Thursday 30 April 2009
Budgets and funding
Sunday 26 April 2009
Budget funding
Friday 17 April 2009
LSC deciding on the answer before it asks the question
Thursday 16 April 2009
The Apprentice - functional maths got her!
Tuesday 14 April 2009
Scare stories from LSC
Tuesday 7 April 2009
Responses from the announcement last week
These are a selection of quotes from the responses to the change to de-link Functional Skills from GCSE
does this mean i have to enter pupils for the ict functional skills,
is it now just an extra and we don't if we wish not to have to enter pupils at all even in 2010 Louise
I think that the latest announcement will be the kiss of death for functional skills and will totally vindicate those
…. The point regarding the report card is pertinent as it will very much depend on how this is structured ……
….. Ten years or so ago when Key Skills were introduced in Further Education, the rationale for their introduction was that employers when employing school leavers discovered a severe lack of basic skills, especially with numeracy, literacy and IT. When attending the first Functional Skills seminar six months ago, exactly the same words were used to explain the introduction of Functional Skills; presumably the last ten years has been a complete waste of time. It never ceases to amaze me that after eleven years in compulsory education and not grasping the basics; yet when they arrive in Further Education, “vocational” tutors are somehow expected to overcome all barriers and “cure” them of this unfortunate malady and in one or two years. Is it any wonder that that national success rates for Key Skills are so poor?
So does this mean that the results of the whatsit report (the one from 2004 that found that passing GCSEs was too easy and that learners could effectively guess their way through it and pass with out the requisite skills) have now been kicked into the long grass for another year? What does that say for the skills base of our workforce and the economic future of this country, especially in these hard times? Another influx of suitably skilled foreign workers? :-( !
Jim Knight - good to see that Mr M'Choakumchild has been thwarted in his gradgrindian ambitions
.... The Govt hasn’t yet got its act together on FS and is sending out confused messages. ...
Thanks for the update – extremely useful.
Friday 3 April 2009
Changes to GCSE Accreditation from 2010
Most of you have by now read the announcement today that Functional Skills will no longer be tied to GCSE passes. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7979267.stm )
1) The government is still committed to FS
2) They have accepted the OfQual advice “for now”
3) They are going to find other incentives that will encourage FS as a separate qualification – including tying it to the new School Report Card
Diplomas continue to be a major driver for FS adoption as will the Foundation Learning Tier, indeed the FLT could be a very big influence indeed as students on the FLT are not expected to be getting grade C+ at GCSE.
And most importantly of all FS is a good stand-alone qualification (without GCSEs or Diplomas as a driver). There is going to be tons of pressure on schools to do FS as a separate subject and there’s support from many sides (inc CBI etc) to say that they will be looking for FS passes as a measure of functionality in addition to GCSE passes.
So maybe the message from the top changes from “Functional Skills will be a must-pass element of GCSEs from 2010” to “Functional Skills are built into the new GCSE specs from 2010”.