ITEM NO
CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE SCRUTINY COMMITTEE
18TH APRIL 2007
REPORT FROM CHIEF LEARNING AND ACHIEVEMENT OFFICER
INFORMATION ON 14 – 19 CURRICULUM LINKS BETWEEN SECONDARY SCHOOLS AND FURTHER EDUCATION IN WREXHAM
PURPOSE OF THE REPORT
To inform Members of the 14 – 19 curriculum links established between secondary schools and Further Education (FE) in Wrexham.
INFORMATION
This report contains information on curriculum collaboration between secondary schools and FE at both Key Stage 4 and Post 16 level.
The following section (paragraphs 1 – 5) outline developments at Key Stage 4 (14 – 16 age range):-
1. Focus Programme
The initial curriculum links between schools and Yale College were established soon after Wrexham County Borough became a unitary authority.
These courses range from one day a week courses over two years to taster courses which run over a term. All learners leave with some form of accreditation. Most courses use Open College Network (OCN) units as the method of accreditation whilst some lead to NVQ (National Vocational Qualifications) units at Levels 1 or 2 or in some cases the full Level 1 and 2 qualifications.
Initially these courses were aimed at lower achieving pupils but lately have been extended to include more middle ability pupils who are not motivated by a traditional Key Stage 4 curriculum.
These courses have been funded through:-
- Cymorth funding
- LEA funding
- School funding
Cymorth funding will be withdrawn for the 2007 – 08 financial year and the 14 – 19 Network will now fund that element.
2. Curriculum Enrichment Partnership
This initiative was launched in 2004 and funded by the 14 – 19 network. It builds on the partnership established by the link courses with Yale College but also involves other providers.
The aim is to provide equal opportunity pathways with clearly defined accreditation and support on 17 vocational courses for young people aged 14+ with learning difficulties or disabilities at six learning establishments namely:
- Yale College;
- Welsh College of Horticulture;
- Coleg Llysfasi;
- Wrexham Training;
- Deeside College; and
- St Christopher’s.
All of the courses lead to an accreditation in one of the following qualifications:-
- Open College Network (OCN)
- City and Guilds
- National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) at Entry Levels and Level 1
The courses offered are:-
Construction, Hairdressing, Beauty Therapy, Horticulture, Equestrian, Conservation, Motor Mechanics, Agriculture, Forestry, Catering, Photography, Ceramics, Sports Therapy, Animation, Electronics, Small Animal Care
3. Rhosnesni – Clywedog – Yale Partnership
This partnership was established as a part of the reorganisation of secondary education in the town centre.
Law and Psychology were offered as General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) courses for more able pupils with the Law course being completed in year 10 and the Psychology course being studied in year 11. The students attend Yale College for one afternoon a week with the courses being delivered by lecturers from the College. Results have been excellent and from September 2007 these courses will be available to pupils in all of the secondary schools in the County Borough.
Two vocational courses were also introduced at the same time, namely Hairdressing and Catering at NVQ Level 1. After the first year the Catering course was replaced by Construction in order to ensure a more equitable gender mix across the courses.
4. Winter College
The Winter College was set up to target students in the Communities First areas who were not progressing into education or training at the end of Key Stage 4. In Spring 2005, using Reaching Higher Reaching Wider monies, Rhosnesni School, Yale College, the local Higher Education provider North East Wales Institute of Higher Education (NEWI), the Careers Service and the Youth Service amongst others developed the Winter College. Year 11 pupils from the most deprived wards who are not focussed on a career pathway or training route are given 3½ days in Yale and ½ in NEWI on a vocational pathway, and then are introduced to the various training options they have after leaving school through presentations from local providers.
The success rate for placing the first cohort of 48 students in employment or training was over 90%. Perhaps the most significant factor in this process was the mentoring by the various support agencies in the school and the tracking of the pupils after the course by the College and Careers Wales.
This has now been extended to three high schools and this year 96 pupils participated. This multi-agency approach to dealing with difficult problems has been recognised both a local and national levels. In particular, the DVD provided by pupils on the second cohort has been used widely to publicise the programme.
