rulers etc. for every one of those students. Buses ran from college to the site from 6am in the morning. Staff had to be trained as invigilators and doormen were hired for crowd control. CCN also had evidence of students who had failed the GCSE 10 times already; that is every exam board and every sitting for two years! This is without the 200 students back at CCN with special arrangements!
Epping Forest College also had instances where students had sat the exam seven times. At least this will not be the case in future as providers and schools take on board the policy change that only the first GCSE sitting results will be counted towards league tables
Recruitment and the FE student Recruitment
Another surprise that emerged through some of the CPD sessions offered as part of this project, was the sheer frustration of the tutors involved. As one succinctly put it when asked what she wanted from the session was “I want you to help me deal with the aggressively obstinate boys who say I’ve seen that and I can’t do it to everything I give them”. Tutors need help - they are the biggest resource a college has. There is a crisis in recruitment and many colleges struggle to find good GCSE teachers, maths teachers in particular. Many of our case studies and other providers are looking to their very best vocational tutors and asking them to fill the void being left due to the inability to recruit. In conversation with the NCETM over the maths graduate recruitment scheme there was pleasing news that the scheme has recruited well but anecdotally some of these recruits are only teaching for four hours per week whilst others are teaching twenty three hours (possibly not such a good story).
The Making the Grade from D to C project aimed to find what Ofsted couldn’
t...and to this end was successful providing 15 case studies of effective practice in the delivery of GCSE maths and English resits. The project also yielded a successful conference at which a number of case study participants were present and a lot of good practice was shared. It provided delegates the opportunity to share their experiences and network with like-minded people in the same situation. Top Tips for delivery were suggested by audience members and all can be seen on our project blog. The impetus needs to continue if we are to turn the current situation round to one where an FE student has a good chance of finally passing their GCSE maths or English or indeed both.
The Further Education student
A typical student who has come into post-16 education will be very different to the student that left secondary education. It is worth spending time considering how students differ post-16 to how they were at school as this will affect how they learn and what they will be receptive to.
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