Progress to Success (P2S)

Progress to Success Framework

The University of Derby’s Progress to Success Framework (P2S) is the bedrock of the Widening Participation Team’s activity, providing progressive interactions to pupils from Year 7 to Year 11.  

The key objective of P2S is to facilitate the realisation of ambitions for learners through a series of research-informed experiences. Exploration into ‘what works’ informs core activities, including summer schools, campus visits, and classroom workshops, which cover a breadth of learning styles. 

The Progress to Success (P2S) framework is part of the university's broader effort to raise educational aspirations and address social mobility challenges across Derbyshire. The activities in the framework form the bedrock of the Widening Participation Team’s activity, designed to support students at every stage of their secondary education journey, providing crucial information about higher education and alternative progression routes from Year 7 to Year 11. In 2023-24 P2S activities were offered to 34 of the WP Team’s 40 partner secondary schools. 

Key Aspects of Progress to Success

1. Targeted Support: The program focuses on engaging some of the most disadvantaged learners in the county, particularly those from areas with low participation rates in higher education or who are eligible for free school meals. 
2. Collaborative Approach: P2S works closely with local schools, organisations, and the University's own student body to create a supportive and inspiring environment for learners.
3. Comprehensive Framework: Activities form a ‘building-block’ menu ranging from university experience days and residential summer schools to in-school sessions that cover topics like progression pathways and the benefits of higher education. 

2023-24 marked the final year of the male non-residential summer school and the Wellbeing Works sessions, due to consistently low take-up with P2S schools. 

18 of the 34 schools offered Progress to Success participated in at least one type of activity, however only 10 participated in more than one type. Of the 46 activities recorded, 24 of those were on-campus. 

Table 1 and 2 shows the number of P2S activities has continued to decline for the 4th consecutive year, however, the number of participants has remained consistently around 3000-4000. One reason for this is the consolidation of audiences into bigger groups to reduce the frequency that sessions are delivered without reducing the number of students the session is delivered to. 

Table 1

Table 2

The Widening Participation Team has re-organised its school partners for the year 2024-25, to prioritise P2S activities with 12 Derbyshire schools, within the cohort of 32 schools earmarked for regular intervention. 

Overall, the University of Derby’s Progress to Success programme is making a real difference by empowering students – particularly those from groups underrepresented in higher education – to achieve their full potential. Of those who provided WP data collection forms and register data:  

• 53% of participants are from a non-white background.

• 41% of participants are (or have been in the last 6 years) eligible for Free School Meals. 

• 68% were from the 40% most deprived postcode areas using IMD data. 

Evaluation data of activities indicates: 

• An average percentage point increase of 28, for Year 7 students feeling like they will fit in at university after their Experience Day (average 35.9% before the day to average 64.2% after the day). 

• An average percentage point increase of 15, for Year 10 students understanding the academic and social benefits of higher education (average 72% before the day to average 88% after the day). 

These statistics, compelling as they are, pale into insignificance when learners tell us the legacy of taking part in P2S: “I've got a little sister and…I've got this knowledge, this cultural capital, that I can deliver to her. I am usually not the cleverest person in the room but people come to me and ask for help.” Supporting learners to develop their own pathway to success is what really matters.