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 )

 Now, as the market leader in Functional Skills resources, you’d probable think this is a bit of bad news for Guroo – and I must admit that it has caused us to re-read the internal and external documents several times!

 In summary

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

 The reason this decision was made was not because of a problem with FS, but because the new GCSE curriculum could not be signed off and released until the issues surrounding the FS “hurdle” in England, when you don’t need it to get a GCSE in Wales, etc got resolved. That wasn’t going to happen quickly and they couldn’t hold up the new curriculum spec being released.

 The result is that it might not actually change very much – as there is still going to be strong pressure on schools to ensure that every pupil can demonstrate their functionality – and this is indeed written into those new GCSE specs which means that FS will simply be part of the GCSE rather than a separate “hurdle”. 

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”.

Uplifting days

Yesterday I spent a day out with Stewart (co director at guroo) listening to Dave Anderson.  Dave is an American "Business Guru" which could have been a bit of a worry, but boy did he speak well.

I didn't agree 100% with everything but there was so much he did say that is useful and realistic.  Why comment in this blog - because every now and again, it's really good to take a day, take stock, re-group and plan for the next period of change.

And that's exactly what we're doing - after an extraordinary March where we doubled our custoemr base in a single month, we are now planning over easter for the next term where the vision will centre on our products.

And to cap it all, I also got home at a reasonable time and went out with Mrs Wells and the dog for an hour in the evening sunshine - what a good day all round.

Employability Skills

It's a one of those "duh" moments.

Piece in the TES saying that Colleges should teach employability skills such as time keeping, dress codes and working in a team.

Let me just re-iterate that once a student has passed the basic qualification bar, enthusiasm and attitude are what employers seek and that isn't very different from those employability skills.

Past Papers from AQA?

Here's an absoute stunner for all of us who spend our lives thinking and working in Functional Skills.

QCA insist that testing in Functional Skills "WILL NOT BE MULTIPLE CHOICE"

AQA on 4th March 09 update their web site and the latest speciman (note the term) is certainly not that but everything referred to as a past paper is multiple choice!  Even worse, the latest specimen papers are at the bottom of the screen and need a scroll down to be seen.

Just let me climb up onto my soap box here and then tell the AQA to get their act together. Leaving past papers on your site based on multiple choice quiestions confuses the bigger issue and does no-one - particularly the teachers - any favours at all.

The majority of teachers that I talk to relish the chance to do some proper teaching in Functional Skills and welcome the fact the the move away from exam factory is to be celebrated!

This made me smile

Something in the Evening Chronicle made me smile today.

A Newcastle United fan who ran onto the pitch after Cisse scored for Sunderland and subsequently begged to be barred from the ground has instead been told he has to keep going!

His lawyer said her client’s outburst and actions happened because of the Magpies’ plight.  And in what I think is a very funny quote said

“I don’t know very much about football but I understand he isn’t alone in that feeling at the moment"

I guess you would therefore say that being made to go is more of  a punishment that being kept away!

Shocking stats - one quarter of one percent!

The Daily Mail does have a history of stirring up "Middle England" and this isn't the sort of story that I would expect them to run normally but it is relevant and pretty shocking.

Of the 75,000 children on free school meals each year, just 189 of them went onto get 3 A levels at grade A.  That is one quarter of 1%.  OK, Daily Mail style meant they compared this with the 67% at a top indepdndent school that got 3 A grades but in my view the real story is the shocking statistic of one quarter of one percent.

"The system fails children from poorer backgrounds" - a very fair quote I would say given the results.  

 

The Game Show Quiz

I had the priveldge of being asked to do a little session at the naace conference this week - naturally it was about Functional Skills.

The issue was how do I come up with something that isn't powerpoint, that doesn't overtly mention Guroo but is informative and entertaining.

The solution was provided by Stewart, my co-director who came up with the quiz show format and Vicki who produced an amazing set of Smart Board resources to use.  And it worked, in fact it worked so well that we've had requests to repeat it which we're happy to do so long as we can fit it in neatly and the audience is right.

So if you want to know a bit more about Functional Skills and you like things like Boockbusters, and Family Fortunes - you know where to find us.