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Whickham School


		11-16 schools

		6th form schools

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The school

Whickham School is a mixed, non-selective state community school in Gateshead, Tyneside. There are around 670 pupils at the school with 351 in the sixth form. The school is a specialist sports college and also holds a Sportsmark Gold award for its out-of-hours sports provision and its broad and balanced physical education curriculum.

The vocational curriculum at key stage 4

In 2004, 68 per cent of students achieved at least five A* to C grades at GCSE or equivalent. The school has added BTEC First Certificate and Diploma in sport to the key stage 4 curriculum to offer students a qualification that suits their learning styles, enhance the vocational provision and continue to improve the achievement of five A* to C GCSEs.

Vocational entitlement

The vocational offer was seen as an entitlement for all who wanted to pursue it, regardless of ability. The decision to offer these awards was taken by the senior management team, in support of the training and resource requests of the teaching team. The BTEC awards were targeted at those students who wanted a different experience from the more traditional GCSE, including those who were disengaged. However, higher achievers who wanted to pursue a more vocational pathway were also targeted.

Timetabling

The First Certificate was offered over nine hours a fortnight during the last term of year 10 and in year 11. The BTEC First Diploma is delivered in five hours a week over two years. Where possible the timetable reflected the need for blocks of time so that visits and guest presentations could be arranged without affecting the wider curriculum.

Achievements

The group taking the BTEC sport enjoyed excellent achievement rates: 97 per cent of the 64 year 11 students achieved the BTEC First Certificate and the two students who did not achieve the award had problems with course attendance. Of the full cohort of 64 students, 56 were also entered for GCSE physical education (PE), 45 of whom were expected to achieve A* to C passes.

Critical success factors

Training and staff development

The school planned the inception of the BTEC in advance of delivery. The teacher who had responsibility for delivery attended approvals workshops to ensure that approval was granted prior to delivery. Also prior to delivery the teacher attended an awarding body development day. This provided her with the basic information about BTEC assessment and grading. This was followed by attendance at another training event specialising in quality assurance and effective methods of assessment. Both teachers delivering the BTEC attended this. After all of these development activities the teachers adapted and improved their methods of assessment, planning and delivery.

Prior to National Standards Sampling the teaching team comprehensively carried out internal verification of all assessment activities and a large sample of assessment decisions. Internal verification of assessment activities was carried out by a trained external verifier so that this member of the team understood both the demands of BTEC and the subject area. The teacher also communicated with their external verifier to confirm the sample required. The team passed National Standards Sampling on the first attempt.

Flexible programming

Students were able to transfer between BTEC First Certificate to BTEC First Diploma. This ensured that the students could progress at a pace suitable for them, enhancing their achievement.

Parental attitude

Parents have been supportive of the vocational curriculum. Thirteen out of 27 students had expected A/B GCSE grades and this ensured that the BTECs were not seen as a qualification for the low achievers but as an opportunity for all.

A desire for success and quality

Teachers’ commitment to providing relevant and entertaining learning for students has improved motivation and led to enhanced student achievement.

Internal verification was also a key element in improving course planning with both assignment design and assessment decisions constructively criticised for further improvement. Remedial action was noted and acted upon.

The school has identified the following tips for success:

· plan your work in advance, particularly the assessment activities
· ensure marking is an ongoing activity to even the workload for teachers and encourage achievement for students
· ensure assessment activities are in small chunks so students can achieve them and move on to the next subject
· plan and structure rigorous internal verification that aims to further improve the assessment and delivery of the programme.

The challenges

A wide ability range of students

A broad mix of students chose the BTEC route. Some students had predicted GCSE grades at A and B while others were disengaged and had predicted grades of F and G. The students were streamed as this was seen as a way of motivating students and helping to raise their academic self-esteem by providing an opportunity for them to do well in a smaller group rather than be seen as the least able within a wider group. Students progressed at different paces and were transferred between the BTEC First Certificate and Diploma depending on their pace of achievement.

Class size

The class size was a challenge. Students were split into two groups, one of 11 and one of 27. The group of 27 was considered to be too large and unmanageable, particularly as some of the students were disengaged. Teachers were also concerned that the group size was a constraint for practical activities and a problem if students needed more personalised support. To enhance achievement, groups of 15 to 20 were seen as ideal.

Delivering the vocational context successfully

Limited budgets meant that guest visits to emphasise the vocational context of learning were limited to two. Teachers ensured that students got the most out of these visits by relating these experiences to the requirements of the BTEC units.

Teachers delivering BTEC sport had no industry experience other than teaching in the vocational sector. To ensure that the delivery of the vocational context was accurate and current, the teacher researched the sports industry widely and confirmed their understanding with those in the industry.

Staff attitude

Although the school was keen to offer a high-quality BTEC programme not all staff initially accepted BTEC awards as GCSE equivalents. Senior managers have taken positive steps to ensure the parity of vocational qualifications with other qualifications is emphasised.

Areas for further development

Extending vocational curriculum

Due to the success of BTEC sport at key stage 4, the school is now going through the approval system for a number of other BTEC courses at both the national and first levels.

BTEC First Certificates will also be introduced to the year 9 cohort. Students will either continue with these units in year 10 or opt to do GCSE PE alongside it. They will also get the option to ‘top up’ to the First Diploma. The possibility of some of the more disaffected students in year 11 opting into BTEC awards is also being considered as the teachers believe that these awards may prove more effective at engaging these students.

Further development of manageable, exciting learning and assessment

The success of the sports courses, in terms of student motivation and achievement, has led the school to introduce schemes of work that highlight the approaches they use so as to extend these practices and benefits to other courses.

Becoming an external verifier

Staff are encouraged to become awarding body external verifiers for their own personal development and to ensure that they are updated in the current issues from the awarding body.

Offering the pathway at NQF level 3

The school is looking to offer BTECs at NQF level 3 so there is a natural pathway for students to follow.

Also See

Vocational provision at key satge 4