the Small Isles and Knoydart area to find out if the residents feel a Learning Network would be of benefit to their communities and the economy of the area.

WHAT ARE THE RESEARCH TEAM DOING?

We intend to research the need for a Learning Network utilising IT and video linkage (through satellite connection) based on the Isle of Eigg to serve all residents of the Small Isles and Knoydart. A Learning Network could provide:

Adult education
Virtual secondary education
Support primary education through IT.

The project’s overall aim is:

To establish the viability of a Learning Network based on the Isle of Eigg containing a Virtual High School and Community College for the Small Isles and Knoydart.

Project objectives:

To establish the extent of need for a Virtual High School.
To establish the extent of need of a Community College/Adult Learning Centre.
To investigate how much the present arrangements for education affect current high school pupils.
To establish the level of support from residents and the community of the Small Isles and Knoydart.
To establish the willingness of local high schools to be flexible and co-operate with a virtual school.
To explore similar schemes in other rural areas.

Longer term objectives

Assuming the need for a Learning Network is established:

Establish funding and support.
Approach education authority
Approach Scottish Executive
Approach further education centres

To carry out our research, we intend visiting the areas mentioned with the presentation we have compiled and have informal discussions with groups in these areas. We are also working on a questionnaire that will be distributed to all people in the area aged 10years and upwards.

This will be followed up by face to face questionnaires if required.

We will have focus groups and consultation groups with interested parties.

We are exploring how other education establishments in remote areas work and have been in touch via e-mail with companies specialising in remote learning. In particular an IT solutions company based on Islay have been in touch with us and are very interested in helping us in any way possible. We hope to visit Islay in the near future to see how their video conferencing and computer linked learning network for Jura, Islay and Colansay works.

SOME OF THE ISSUES

The issue of secondary schooling is very important to people living in the Small Isles. It is close to the heart of parents of pre-school and primary children. Knowing their children will have to attend a secondary school on the mainland in the future makes if hard for parents to plan and develop their lives in the area and feel settled on the Small Isles.

For those who chose to stay, their children are away for long periods and parents are only able to give limited educational support.

These issues have knock-on effects on the community as young people are less likely to return, settle and stay. The resultant residents are made up mostly of people in their forties and older.

For a viable future as a community we need to have a wide spectrum of people of all ages who feel life on the Small Isles has all the benefits (if not more) of life on the mainland.

The Scottish Executive has made a commitment to support isolated rural communities and the move to an established Virtual School would give us the opportunity of developing into a balanced community with the opportunity for economic growth.

The children in primary schools in the area have poor access to ICT because of the poor radio link to the mainland. At the present time Broadband is being set up on the Islands and Knoydart. It is experiencing some teething problems at the moment but should prove to be an asset in the future.

For example, presently there are only four children on the Eigg school roll, which means the budget is small. This prevents the school from purchasing expensive items such as an interactive white board and projector and subscriptions of providers of lesson plans and lesson activities through ICT such as “Learn Premium”. This means the children at Small Isles primary schools are at a disadvantage compared to their counterparts in mainland schools.

The introduction of a Virtual Learning Network would allow the children access to education about ICT, and education through the media of ICT, equivalent to the experiences of children in larger mainland schools. Similar infrastructure would have to be installed within the participating areas to facilitate communication.

These issues are compounded by the lack of opportunity of distant adult education. One of our co-ordinators is studying a degree which entails her leaving the island regularly for video linkage meetings in Fort William, a hundred mile round trip with two or three days away from Eigg; something she should be able to achieve at home. An adult education centre would allow all adults to continue their education. This should be available for everyone, as is in most places on the mainland. The Residents Association have agreed that we need to increase the number of people living here. That goal would be much easier to achieve if Eigg was a place of many attributes, including excellent electronic connections to the world with the opportunities this offers, and not one where people are disadvantaged.

We envisage writing a final report to cover the entire project as this would probably be the most efficient method of taking the project forward. We would be happy for other communities to access our project and share our experiences and research methods. The report could be published both on the Isle of Eigg Web page and by any other methods appropriate to the work. We would be delighted it other communities could access and use our work. Being able to carry out research within the community empowers residents to take responsibility for bringing about changeand we would like other communities to have similar opportunities. We intend to keep interested parties informed with a quarterly newsletter.

For further information please e-mail Sheena Keen