But what is more interesting to me is that it's been made longer, harder and supposedly more rigorous - we shall see.
Thursday, 23 December 2010
Obvious really
Ofqual say that the OCR National in ICT was far too easy - now that's not news as we all know that's the case, that's why it's the most popular "choose to do" qualification offered by schools.
Certainty is good, it's a shame it had to be delayed
Well, you could look at the announcement by John Hayes that Key Skills stay for a short period as being bad news for Functional Skills, but read further and in fact it's very good news.
It turns out that not only did ALP/AoC ask for an extension because they "weren't ready" (see below), but they also wanted a report into evidence that Key Skills work - something that has been flatly refused.
Functional Skills are not going anywhere and the sooner that institutions realise this, the better for all concerned. It's just a shame they can't come now as they are badly needed and every business person that I speak to (and that's a lot) agree that kids with Functional Skills are simply better at understanding the real world!
(The pilot started in 2007 so we're now in the 5th year of Functional Skills availability and every College was involved in the pilot.)
Tuesday, 14 December 2010
Making Sense of Functional Skills Newsletter Dec 14th
Our fortnightly look at the world of Functional Skills.
Functional Skills at BETT 2011 - The BETT show is held at Olympia from Wednesday 12th to Saturday 15th January. We did a search of all exhibitors to see who was focusing on Functional Skills and Foundation Learning and the following companies came out on top:
- Guroo - J11, National Hall Main Floor.
- CIA Training - SW26, National Hall Gallery.
- BKSB - T10, National Hall Gallery.
- Creating Careers - SW4, National Hall Gallery
- Amazing Interactives - L49, National Hall Main Floor.
- Making Sense of Functional Skills presentation in the Software Theatre SW5 on Thursday at 1pm.
Schools funding and pupil premium - Judging by announcements on Sunday and Monday, it looks like schools funding will just about keep pace with inflation but the introduction of the pupil premium (£430 for all FSM pupils) will mean some re-distribution from April 2011. Without wanting to bring politics into the discussion, reality indicates that a higher proportion of FSM pupils will be involved in Foundation Learning so the extra funding is a welcome addition to the funding landscape for this group. More on the story here.
Section 96 qualifications stopped. We understand that all post-16 and pre-16 qualifications have been approved where they meet the criteria, but a number of pre 16 qualifications are still being examined to identify if they are QCF replacements for NQF qualifications. Ofqual are unlikely to approve ANY qualifications for pre-16 learners until the Wolf report is published around Easter. The effect of this is actually quite large, as it covers pretty much every new qualification designed for schools including new BTEC and OCR Nationals. A full list of funded qualifications is here.
What's new in Guroo 2.0 video - Brand new randomised Functional Skills quizzes, the release of My Functional SkillsTM to track learning progress, and significant updates to the layout, interactive tasks, multimedia and download documents means Guroo 2.0 is a long "hop" forward in Functional Skills resources. Find out what's new in this 12 minute video - click the seasonal logo below (or go to www.guroo.info/#g2).
Next issue! The next issue of the Functional Skills newsletter will be after the New Year on Tuesday 4th January. If you have a story, a question or a suggestion - please contact jwells@guroo.co.uk Please also feel free to forward this newsletter to your Functional Skills friends, it's free, informative and occasionally just a little bit of fun.
Pupil Premium a good start?
£430 for pupils on Free School Meals, the same for Looked After Children an £200 for children from an Army background.
Maybe the final numbers are not as big as those originally suggested (my estimate is they are worth an extra 8%) but they will make a difference.
What will be interesting to see is how schools apply the premium. It isn't ring fenced so whilst it follows the deprived youngster, it isn't necessarily spent on that person. If schools start to use it for other intervention strategies (perhaps to boost borderline C/D performance) instead of Foundation Learning, then I think we'll quickly see this policy change.
But at this stage, it's a good start in my view.
Thursday, 9 December 2010
International standings
The OECD reported (and Daily Mail has interpreted as usual) the story that England (I guess that Scotland and NI are excluded) has fallen even further behind in Maths, English and Science.
I shall be brave an put forward a hypothesis as to why - targets resulting in silo teaching.
If you set a simple target - in this case pass GCSE at grade C, then all available resources will be focussed in influencing that, where it can be influenced - ie at the borderline - to the exclusion of all else. Further because the pressure is on teachers to get their students through their subject, teachers do not worry that students can't do Maths or spell so long as they can show enough knowledge to get through their subject.
And yes - the Humanities teacher at my daughter's school did tell us at a parents evening when reviewing a badly spelled essay - it's not my job to teach English, I'm only interested in getting her through the Humanities exam.
Classic silo teaching to one specific target an it serves no-one except the target.
That's why every pupil should be truly functional in Maths and English and every teacher in every subject should carry that responsibility.
Rant over ......... Jonathan
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Good reporting in Sec-Ed
Leader by Pete Henshaw and a good piece by the AAT all about vocational education and the white paper.
should get you there.
Jonathan
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