5. 14 – 16 Options Menu Developments September 2007
A survey was conducted amongst a sample of year 12/13 students at Yale, Ysgol Morgan Llwyd, Ysgol Rhiwabon and The Maelor School, Penley to determine the perceived shortfall in provision at 14, by seeking the views of students who had recently completed the 14 – 16 phase of their education.
The Regional Statement of Needs and Priorities (RSNP) was also used to identify the future employment needs of Wrexham and North East Wales.
The findings of the survey and the information contained in the RSNP led to the development of a range of additional courses which will be offered to all students starting Key Stage 4 in September 2007.
All of the courses will be full two year courses and will lead to an accredited qualification.
The courses offered are as follows:
Level 2 (A – C GCSE Equivalent)
- Performing Arts
- Horticulture
Level 1 (D – G GCSE Equivalent)
- Construction
- Hair and Beauty
- Customer Care
- Equine Studies
- Horticulture
- Engineering
GCSE – 2 of the following over two years
- Law
- Psychology
- Electronics
- Geology
- Economics
All of these courses will be delivered on a Tuesday afternoon and schools will draw up a common timetable to include these courses and other in-house courses delivered at the school.
Most of these courses will be delivered at Yale while the Horticulture course will be delivered at The Maelor School, Penley.
During the financial year 2006 – 07 elected Members allocated £100k additional funding to facilitate new courses at Key Stage 4 for the academic year that began in September 2006. In total 25 new courses were identified for delivery for September 2006. The majority of these were vocational courses, some having multiple GCSE equivalence with others leading to BTEC qualifications.
6. The following section deals with Post 16 Collaboration
Since 2005 the three mainstream post 16 secondary schools, St Christopher’s and Yale College have been endeavouring to strengthen their post 16 curricular links.
During the academic year 2005 – 06 the three post 16 schools and Yale worked in partnership to deliver minority AS (AS = Year 12)/A2 (A2 – Year 13) subjects where the take up in any one institution did not justify running the course. The courses delivered were Religious Education, Spanish and Italian, students at the schools were also able to access Sociology at the College. In addition to this, Rhiwabon and Maelor, Penley are collaboration using the video conferencing facilities to deliver A Level Electronics.
During the same financial year 2005 – 06, the 14 – 19 network used the post 16 capital funding to provide video conferencing facilities at Ysgol Rhiwabon and The Maelor School, Penley. This was seen as the best way of progressing post 16 collaboration. Yale College and Ysgol Morgan Llwyd already had video conferencing facilities prior to this and Morgan Llwyd has been collaborating successfully with other Welsh medium schools for a number of years by utilising video conferencing.
During the financial year 2006 – 07 funding from the post 16 Common Investment Fund (CIF) and the 16 – 19 capital allocation has been used to develop the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) to further progress collaboration and partnerships at post 16.
7. Bilingual Collaboration
A successful Bilingual Common Investment Fund (CIF) bid has enabled Ysgol Morgan Llwyd and Yale College to collaborate on delivering two bilingual vocational courses at Key Stage 4, namely:
- Customer Care – NVQ Levels 1/2 (Key Stage 4/Key Stage 5)
- Leisure and Tourism - Double Award GCSE
At the post 16 level a CACHE (Child Care) Course is being delivered collaboratively.
Ysgol Morgan Llwyd also has a long history of cross authority collaboration with other Welsh medium schools using their video conferencing facilities to partially deliver the following post 16 courses:-
- Politics and Government - with Maes Garmon, Mold – Glan Clwyd, St Asaph
- History (one unit - with Ysgol Caereinion, Powys
- Geography (units) - with Ysgol Caereinion, Powys
- Drama – Tutorials - with Maes Garmon, Mold
- Media Tutorials - with Maes Garmon, Mold
- Religious Education (one unit) - with Glan Clwyd, St Asaph
Appendix 1 contains information regarding the main focus of the 2007- 08 Annual Network Development Plan as well as the:-
- Competitive Revenue Bid
- Competitive Capital Bid
RECOMMENDATION
That Members note the positive developments taking place within the 14 – 19 partnership.
