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	Using NVQs at key stage 4

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Rhyddings Business and Enterprise School


		11-16 schools

		6th form schools

		Colleges

The school

Rhyddings Business and Enterprise School is a non-selective state community school for boys and girls ages 11–16. It is located in Accrington, Lancashire, and has about 1,800 students. The school has specialist status and is located in an area associated with a history of early industrialisation and textile mills.

The vast majority of the students come from socially deprived communities with high unemployment. Sole traders, small family businesses and small pockets of light industry dominate the local economy. Over a quarter of students come from an Asian background, many of whom speak English as an additional language.

Vocational curriculum

Achievements

Since the vocational curriculum was introduced, results have improved from 26 per cent A* to C passes at GCSE or equivalent in 1999 to 75 per cent in 2004. Since introducing the vocational curriculum, the school has become fifth among the most-improved schools in the country.

Vocational entitlement

The school views the vocational curriculum as an entitlement for all. As a consequence all students take at least one vocational subject, with 75 per cent taking two vocational programmes at key stage 4. As the school holds business and enterprise status, all qualifications include an element of vocational delivery.

Alternative curriculum

As the vocational curriculum is offered to all, it is not regarded as an option for lower-ability students or non-achievers. However, there is an alternative curriculum for students considered to be of lower ability or disengaged. This is shaped annually in response to the needs of the least-able year group. Vocational qualifications are the main focus of this alternative curriculum.

The school offers a vocational programme at key stage 4 and has developed close partnerships with local training providers, colleges and industry to ensure there is a clear progression pathway post-16. Through these programmes the school aims to:

· offer their students a better choice and a qualification that suits their learning styles
· continue to enhance the vocational provision in the school
· continue to improve the attainment of five A* to C grades at GCSE or equivalent.

School improvements

The decision to offer GNVQs was taken by the senior management team. In 1999 the team decided to embark on a radical plan for improvement and change. This was a result of a number of factors, including poor results and, most important, student demand. Consequently the programmes on offer at key stage 4 were changed and a new method of timetabling and the vocational curriculum were introduced.

Staff recruitment

The school initiated this process with the recruitment of a senior member of staff with specialist vocational knowledge. As a former local authority adviser for vocational education, this member of staff acted as a link between the staff delivering the vocational curriculum and the senior management team and also forged relationships with curriculum leaders and local businesses. This appointment was regarded as pivotal in the success of the vocational provision at key stage 4.

Vocational part of core curriculum
The school has no formal written policy relating to the vocational curriculum because this curriculum is considered to be fully integral to the core curriculum. It was stated that to have a separate policy would be divisive and emphasise the difference between the traditional and the vocational.

There is a broad range of vocational offerings at key stage 4. These include BTECs, NVQs, GNVQs and other short courses. Most are delivered on site but some are delivered in partnership with the local college.

Success factors

A culture change

The culture change was lead by the senior management team and embraced by the teaching staff, who were keen to offer a different experience to their students. Changes were planned and a strategy that included all stakeholders was employed.

Delivery and assessment

The assessment activities given to the students were varied and targeted. The learning was delivered in manageable chunks, with assessment immediately following. This ensured that students remained focused on the current issue.

Assessment activities were managed and controlled, often being delivered in the class environment. For example, ICT students completed workbooks and class-based activities and so progressed and achieved quickly. This also ensured that students produced original work with which the teacher could monitor their progress.

Previously, students had reported that they sometimes lost track of which assessments related to which units, particularly when teachers delivered multiple units and assessments were completed at home. Now the school ensures that assessments are conducted in the classroom and handed in immediately after completion, and as a result students are no longer confused by the relationship between units and assessments.

Assessment activities are delivered steadily throughout courses, allowing students to achieve their first criteria early, often within three weeks of the start of the unit delivery. This helps build the self-esteem of students, especially those who had been disengaged. Students were motivated by this early achievement and enjoyed monitoring their own progress using the forms provided.

Differentiated assessment

In the most successfully delivered vocational lessons, students completed the assessment of the pass criteria in class. Those that achieved the pass criteria were then offered tasks that gave them the opportunity to achieve at higher levels. These extension tasks were generally completed by motivated students in their own time. This process ensured the higher-grade assessments were targeted at those who could realistically achieve them and helped encourage a positive experience for all levels of students.

Training and staff development

The school planned the inception of the vocational curriculum in advance of delivery. When possible, the teachers with responsibility for delivery attended internal and external training prior to delivery. Teachers had a keen desire to improve and change each year in order to offer enhanced provision to the students.

Parental attitudes

Parents have been supportive of the vocational curriculum. This support was achieved by effective promotion of the vocational curriculum, including leaflets and presentations. In addition, parents and their sons or daughters attended individual recruitment and options interviews, during which further explanations were offered.

