The school
Scarborough Sixth Form College offers the following vocational provision:
- GCSEs in applied business, applied science, applied information and communication technology (ICT) and health and social care
- A levels in applied business, applied science and health and social care
- BTEC Nationals in business studies
- GNVQ intermediate in media.
Previous to offering GCSEs and A levels in applied science, the college offered GNVQs and AVCEs. The GCSE in applied science is offered to
students who need to improve on their GCSE grades and for subsequent progression to higher-level courses such as Certificate of Education or a
PGCE for teaching. The course is also offered to local partner schools to co-teach.
Staffing
The college has separate physics, biology, chemistry and science departments, each with their own course leader, departmental review and budget.
There are eight teaching staff and four technicians available for applied science courses. In order to increase the breadth of teaching styles, staff
have been selected from across the college to teach appropriate units. For example, staff from the sports department teach the ‘Sports science’ unit
and staff from the design and technology department teach the examined unit ‘Choosing and using materials’.
Some staff have recent vocational experience. For example a design and technology department teacher had worked part time in a local engineering
firm on improving the efficiency of producing office furniture parts and was able to bring real-life examples to the college, making vocational learning
more realistic and motivating for the students.
As GNVQs and AVCEs have been replaced by GCSEs and A levels, staff have attended various training sessions run internally and externally with
local sixth form colleges, LSDA vocational support programmes and various training firms. Some courses were free, while others were expensive. All
of the training provided valuable opportunities to discuss problems, constraints and solutions within other centres.
Introducing A level in applied science
Senior staff worked closely with the exam board on these changes, which meant the school was able to plan well in advance.
The school worked with staff to prepare for new GCSEs by doing the following:
- completing an overall map of the year with regards to course structure of the units (see Appendix 1)
- choosing appropriate staff to teach each unit and giving them a copy of the specification for the unit they teach
- asking staff to produce a programme of study (POS) consisting of a basic outline of content to be taught in date order, including the vocational
trips, visits and visitors (see Appendix 2 for examples)
- giving POS to technicians concerned, highlighting any practicals that require a number of resources or that continue over a period of time and
discussing any problems/constraints (eg water baths became double-booked)
- attending training courses for standardising material; reminding staff that this is an A level course and standards should be set with this in mind
- inventing interesting and innovative assignments that enable students to access higher marks; sharing good practices with other network colleges
in order to access materials that have already been tried and tested (see Appendix 3 for example of an assignment)
- visiting other colleges and centres to see what procedures, standards and experiments they are carrying out; especially useful for the new unit 7
in A2 science (see Appendix 4 for some tried and tested examples).
The college took the following approach to preparing students for the new courses.
- Year 10 taster days – ran two combined taster days at Hull University and invited all the year 10 students from feeder schools to attend. The
students were kept in their form classes and rotated around a variety of science subjects with one theme. For example, biology groups studied the
ecology and food chains of the beach, geology groups studied the rock formations and dinosaur footprints found there and chemistry groups
calculated the concentration of chloride ions in the sea water. This increased the connection with the local university and further motivated the
students to take up post-16 education.
- Prospectus presentations were made early on in year 11. This provided students with an insight into the variety of courses available and
highlighted the alternative learning styles of the different courses. Applied subjects were also highlighted at this point.
- Each student who applies is individually interviewed with regard to their predicted grades, post-16 choice of education and career. Any student
unlikely to achieve five GCSE grade Cs is strongly encouraged to consider one of the applied subjects studied at the college on introduction day.
- Students who have applied and been interviewed are invited to attend the college for two introduction days. This allows the students to sample
lessons with six different subject choices and gives them opportunities to discover which type of teaching and learning styles suits their needs.
Applied science courses may be more suited to kinaesthetic learners, while other types of courses may appeal to people who have auditory or
visual learning preferences.
- Each student is invited to enrol at the college once they have received their exam results to confirm their subject interests and choices.
- During induction, each student must complete a small piece of work and receive positive written feedback on it within the first teaching week.
Student target groupThe college targets students who are genuinely interested in science and plan to study it at university. Students also need to have an excellent
attendance record and be punctual and organised. It is explained to the students that the course is highly experimental with hands-on practical work.
The importance of writing up practicals and developing their portfolios in order to achieve high grades is also stressed.
The course is designed to be flexible and fit into the same amount of timetable that is taken by a traditional A level. As a result students can combine
this course with a wide range of other awards. Popular choices include sport, geography, psychology, geology, ICT and mathematics. Students are
guided and consulted on their choices through individual interviews.
Weaker students (average GCSE scores of less than 4.5) are provided with extra learning support. This support may include catch-up sessions built
into the programme of study, lunchtime study sessions or a specialist tutor to assist in numeracy, language or general organisation. The college is
also hoping to offer two to three hours of additional support each week by a science teacher to guide students individual assistance in working
towards the criteria.
ProgressionThe majority of students carry on with their favourite branch of the science that they have studied on the GCE applied science course. Courses such
as sports science, environmental science, biomedical science, forensic science and human nutrition have been popular. Universities accept the
applied science A level in place of AS chemistry, physics or biology and Leeds University accepts the qualification for acceptance onto their medicine
degree.
Vocational linksVocational links take time to build locally and nationally but often provide students with the most enjoyable and valuable aspects of a course. The
college has developed links with a number of companies in the food and drink manufacturing industries as well as those in environmental and
medical sectors. Students can see a purpose to the experiments that they complete in class by witnessing the use and application of science in the
world of work. They also appreciate the difference between completing tasks on large scales.
In cases where it has proven difficult to take students to companies, employers have visited the college to give speeches and presentations. For
example, a health and safety officer of a food manufacturing company led a discussion on the health and safety constraints that operate on the
factory floor and the implications of these for the company and its employees. On another occasion a representative of the Environmental Agency
spoke to students about the overall assessment of water quality in the local area.
Teaching and learning stylesScarborough Sixth Form College regards the choice of teachers for the course as being as important as the choice of student. Scarborough teachers
choose to teach on the vocational course as it involves a different teaching style. Students are successful on the course as it is broken down into
manageable parts and they are guided towards the criteria within the portfolios. Students are guided in their research with prompt sheets, website
addresses and book references, including page numbers. Humour also plays an important part in teaching (see Appendix 5 for an example of humour
in unit 4). It is therefore important that teachers on this course are suited to this mode of delivery.
Future plansThe college plans to continue to increase numbers on the full-time course and expand the number of educational trips. Plans are also in place to
further develop the support learning provided for weaker students. Finally, the college is hoping to collaborate with another local college to offer single
award AS science to their students on courses such as hairdressing, motor vehicles and other subjects, which incorporate aspects of science within
their course content.
Also See
Vocational provision at key stage 4
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Page updated: 12 June 2008