BACKGROUND PAPERS
WEBSITE INFORMATION
Report Ref: CLAO/09/07S
1. To inform Elected Members of the main focus of the 2007-2008
14-19 Development Plan
Information
The aim of the 14-19 Learning Pathways is that:
‘95% of young people by the age of 25 will be ready for high skilled
employment on higher education by 2005.’
2007-2008 is the third Annual Network Development Plan produced by the Wrexham Network and following a consultation conference held at Rossett Hall in October, the following priorities have been identified:
· Increase participation of 16-19 year olds in learning activity
· Strengthen the Learning Core and develop the options menu to give wider choice to student reduce unnecessary duplication
· Continue improving learning and teaching strategies in all education settings to raise achievement acknowledging the requirements of the Regional Statement of Needs and Priorities and local economic demands
· Further develop Learning Coach support to include all learning settings
· Further develop personal support provision in collaboration with the Young People’s Partnership
· All of the priorities are linked to the main recommendation of the Chapman Action Plan
These priorities will be addressed by the following activities in 2007-2008:
Strategic Priority 1
Increase participation of 16-19 year olds in learning activity.
1. Support Welsh medium option menu collaboration across North East Wales Networks by introduction of pre-16 construction course delivered at Morgan Llwyd.
2. Extend the options menu 14-16 on Tuesday afternoons with common timetabling with 9 programmes taking place at four 16+ venues.
3. Continue to support the enrichment programme at entry level for young people with learning difficulties.
4. Further develop the Winter College model.
5. Further develop the twilight Modern Foreign Language (MFL) courses from 1 to 2 to encourage greater uptake of languages at 16.
6. Continue to support Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and Video Conferencing (VC) at 16 plus.
7. Support the LEA link course programme for reluctant learners.
8. Initiate an audit and development plan for VLE pre 16.
9. Roll out pre-16 and pilot post-16 entrepreneurship activities.
10. Organise 2 retail events to address this local priority.
11. Increase youth worker provision in 4 schools and provide a youth worker in Yale College.
12. Introduce the student assistance programme to Yale College.
13. Continue to support delivery of learning coaching in all institutions.
14. Support further rollout of the Welsh Baccalaureate to pre and post-16 settings as pilots are evaluated.
15. Acknowledge the outcomes of any research based evidence or attrition rates post-16 and impact on learning infrastructure as detailed in ARL Community Consortium for Education and Training (CCET) submission.
16. One to one mentoring for year 9 students at options time where there is a danger of drop out prior to year 10.
17. Submit competitive capital bid to extend options menu post-16 to meet local economic and learner needs.
18. Submit competitive revenue bid to extend options menu pre and post-16 using VLE.
Strategic Priority 2
Strengthen the Learning Core and develop the Options menu to give wider choice to students and reduce unnecessary duplication.
1. Support Welsh medium option menu development with other networks for our Welsh medium school.
2. By common timetabling on Tuesday afternoons widen the options menu introducing a number of new subjects at 14, giving access to new learning pathways.
3. Extend the winter college provision to encourage potential not in education, employment or training (NEETs) to remain in school.
4. Extend the MFL twilight provision to include Spanish in addition to German.
5. Continue and extend the 16 plus provision for minority subjects using VLE and VC facilities.
6. Rationalise Link course provision so that there is no unnecessary duplication with the new options programme.
7. Complete a VLE audit and Development plan for 14-16.
8. Ensure the school catering courses have access to Yale catering facilities.
9. Make available accredited work experience for all pre-16 students and pilot accreditation for post-16.
10. Increase the availability of a one week entrepreneurship programme for pre-16 to three one week slots and pilot a similar experience post-16.
11. Repeat vocational tasters at 14 but in other vocational areas.
12. Organise Retail events both pre and post-16 in order to promote this as a learning pathway to meet a local need.
13. Fund the Northeast Wales Employers Forum previously funded for one year by each of the other networks.
14. Fund one meeting with Wrexham Employers as part of Wrexham business week, following on from a meeting funded by economic development.
15. Continue to support the work related Quality Circle to share good practice and develop programmes.
16. Fund 0.4 of the Work Related Education (WRE) co-ordinator working across the three networks.