The Excellence in Cities (EiC) programme is implemented through local partnerships focusing on the needs and aspirations of individual pupils and their parents.  It currently involves 58 authorities in the main programme. In addition, there are now 25 Excellence Clusters.

Study support aims to provide innovative ways of engaging and supporting children in learning, and evaluation has found firm evidence that participating pupils do better than expected from baseline measures in academic attainment, attitudes to school and attendance at school. It is therefore an integral and important part of many of the different EIC policy strands and EIC as a whole. 

There are three phases of the EiC programme:

• Phase 1 began in September 1999 with 25 LEAs and over 400 secondary schools
• Phase 2 in September 2000 with a further 23 LEAs and some 300 secondary schools
• Phase 3 from September 2001 with 10 new LEAs and over 150 secondary schools

Additionally EiC consists of:

• The Primary Extension Project, in Phase 1 areas from September 2000, includes over 1000 primary schools
• Excellence Clusters involving almost 400 schools

EiC is based on four core values:

• High expectations of every individual pupil and all young people
• Diversity of provision
• Networks of schools
• Extension of opportunity to bring success to every school

The Key strands of the Excellence in Cities programme are:

• Learning Mentors with over 3,500 appointed in secondary and primary schools (who work to help pupils who have barriers to learning)
• Learning Support Units with some 500 in secondary schools plus 60 in primary schools (to tackle disaffected or disruptive pupils in schools)
• City Learning Centres - 105 planned - 80 are already open (to provide state of the art information and communication technology (ICT)
• Beacon Schools* (446) and Specialist Schools (282)
• Excellence in Cities Action Zones (102) to focus on low performance in small clusters of schools - working in partnership with business and other organisations
• Extended opportunities for gifted and talented pupils across all EiC areas (through special programmes);
• Opportunities for more pupils to set their sights at Higher Education through Aim Higher (previously called Excellence Challenge)
• School Leadership
• Behaviour Improvement Programme (BIP) - piloting innovative measures to improve behaviour and attendance

In the primary pilot the key strands are:

• Learning Mentors
• Primary Learning Support Units
• Enhanced opportunities for gifted and talented pupils

In EiC Clusters the key strands are:

• Learning Mentors
• Learning Support Units
• Provision for Gifted and Talented pupils
• A tailored strand to target particular local issues, as identified by the schools in each Cluster

Some Excellence in Cities areas as well as Excellence Clusters and Education Action Zones are now benefiting directly from a pilot scheme which intensifies support for low attaining primary schools through the use of specialist consultants, working to recognise specific needs and raise standards in literacy and mathematics.

*In the light of the introduction of the Leading Edge programme in the secondary sector from April 2003, secondary Beacons were phased out from August 2005.

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