MODERN BACCALAUREATE Taking on the EBacc


Frustrated at the academic focus of the English Baccalaureate,


a group of schools has pioneered what it calls a more rounded equivalent – the Modern Baccalaureate. Headteacher Andrew Chubb explains


W


hen the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) was first introduced in January 2011, we knew that we had a challenge. As a Church of England academy, all our students take religious education GCSE, but that


subject was not “on the list”. And what about the students whose preferences lay with the arts, engineering or design technology subjects? While we fully appreciated the individual value of


the subjects contained within the EBacc, we did not want to push an options system that somehow implied that this particular collection of subjects had any more intrinsic value than any other. Our response was to sharpen our own curriculum


offer and to ensure that we gave every pupil an education that would enable him or her to be “equipped for life”. We called it the Modern Baccalaureate (ModBac).


Union address: UNISON Healthy meals under threat?


Christine Lewis fears that academy


schools will undermine the ongoing campaign for


healthy school meals WE HAVE come a long way since serving kids chemical crap and chips for their midday meal. When Labour came to power in 1997, school


meals were unregulated and quality had fallen in the face of contract competition based on price. Fast fatty food, prepared by undertrained, under-resourced and overworked staff was the rule. In 2005, along came Jamie Oliver with his televi-


sion programme, visits to Number 10 and the Feed Me Better campaign. In this celebrity-focused and media-saturated world, Mr Oliver was instrumental in putting school meals back on the agenda. I sat on the school meals review panel which rec-


ommended the current nutritional standards. It was a joy to report on this issue alongside a mixed bunch of experts and worthies with a clear mission to put the child first. There have been blips, of-course. Monitoring


compliance has been patchy, take-up impeded by the cheaper lunch box option, some parents and pupils to be convinced, and staff under pressure from a return to traditional cooking and nutrient precision, mostly with no extra support. But there is growing and consolidating evidence


of the health, social and educational benefits of standard-based school food. Any cost-benefit analy- sis would demonstrate that the price of obesity, lack of ability to concentrate, and ignorance of food and cooking, is much higher than a square meal. We should maximise the benefits by introduc-


ing universal free school meals and ensuring that pre-school and 14 to 19-year-olds in colleges are also fed properly. Instead, the children and young people in the soon-to-be 2,000 academies are suffer-


ing the distinct disadvantage of unregulated school meals. The Department for Education in answer to a Parliamentary question defines “healthy school food” as “food that meets the school food standards set out in the Education (Nutritional Standards and Requirements for School Food) Regulations 2007”. There can be absolutely no justification for deny-


ing healthy school food to academy pupils. Education minister Michael Gove says that academy heads will follow the standards on their own cognisance, which is either naïve or disingenuous. There is already a stream of evidence that vending machines stuffed with sweets, crisps and fizzy drinks are returning to dispense pale-faced and fat-bellied children. There is money to be saved and made and corporate vultures are circling around academies. The school food campaign consensus is stronger


than ever. It brings together the Children’s Food Campaign with its broad church of health organisa- tions, royal colleges, education unions and related pressure groups, the Food for Life Partnership, the Jamie Oliver Foundation, and now an All Party Parliamentary Group. The Save Our School Food Standards (SoS Food)


campaign has mighty backing as does the Children’s Society’s Fair and Square campaign for free school meals for all children living in poverty. The review panel report described the crisis in


school food as the “result of years of public policy failure” which we should not repeat. It saw the statutory standards as key to necessary reform and “a robust way of ensuring adequate nutrient intake”. There is a real danger that if academies can


circumvent this protection, maintained schools will resent compliance and with government disinterest and a lack of monitoring, the standards will be con- signed to the pig-bin of history. You can support the campaign at the websites below, including by asking your MP to sign an Early Day Motion on the issue.


• Christine Lewis is head of education at UNISON. Visit www.unison.org.uk/education


Further information


• www.jamieoliver.com/school-dinners • www.childrenssociety.org.uk/fairandsquare • www.sustainweb.org/childrensfoodcampaign • www.edms.org.uk/2010-12/2854.htm


We piloted the award with a number of schools and academies last year, and having modified certain aspects to increase its flexibility, the official launch of the final version will be at this year’s National College for School Leadership annual conference (June 13 to 15). Schools can start running the award from September.


What is the ModBac?


The ModBac movement was born out of a desire to ensure that all young people could have the full range of their achievements recognised, celebrated and valued. In devising the award, we agreed that the following principles should determine our young people’s education. To take their place in society, they will need to: • Be literate and numerate. • Be highly self-motivated and flexible, willing to change careers (possibly several times) throughout their lives.


