Sound good?
One of the claws in the velvet glove is that the shorter programmes of study will be more academic and written, and practical subjects may not be as practical anymore. This could mean as you progress through the national curriculum and into KS4, music, Arts, CDT, and so on will end up being assessed by a single written paper…
Computer Science is going to be the first subject that is added to the eBacc since it’s introduction, as reported on the BBC here.
I must say congratulations to the computer industries for their lobbying and persistence, I’m happy to see the subject classed as a real science and getting the recognition it deserves. Geeks rejoice. It is pretty sad though for RE and the Arts who are once again snubbed and relegated to the bottom of the class, they have been lobbying just as hard and just as forcibly. I’m guessing this is true evidence that the Government still think the arts and RE are pointless.
In related news Good egg Kenneth Baker has just published his book “14-18 – A New Vision for Secondary Education” which questions the policy of forcing learners to stick to academic subjects until they are 16. I never thought I would agree with him but I quite simply do. Learners with a passion at 14 should be able to specialise…
Now I’m not sure yet on the mechanics of adding computer science to the eBacc and if that means you can drop the other science subjects or mix and match disciplines, so I will check on it and get back to you. I’ve also got Ken Baker’s book on order and will review it as soon as it arrives.
10 For x = 1 to 100000
20 Print “Just what on Earth is he playing at”;
30 next x
What do schools, teachers, students and parents want from universities to support kids to get to University?
Milburn expresses clearly, as the social- mobility guru, that there is much Universities can do targeted at students from under-represented groups such as disabled students, students from areas where there is traditional low participation in higher education, ethnic minority students and students from families where no one has been to university. While Universities are digesting Milburn’s report, OFFA has set out its vision and expectations for widening participation in its annual guidance for the HE sector and a page devoted to sanctions if a HEI fails to meet its HE access agreement. Now that many HEIs are charging the maximum fees they are increasingly accountable to ensure that their widen participation and access agenda is robust and takes on board the strong steers from external influencers especially OFFA.
The OFFA guidance quotes Milburn several times in a 40 page document, so the pieces of the jigsaw are coming together. What should HEIs do to widen participation and help the social mobility agenda? After all the research, including the Leach Report (remember Leach?), shows that a degree is a passport to better economic stability for the individual and supports the national skills requirements to successful participate in a global economy. Universities need to form strong links with schools, provide after school homework support facilities, set up subject study days, provide IAG on admissions processes, use contextualised data to inform admissions processes, run summer schools, provide mentors and in the main raise aspiration and attainment at KS 2, KS 3, KS4 and KS 5 and try to do this in collaboration with other HEIs. All of these activities targeted at students and schools that at the moment are under-represented in the undergraduate population – otherwise it is unaccountable by OFFA.
What do schools think about this? The independent school sector has strong links with selective universities and often these go back hundreds of years, if not more. They have a head-start, but now is the opportunity for state schools to say, in the absence of a national careers service, universities can provide my students with… Your voice needs to be heard?
Very interesting to see the engineers fighting back and arguing to keep their engineering diploma in face of the race to academia currently underway in English schools. If you missed the article it’s here.
Engineering was in the very first phase of diplomas that were introduced, at huge expense, by the last Government and sadly wherever I go I hear of schools and colleges dropping them and learners not wanting to take them. The diplomas were complex, weird, government designed, unusual, and new, not a single redeemable feature. Except, well, they were a breath of fresh air, they had great sector support, full employer buy-in, university progression, a modern approach and were a genuine alternative. It’s only natural, therefore for them to get squished.
Now, full disclosure, I was the director of a diploma development project and although ours never even had the opportunity of being launched, it had all the positives in place and was well on the way to being a great addition to the rather staid and bland A level curriculum. There was much talk of rescuing the bulk of each diploma and turning it into a separate stand alone qualification, we even had an offer from an awarding body, but the government now own the IP and it’s going to be stored in Warehouse 13 for evermore. Right next to the Ark of the Covenant and Edgar Allen Poe’s pen.
The diplomas were a wonderful first step, version 2, which was already being planned, would have been better still and version 4 or 5 could have made a real impact on education in England. So I salute the engineers and look forward to a similar response from the other 16 sectors.
No? Anyone? Dust….?
You may be interested to see that Sir Kenneth Baker is the Chair of the Edge Foundation, there are lots of pics of him at the Six Steps for Change launch on their flickr feed http://www.flickr.com/photos/edgefoundation/ Yes, that Kenneth Baker, tory minister under Thatch, he who gave us “Baker Days”, the National Curriculum and SATs. Having said that though he also deeply understands the vocational world and is doing a great job at Edge. Some Conservatives do understand the real world, I was sorry to see John Hays go from his post in charge of FE and Skills in the last re-shuffle and worry deeply about his replacement.
He’s not my favourite Ken Baker though, that is Kenny Baker, the actor who was inside the R2-D2 costume in Star Wars.
On a similar line to Edge’s initiative is Free Education, http://free-education.org who are trying to wrestle education from the hands of the politicians and are currently fund raising and mobilising. As long as education is in the hands of people who don’t understand it we will never really make any true progress.
All good stuff.
