Bryson Education Hits the Mark
Bryson Education, part of the Northern Ireland Energy Agency, went through it’s first rolling assessment for Chartermark this September. The assessment process involved checking documentary evidence, a lunchtime chat with stakeholders and visits to schools that have used the service over the past year. The department not only retained Chartermark, but improved on the previous year’s assessment, with partial compliances being reduced from four to two, the two previously awarded best practices being retained and two more achieved.
Marks of Best Practice were achieved in the following criterion parts:
You use technology to provide information about, and access to, services where appropriate.
You provide services flexibly to give people choice.
Your services and facilities have improved over the last three years, and you can
measure or demonstrate the improvements. *
You monitor your activities and have evidence of their positive effect in the
community. *
(*New for 2009)
A lot of the evidence for the additional Best Practices came from discussions with stakeholders over lunch and teachers telling the assessor about pupils taking the message from school into the home.
The assessor stood by his comment from the previous assessment, that it was “gratifying to see an applicant that has put in so much time and effort to improving processes that allow them to better manage this very important role, that of educating children in relation to environmental issues”.
With regards to the 2009 assessment in particular, he added “despite loosing some of your funding and moving under the banner of the Energy Agency, staff have maintained their boundless enthusiasm and commitment to their important work.”