
	11-16 schools home
	Case studies
	Vocational provision at key stage 4

	Belfairs School
	Godalming College
	Hinchingbrooke School
	Rhyddings Business and Enterprise School
	Scarborough Sixth Form College
	Toynbee School
	Whickham School
	Writhlington School
	Using NVQs at key stage 4

	Print this page

Godalming College


		11-16 schools

		6th form schools

		Colleges

The college

Godalming is a large sixth form college in southwest Surrey. There are currently approximately 1,500 full-time students on the roll, of whom the majority are 16–19. The college has a successful business development unit and has recently been awarded COVE status for its care programmes.

Vocational curriculum

Range of courses

The college seeks to offer a wide range of courses to meet the needs of individual learners. To this end, it has always recognised the value of vocational courses as part of the curriculum. From the outset the college ran a range of GNVQs, and more recently became involved in the delivery of AVCEs, with over 350 students studying these courses. These will be replaced by A levels in seven applied subjects.

This decision was taken after considering a variety of options. The college examined BTEC qualifications and traditional A levels. On balance it was felt that in order to continue offering a broad and balanced curriculum, the applied A levels would be the most appropriate qualification. The new A levels also allowed the college to build on the best practice developed within AVCE and use many of the same resources.

Business studies

The business studies department is one of the largest in the college and will offer both business and applied business A levels. It is expected that around 150 students will begin to study the single awards in either business or applied business, with a further 40 embarking on the double applied business course.

Level of courses

While the majority of students in the college are following level 3 courses, a significant number follow the Access level 2 programme, which allows students to re-take a range of GCSEs or engage in vocational education through intermediate GNVQ. The college is strongly committed to the Increased Flexibility Programme through which 14- to 16-year-olds can study a range of BTEC, City & Guilds and CACHE courses one day per week.

Strengths and successes

The vocational business department is very successful in terms of its retention rates, results achieved and especially the value it adds to students’ performance. It is consistently praised within the college internal quality review system and judged to be ‘outstanding’ in the college’s Ofsted inspection. There are a number of factors to explain this success.

Management support

Vocational courses are strongly supported by the senior management team at Godalming. The college appreciates the importance of these courses in widening access, enabling underperforming students to achieve and increasing progression rates into higher education. It has actively supported vocational courses through high levels of funding and resources and by ensuring equal status at open evenings and when interviewing prospective students for entry to the college.

Status of vocational courses

Vocational courses have the same status as non-vocational courses in terms of the college’s admissions policy: the criterion for course selection is suitability, not ability. At enrolment, students are counselled by teachers of both business and applied business courses to determine which course would be the most appropriate for them. A collaborative, rather than competitive, approach is taken to signing on new students.

Timetabling

The structure of the courses is a major factor in determining their success. The senior management team is generous in the time allocated for applied A levels. The single award is run on five hours a week to fit with the other classes, allowing students to study up to four AS levels across all subjects. The double award is timetabled for 12 hours per week, allowing students extra time in which to complete assignments and access work placements and generally enhancing the vocational aspect of the course. Most students following a double award course will also take a further A level, thus enabling them to achieve good scores for UCAS applications.

Groups are further timetabled to ensure that a maximum of two teachers are allocated to each group, ensuring a close working relationship is established between staff and students. Students are never working on more than two units at a given time, and more often they are tackling only one assignment, with the rest of their time preparing for an externally assessed unit. The single award is delivered in a linear manner with teachers sharing the delivery of each unit. This succeeds because staff are flexible in what they teach in any given session, and there is close liaison between staff on how to deliver units successfully. This approach ensures continuity for the students, enabling them to focus on a particular topic or skill and avoid too much multitasking. Students progress quickly and achieve outcomes readily.

Planning of assessments

Students work to agreed deadlines, which are set for both interim assessment and whole-unit grading. These are strictly adhered to in order to ensure that students are not overloaded with coursework deadlines at any given time in the year. Externally assessed units are spread so that students can concentrate on one particular topic at a time, using both January and June assessment opportunities.