I’d like to welcome “No Full Stops in Education” to our team. You will immediately spot that she is far more intelligent than I because she’s keeping her identity secret. Very wise. So just to say she’s in a senior position in HE, with a deeply impressive and knowledgable history in education, policy and qualifications behind her. I look forward to her posts.
What a summer! I was lucky to be able to watch and attend the Olympics, what a privilege! I am still reflecting on the skills and talents of the athletes; what was it that made these people not only be good enough to get to the Olympics but for some of them to actually be the best on the day and get either a bronze, silver or gold medal and a few more than one? This was a celebration of people that had gained skills and became the best in the world.
So what has the DfE learnt from this summer of the excellent displays of vocational and knowledge-based skills in perfect balance? Oh yes, there was some awkwardness around school playing-field statistics and policy, and competitive sports was being debated again! For me this was an opportunity to say yes, children can benefit from a balance of academic and vocational study, both of which they will need in the work place along with personal skills.
Is the debate for this tripartite of essential skills over as we move into Autumn and the demand for academic rigour is met? Or will the placement of David Laws in the corridors of Sanctuary Building make a difference?
There is one word that has really damaged education over the last few years. You might think that “rigour” is what I’m talking about, after all no one really understands what it is and can define it. But no, I think it is the word “equivalent”.
I see it all the time. There is a music business course being advertised at the moment which is “equivalent to a degree”. There are courses being advertised leading to vocational qualifications which are “equivalent to 3 A levels”. It is a word which is so misused and so misunderstood that we are currently butchering about in the school league tables like Sweeney Todd on the piss. Equivalent has ruined it for everybody.
In the world of business there is a clear understanding of words like “price”, “value”, worth” and “cost”. We know that a Mars bar is a certain price in a shop, but a different price in a supermarket and a different price to the retailer who bought a big box of them from the cash-and-carry. We also know that when you really, really want one you might be happy to pay twice the normal price for it. This is basic economics and its understood and accepted. What is also clear is that Mars Bars have a very close competitor at Lidl that looks the same and tastes the same but is cheaper and called something else. This product is an “equivalent”. It looks like a Mars Bar, tastes like a Mars Bar and quacks like a Mars Bar. Equivalent.
Not so straightforward in education. Is a Media Degree equivalent to a Politics degree? Are 3 Alevels equivalent to an apprenticeship? Is 1 GCSE in Maths equivalent to a Vocational qualification in carpentry? When you are building a house, of course, a carpentry qualification is far more valuable than a politics degree. So does that make them equivalent, or is it that we just don’t understand ”price”, “value”, worth” and “cost”? I don’t think the answer is to get rid of everything because we cant express it as an equivalent of something else.
In English secondary schools at the moment, they are defining equivalent in terms of “Headline Measures” where large qualifications which might take days and years to complete are only valued as “1″ because the equivalence can’t be defined.
To me it seems straightforward. Vocational qualifications are as valuable as academic ones. It is worth getting this qualification, it will benefit you in your career. The price of studying this subject is you will have less time to study that subject. Let’s stop talking about equivalent and start talking about value.
QTS has been a hard won victory for teachers over many years. The “professionalisation” of the industry was something which the unions have been after and also something parents have demanded. Quite right. The thing is though, here’s the thing, the thing that will get the million angry comments and threats of unsubscription, the thing is though, that it doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
Teachers are not made excellent by having QTS. Many QTS teachers are excellent. Many not-qualified teachers are excellent. Some QTS teachers are awful.
This news item highlights the independent status of academies and kisses bye-bye to the QTS closed shop. A good thing. It also brings in further challenge and threat and pressure onto teachers who are largely doing a brilliant job. A bad thing. You can do this good thing, bad thing for ever though. I’m looking forward to a measured and calm debate on what qualifications truly mean, what are required for what tasks and what skills teachers should have to actually teach. Any chance of that? I doubt it.
How do you know when a learner is ready for an exam? If they pass, they were ready. But I would also argue that if they fail, they are in a better position than not being entered for the exam at all. Qualifications can be used diagnostically and we should grasp that opportunity more readily.
There is a fashion in the music world to prepare all year for an exam and then have a mock around Easter to see if learners should be entered proper for the exam in the Summer term. This seems like a monstrous waste of time to me, why not do the exam in Easter and use the result for the next grade straight away. No re-sit, just get on with progressing and working on weaknesses.
I’d love there to be progressive mastery qualifications in other subjects, sign me up as a writer today! Grade 8 mental arithmetic sounds like a complete winner to me, every GCE A* maths candidate should get it in their AS year! Blimey, this idea might get me that BMW I so rightly deserve…
Think I’m out of my mind? I’ll have you know that I’ve got a grade 8 in critical thinking and grade 6 problem solving! Let us know in the comments section below and please subscribe here or over on YouTube.
We can get caught up in the educational arguments some times and clearly from today we can see that jobs and qualifications are the main thought in many peoples minds. Learners at an HE open day will already have self selected, it’s true, but as a parent I was thinking about money rather than whether there is a job at the end of it. I wanted to see industry standard equipment, links with industry, innovation, challenge and a great student union bar. There were no curve-balls from parents in the session I attended, only questions on Jobs, percentages in employment and the old chestnut, contact time.
Anyone else going to an HE open day at the moment? Please do let us know your experiences in the comments sections below and please subscribe here or over on YouTube.