Universities do as they said they would

Diplomas seen as excellent preparation for higher education - DCSF new report 24/8/09

The research, published today (24.08.09) by the National Foundation for Educational Research, found that all universities questioned would welcome applications from the first Diploma cohort in 2010.

The NFER report also found that:

• Russell Group universities (20 major research-intensive universities) are strongly supportive of the breadth of learning and range of skills that Diploma students develop.
• University Vice Chancellors are confident that Diplomas will deliver the qualities they want in undergraduate students: flexible, independent working and experience of a work placement.
• Universities are enthusiastic about the Extended Project – a crucial component of the Diploma – and felt it developed the learning skills universities look for: critical thinking; analysis; and research skills.
• Universities welcome the opportunity to widen participation to higher education, commenting that Diplomas will bring new types of student and new styles of learning into higher education

Diploma success means early focus on on FS and Secondary Learning

Report recently on the BBC has suggested that whilst there is a big temptation in diploma teaching to go for it in terms of Primary Learning and teaching, students do better where the school or college has focused early attention on functional skills and secondary learning.

I guess it's another form of getting the basics right and if you think about logically, it pretty much stands to reason. Students more confident and competent in English, maths and ICT are going to do much better in their chosen principal line of learning.

There is lots to learn about the best ways to teach a diploma, but so far, most of it seems just plain sensible!

Functuional Skills the key to GCSE success?

Hidden away in the TES this week a small piece that could be very significant.

An LA tracked a 10% improvement in the numbers achieving 5+A*-C GCSE amongst students who had college vocational courses as part of their curriculum. ie the Diploma!

Now I think that's pretty important and it supports what many think - young people like the diploma and if you like something, chances are you do well.

NEET

NEET
Rightly, a lot of attention to the ever increasing and if I may personally add, embarassing problem of NEETs. I've written before about the lost generation, I was a child of the 60's, looking for my first job in the mid 80's when jobs were rarer than soberly dressed young ladies having a glass of Perrier in the Newcastle Bigg Market on a Friday night.

A few of my friends became NEETs, it is very easy to slip over the borderline. All it takes is a lost job, a gap in getting another one and that's it, a young person with no money, no education and no prospects. And I don't think that leaving it a year before action is taken is at all acceptable. The best time to deal with a problem is when the problem occurs, not a year later.

I don't have a solution, but I do know that it is the biggest problem in education at the moment and it would be top of my priority list.

Michael gove on Sunday AM

Michael Gove was on Sunday AM putting forward theories about education - especially performance tables. The basis of it all was that some A levels and GCSE were harder than others so they should carry more weight in assessing how well a student or school did. Absolutely true that some Universities discount certain "soft A levels" and it's true that you are unlikely to get into Durham University with A levels in Media Studies, Photography and Business Studies but how do you differentiate at the performance table level - that's a tough one to manage and a recipe for a great discussion about the merits of Maths over English Literature!

his second point was that the raw 5+A*-C GCSE pass tables were not representative as they allowed too much focus on C/D borderline and not enough on "good" and "poor" academic ability students. Again, we know this happens but we already have the value added measure and points measures and so on. The difficulty is coming up with something that is understandable and acceptable to the general public.

Good ideas, but not that much which is new?

"I will help my pupils maximise their coursework marks"

I think we all know this goes on and a piece in the TES is quoting teachers.

"I will help my pupils maximise their coursework marks just as I often rote teach to get them through exam questions. This is not cheating"

I agree entirely, it isn't cheating, but it isn't learning either. If the QCDA is brave enough to follow through on the principles of Functional Skills,

doing FS will mean this stops and the focus goes back to learning.

Jonathan

Quangos

I love the report in the papers today syaing that quangos in education should be abolished.

The QCA (now the QCDA) costs £155m a year and has an instrusive nature!

TDA budget has increased from £230m to £777m in just 8 years (the majority of business would be happy with an increase in revenue like that)

Becta is not required by schools, neither is NCSL, 11 million, Teachers TV.

Revamp Ofsted, slim it down and take it back to its core provision along with P4S and others.

Results - savings of £633m and the final comment from the writers of the report the CPS (presumeably a quango) is that "it is not obvious what's been achieved for the money that's been spent"

Don't expect much will change though!