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Sharples School


		11-16 schools

		6th form schools

		Colleges

About the case study

This case study shows how one school planned the implementation of work-related learning at key stage 4 to meet the statutory requirement in September 2004. It shows how the school decided what could be achieved by that date and how it might continue to plan and manage implementation after September 2004.

About the school

Sharples School is a mixed 11-16 comprehensive school in the metropolitan borough of Bolton. It caters for approximately 1,060 students of whom approximately 20% are of ethnic minority background and 30% are designated as having special educational needs. The school is in the north of the borough and draws students from the surrounding area. It is over-subscribed.

Since the early 1980s, the school has been involved in work-related learning, initially through work experience programmes for all students in year 10. This involvement later included mini-enterprise for year 10, job-seeking skills courses involving students in off-site work with employers, and a number of other PSHE-based programmes.

Implementation of the national curriculum, staff changes, the advent of league tables and pressure to raise standards led successive management teams to focus on other areas of development, which inevitably led to a demise in the relative importance of work-related learning. The work experience programme, moved forward to the last term in year 10, is one of the last remaining significant activities from the old provision.

More recent developments have included some extended work placements, GNVQ work, 20 students on college-based NVQ courses, developments in careers education, citizenship and increased links with further education.

The statutory requirement for work-related learning from September 2004 was the catalyst for Sharples School to review its work-related learning programme.

Planning to meet the statutory requirement for work-related learning at key stage 4

Working with partners

The school recognised that it needed to review its provision for work-related learning in partnership with other stakeholders. It identified the following partners and asked them to participate in a work-related learning advisory group:
· a business partner (Barclays Bank)
· an Education Business Partnership representative
· a representative from further education (FE)
· a representative from the LEA (the same person was able to represent both LEA and FE)
· a school governor.

From the school, the group included the deputy head (curriculum), the work-related learning coordinator, the careers’ education coordinator and the teacher responsible for vocational education. The group planned to rectify the omission of someone from the Connexions Service later.

Planning meetings

The school organised a number of meetings towards the end of 2003 (often run as twilight sessions lasting from 3-5 pm). The aims were to identify what had to happen in the first half of 2004 to ensure that a work-related learning programme would start in September 2004, and to plan for further developments after that. Four sessions were held.
· session 1: mid-November
This meeting identified the rationale for the work and what needed to be done, including raising awareness of the national context (enterprise agenda, increased flexibility, identifying what the work-related learning statutory requirement entailed, 14-19 working group, and so on) and to plan the agenda for the following sessions.
· session 2: early December
This session reviewed the baseline audit that had been done in the school against the work-related learning elements and provision statements in the QCA guidance document. Staff mapped the work-related learning that was being done in their subjects and identified any gaps.
· session 3: mid-December
This session reviewed the work-related learning that was being delivered and, crucially, what aspects the school needed to address before September 2004.
· session 4: mid/late December
This session reviewed an action plan that the school had drawn up to address the requirements for before and after September 2004 (through exploration, review and implementation).

Starting point

As a result of the first session, the group agreed the following positions, or values, in order to undertake the initial work.

· The framework would be the benchmark against which the school would plan and measure its work-related learning provision. Only in the medium to long term would the school consult more extensively to devise alternative or revised student outcomes.
· The organisation of experiences and other learning opportunities needed to be more diverse to reflect the changing educational and workplace environment in which students would learn.
· The school would need to consider how to capture and record experiences and learning opportunities for each student as the potential routes and environments for learning became more diverse.
· Developments needed to include key stage 3, to develop skills at an earlier age and to build meaningful progression.
· The school could not work in isolation. Collaboration with other schools, colleges, community and business partners would be needed.
· Progress would need to be benchmarked against national quality standard criteria.
· Staff development would need to be a key focus, including professional development placements to broaden staff’s experience of the world of work and its future direction.
· The school would gather the opinions of the students themselves as part of its development of work-related learning.
· The school would aim to be creative in its developments of the programme, seriously challenging low expectations and low self-esteem among students.

Auditing the curriculum

The school used a ‘key stage 4 work-related learning’ sheet to map the nine elements of the QCA work-related learning framework with its curriculum provision at key stage 4. Heads of department and others carried out this exercise and the information was compiled on an ‘audit of key stage 4 work-related learning summary’ sheet. The work-related learning coordinator used this to identify key areas that were being delivered and to identify any gaps.

Action planning

The school drew up an action plan to identify the actions it needed to take to deliver the agreed outcomes for September 2004. It identified short- and medium-term actions and drew up aims to address the longer-term developments and to set direction for future meetings of the work-related learning advisory group.

Short-term targets included:
· investigate suitable business simulations for elements 1 and 9 (target date for implementation: September 2004)
· develop a unit of work called ‘World of work’ to enhance elements 2, 3 and 4 (target date for implementation: September 2004)
· modify the work experience programme to incorporate interviews for all students to support element 5 (target date for implementation: work experience programme 2004-05)
· plan for regular and focussed meetings of a representative work-related learning group.

Medium-term targets included:
· review departmental schemes of work to identify opportunities for work-related learning.
· produce a matrix to cross-reference the entitlement on student timetables
· review work-related learning provision in the light of the school having science specialist status.

Future planning

During the planning stages the following issues were identified for further consideration.
· How the school would start (in its curriculum planning) to personalise learning programmes to match students’ individual learning routes, places and pace.
· If learning routes and experiences were to become more personalised and varied in the long term, how elements of these could be captured as evidence of students’ competence and experience. For example, how the school would record a student’s learning through part-time paid work.
The school is aware that it must review current and past developments as well as planning for the future. This is another role for the work-related learning advisory group.