• Be excellent team-workers, enterprising, fluent in the creation and use of digital resources, and financially aware.


• Have the skills to study independently and organise themselves effectively with the confidence and character to “step out of their comfort zone”.


• Appreciate the importance of being part of a global community and of serving others.


The ModBac aims to enable all our young people to record these achievements and become “equipped for life”. It is designed to be: • Highly aspirational: It is not a single threshold award so the achievements of the highest attaining are fully recognised. In this way, it can help raise aspiration and attainment in all subjects, including the EBacc.


• Inclusive: The lowest attaining students can aim for the award at Entry or Foundation Level.


• Personalised: Catering for the interests and passions of all students, building character and resilience, in and beyond the classroom.


• Motivating: Through recognition and reward. • Driven by students: Through their own online portfolio and interface.


• A broader profile of achievement: Including a “Skills Passport” encouraging students to develop and apply employability and life-skills, and to become work-ready.


• Acceptable across the world: Taking into account the fact that qualifications are becoming increasingly globalised as communication technologies and worker mobility advance.


We also recognise, however, that at a time when accountabilities have never been higher, any award has to support schools’ efforts to achieve statutory and other targets. The ModBac framework supports the demonstration of a school’s success in terms of current and future government agendas, including the headline target of five or more A* to C GCSEs including English and maths, the provision of a curriculum that meets the needs of individual learners, variety and breadth in curriculum enrichment, and maximising average point score from pupils’ “best 8” subjects, both now and post-2014. There are three parts to the full ModBac award.


The Core Programme recognises achievements in all subjects, from academic and vocational through to skills for learning, skills for employment and skills for life. Our grading system, from pass through to starred distinction at each of three levels (Entry Level to Level 2) ensures that pupils are always incentivised to achieve high grades. An Honours Programme encourages pupils to build


their confidence and character, through opportunities in ICT, foreign languages and internationalism, work experience/careers education, community, enterprise and financial awareness, completion of a “Personal Challenge” and an Extended Project. Finally, a Skills Passport builds competency in


work-readiness and life-readiness, working with others, problem-solving, self-management, oral presentation, discussion and research. The three-part structure enables the wider


achievements of students to be recognised and developed, blending knowledge and skills to help prepare them for continuing education, life, work and citizenship. This tripartite approach to lifelong learning is also at the heart of the new European credit transfer system referencing national qualifications to the EQF (European Qualifications Framework).


Running the ModBac


The flexible nature of ModBac has enabled schools to implement it in different ways. Dalton College in Barnsley is among the schools to


pilot the award. Deputy head Marc Doyle explained: “The ModBac gives students an opportunity to attain credible GCSE grades, experiences to which they would not otherwise have had access, and a ‘rounded offer’ at key stage 4. It helps with student aspiration and pulls together so many of the strands that the students often don’t see the links between. “In November, we took the decision to join the


pilot of the ModBac with a view to starting it with our current year 9 at options time, but knowing that it is adaptable and flexible enough to offer to some of our current year 10 cohort.” The options process at Dalton involved four pathways, with one of those specifically designed to


12


Modern Baccalaureate: The certificate will features an overview of performance across three areas – knowledge, experience and skills – and includes a QR Code to scan for more information, including references


attain the ModBac. Students in the ModBac route opt for a suite of qualifications that are relevant and 2014- proof. It is flexible enough to allow students to attain the EBacc if they wish to do so, but also allows the school to meet the requirements of the five A* to C measure. Mr Doyle continued: “The depth of qualification


around the ModBac also allows us to offer more extra- curricular opportunities and we are also delivering a key stage 4 fourth option in 2012 in year 11, to allow the students to major in some of the Honours Programme work. “The beauty of the ModBac is that students in all


of our options pathways can attain it if they want to, because it is not a prescriptive ‘strait-jacket’ curriculum, but one that offers flexibility. We have bought into the concept so much so that we are about to appoint a ‘ModBac co-ordinator’ in school to ensure that all of the strands are maximised. Parents and students were impressed at the options evening and our uptake for the route has been positive.” Of the 180 students in year 9 at the school, 53 have


chosen the route as their pathway and a further 100 will be able to attain the qualifications required. Mr Doyle added: “The parents were a little sceptical


about it at first, as it was the first time we have offered something like this, but when the concept was explained in my speech at parents’ evening, they were keen to know more about it. All in all, we are looking forward to continuing our Modbac journey and delivering the best experiences our students deserve.”


SecEd


•Andrew Chubb is principal of the Archbishop Sentamu Academy in Hull and has led on the creation of the ModBac.


Further information www.modernbaccalaureate.com


SecEd • May 17 2012


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