Study skills

The teachers emphasised consistently to students what they needed to do to achieve qualifications. By completing study skills over an extended period, students developed their understanding of the level of the qualification and the demands of assessment tasks and criteria. For example, they understood the differences between terms used in assessment such as describing, analysing and investigating. Teachers also provided consistent marking of assessment tasks, which gave students a clear message and reinforced this learning.

A desire for success and quality

A key success factor was the ability of the teachers and the management team to reflect on their own performance and strive for further improvement. Students enjoyed their lessons are [Q: ‘because’] they were motivated and entertained by teachers and this led to improved achievement. Many students were clear about [Q: ‘had clear ideas about’] their pathway to a career and many wanted to pursue the vocational sector they were studying at key stage 4.

Staff were encouraged to become external verifiers/moderators/examiners. Staff were told that these activities not only offered professional development but also assisted the school in its effort to offer quality provision and remain at the cutting edge.

The school arranged delivery so that students had the chance to follow their preferred learning styles but also develop their less-favoured learning styles. This enhanced their ability to succeed academically and in the workplace.

Teacher placements and training

Staff were also offered a partnership placement in industry. This training and development were regarded as integral to the strategic plan for successful vocational delivery.

Five staff each year complete enterprise training. This training inspires staff to deliver their subjects in different ways. Fifteen staff in 10 different subject areas were recognised as Enterprise Champions.

Evaluation
The school measures the outcomes of the vocational curriculum and acts upon these findings. This monitoring is completed in a number of formats, including student take-up, results, student satisfaction surveys and rolling student sampling. This again added to the quality assurance process.

The partnership approach

Many subjects and specifications were linked and then delivered and assessed in the live business environment in the local area. This is regarded as one of the most important success factors.

Learners gained understanding of what to expect in the workplace and could assess what their own preferences were. Teachers constantly improved their currency, with assessment that was specific and work-related. Local industry also benefited from this partnership as they knew what to expect when young people joined the workplace. This led to learning that seems relevant and hence enjoyable and motivating and enhanced achievement for the students.

For example:

· leisure and tourism students study marketing by putting together a £119 holiday package to Morecambe and then seeking to sell it to the Bradford residents. This means the students cover the selling aspects of marketing as it is in industry. This has been highlighted by students as a key strength of the course

· the Spanish GCSE students run a Spanish restaurant near Clitheroe for an evening. They have to converse in Spanish with specially invited Spanish-speaking guests

· health and social care students link their course specifications to local care organisations and go out to do case study work over a prolonged period of time

· in other lessons, students who are learning about textiles link with a local textile mill and work from a real brief given to them by the managing director of the company.

The challenges

Delivering the vocational context successfully

To emphasise the vocational context, teachers have arranged visits and guest presentations. However, limited budgets have restricted this activity. As a result, teachers have targeted and designed visits to meet the requirements of vocational units, so as to maximise the learning value of these activities.

Funding

The school has limited budgets for the development of the vocational curriculum. As the confidence of staff teams grows, more teams have decided to develop their own resources with the support of senior staff responsible for the vocational curriculum. These developments have been regarded as positive as they have resulted in materials that are specific to the school, students and teachers. Students enjoy using these materials and they are of high quality.

Staff attitude

Although the school was keen to offer a high-quality vocational curriculum not all staff accepted that the new approach was equivalent to the existing and traditional. Senior management have taken positive steps to ensure that the parity of vocational qualifications with other qualifications is emphasised.

Lack of clarity and consistency from educational bodies and organisations

Staff are concerned that the wording used in awarding body specifications leads to different assessors interpreting awarding specifications in different ways and hence forming differing expectations of students work.

Concerns were expressed that awarding bodies did not provide staff with adequate materials to develop their understanding of the demands of qualifications. For example, no exemplar material was made available in leisure and tourism to help staff gauge the new levels and quality standards.

Another challenge was the number of bodies and organisations all claiming to offer a similar service to the school. As a result in some instances there was too much information and in others there was none. Teachers wanted more quality and consistency of advice rather than more choice.

Areas for further development

Extension to other areas of the curriculum

The school is developing the vocational model into other faculty/subject areas. The development will take place in terms of teaching and learning, ethos, assessment, tracking and cooperation and will emphasise a team approach between students and staff.

Further development of manageable, exciting learning and assessment

The school wants to extend successful practice in taking course content out of the classroom and linking it with local businesses, so as to increase the relevance of students’ learning and, in some cases, enable students to be assessed in the workplace.

The desire to improve each year with further and refresher training

There is an ethos of continuous improvement within the school and the teaching team is involved in a process of self-reflection to improve their teaching, delivery and assessment methods. The team carries out its own training and dissemination events to encourage improvement. Teachers also attend refresher training and develop networks and links to ensure currency.

Also See

Vocational provision at key stage 4