If you do not measure success you cannot know you have been successful.

Spark of Genius places significant emphasis on measuring the progress of our young people, as detailed in their individual care and education plans which are tailored to meet their needs, developed following a detailed referral and assessment procedure. Specific needs include attainment as measured by academic qualifications, achievement in all its guises, and increasing self esteem and resilience. We also measure improvements with specific issues relating to increasing school attendance, reducing significant or serious incidents (such as offending behaviour and/or substance misuse), reducing absconding behaviour and increasing and sustaining positive overnight home contact, where appropriate. Spark measures success in a number of different ways:

1. Comparing the academic results of our young people against national levels of accreditation. Click here to read our Outcomes document.

2. The self-esteem and resilience of our young people is measured by the completion of a detailed questionnaire developed by our consultant coordinating psychologist. This questionnaire consists of twenty five statements that young people rate on a scale which they agree or disagree with. Young people complete these questionnaires every three months and these results allow our psychologist to evaluate our young people’s resilience and self-esteem development. Click here to view the resilience scale at our Riverside House residential care facility.

3. The progress of young people against their behavioural needs, such as absconding behaviour and school attendance, is monitored and evaluated by collecting appropriate data and presenting it in graphical form. The graphs enable us to measure achievement in focus areas. The data in the graphs is assessed using our SparkACE system. You can read more about the SparkACE system in the Software Design section. You can also click here to read the SparkACE summary report for one of our pupils in the 2008 session.

4. Positive Care Commission and HMIE reports. Click here to read our latest reports.

5. A number of positive external reviews from partner organisations. These are available on request. Please use the contact us section to request these reviews.

6. The results of our own, on going audit as summarised by How Good is Our School (HGIOS).

7. Very positive feedback from YP, families, social work and education departments partner professionals. Click here to read our 'Good News Leaflet'.

8. High attendance statistics. Click here read our attendance figures from our day education learning centres.

9. Meeting notes of YP in pupil councils and residents meetings

10.Positive publicity in media. Click here to visit our Press Centre.