Assignment design

It is important that all assignments are set within a work-related context and the department uses a range of methods to ensure this is the case. Assignments are based on student work experience, visits to companies, lectures from visiting speakers and their own experiences from part-time jobs and family connections. INSET is devoted to staff undertaking work experience themselves, from which assignments are compiled.

A great deal of time is spent writing assignments to ensure that they allow students to access the full range of grades and avoid repetition within the unit. Assignments are written with tasks that group together the various topics and skills in the unit. All assignments are subject to internal moderation before being issued to students. When an assignment has been completed and assessed, staff review it to ensure that continuous improvement takes place.

Teaching and learning strategies

Another contributor to the success of the department is its approach to teaching and learning and the strategies it adopts to motivate this cohort of students. Vocational courses enable teachers to develop relationships with students in which teachers and students are seen as a team rather than as ‘us and them’. Establishing a collaborative approach to learning is seen as key to success within the college. As a result, students regard staff as experts ready to assist them and will ask for help or clarification from any teacher working within the vocational work area.

Developing student ownership of subject

Students have ownership of the vocational area with a dedicated suite of rooms containing the equipment and resources needed for them to successfully complete their course. The vocational business department has four dedicated classrooms, furnished to meet the needs of the courses taught. There are 20 computers in each classroom. In this way students have access to staff and resources and know where to find their teachers. An open door policy means that students can work in these rooms at any time, even when other teaching is taking place.

Key skills

The department places less emphasis on the delivery of content and imparting knowledge through formal teaching, as teachers recognise that students do not learn by being given content, but by carrying out their own investigations and problem solving. There is great emphasis on developing the skills students need to become effective learners and providing opportunities for students to practise those skills. The college has found that strengthening key skills has enabled students to become more successful in completing assignments and developing their own learning styles.

Individual work with students

A great deal of time is spent working with students on an individual basis. When students first enrol on the course, initial assessment defines their preferred learning styles and any support they may need. Providing this support early and effectively enables students to achieve right from the start. Target-setting forms an integral part of the course, with short-term targets for individual students being set on a lesson-by-lesson basis. Longer-term targets ensure that work is completed on time and students address their weaknesses immediately to improve their performance as they progress through the course.

Monitoring progress

Monitoring of the progress students make on their assignments is continual, work is marked regularly and action planned, individually targeted feedback is given.

Externally assessed units

Many students taking vocational courses have struggled with more traditionally assessed courses at GCSE. Many are not good at preparing for and taking examinations. The delivery of the externally assessed units has been a major problem in the delivery of AVCEs.

The college believes that if the learning associated with tested units were delivered in a traditional, didactic way, students would continue to fail. Instead, teachers deliver these units in similar ways to assignment-based units. All externally assessed units are supported by prepared workbooks in which the students record the activities undertaken. Students use assessment grids as the basis for their learning and working through the criteria to build up knowledge. Students then have individual revision guides containing their own worked examples and the theory required to tackle the assessment.

Pastoral welfare and supporting motivation

The department has adopted a holistic approach to vocational students, so that subject teachers are responsible for the pastoral welfare of students, chasing up absence immediately, writing reports and references and dealing with their day-to-day problems. This ensures that a close bond develops between staff and students.

Teachers have found that this cohort of students works best when goals are short term and reward systems operate. Time spent at the start of the course developing a group identity and motivating students helps create an ethos of teamwork and collaboration between staff and students and within the student group, which is seen as key to success.

Internal moderation

The internal moderation process also contributes to the success of vocational provision. When assignments are written, they are put to other staff in the department for scrutiny and modification. Only when the team thinks the assignment is fit for purpose is it used for students. Interim marking as well as final submissions are subject to moderation and everyone in the department contributes to this process. Students are aware of the process and this gives them faith in the grades awarded and allows them to take pride in the standard of their work.

Evaluation

Strong relationships and well-defined processes allow students to feel well supported but also ensure that they take responsibility for their own learning and achievement. Students also have opportunities to comment on all aspects of the courses. A formal evaluation takes place each year with students grading all aspects of their learning experience within the department. In addition, students are involved in focus groups that allow them to express their feelings about various aspects of the course and make suggestions for changes and improvements.

Also See

Vocational provision at key stage 4