This has directly come from the project and is proven to have better outcomes where students engage and members of staff are equipped with sufficient knowledge to embed this.
The sheer exam logistics are a feat of management planning. The additional costs incurred offset funding income earned. The pressure this puts on fragile, reluctant students seems unfair as well as re-directing valuable resources for what is perceptibly of little benefit when outcomes are so poor.
Whilst the recommendations from the Wolf Report intended to enhance students’ earning potential by mandating these resit qualifications, they have presented colleges with some of their biggest challenges ever. The Wolf Progress Report February 2015 showed that there were 27,800 more 16-18 yr olds studying GCSE English and 16,600 more GCSE maths learners; an increase of 53% and 36% respectively on the previous year.
September 2015 sees the increased participation age which will only add to this perfect storm and potentially lead to even lower quantities of successful students.
Julia Smith ACER April 2015
Overview/context
The ‘Making the Grade D to C’ project, funded under the DfE Sharing Innovative Approaches and Overcoming Barriers in Delivering 16-19 Study Programmes, is designed to support and enhance the development of these programmes. A significant challenge is how to move huge numbers of learners on full-time vocational Study Programmes from a Maths/English GCSE D grade to a C as this is now a requirement of funding.
Ofsted1 said “Inspectors found that the teaching of English and mathematics was still the weakest aspect of provision across the sector where, arguably, it is one of the most important” and “nationally, relatively little outstanding practice exists in teaching of English and mathematics in FE.
To motivate learners and help them develop the skills in English and mathematics that they may have struggled to gain in the past, we should give English and mathematics a very high profile across all learning programmes and all types of provision”.
1 From Ofsted Teaching, learning and assessment in further education and skills –What works and why, September 2014 4
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40