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Uplands Community Technology College


		11-16 schools

		6th form schools

		Colleges

The college

Uplands Community Technology College is a rural 11–18 comprehensive school situated in Wadhurst, East Sussex. In 2005 there were 1,070 students on the roll, with 220 in the sixth form.

Vocational background

Previously the school offered part one GNVQs at key stage 4 and full intermediate GNVQ for year 12 students. At key stage 4, these were replaced by GCSEs in applied business, applied information and communication technology (ICT) and health and social care. Post-16 the college continues to offer intermediate GNVQ in ICT as a one-year course and vocational A level in business as a two-year course. The ICT GNVQ results were disappointing in 2003/4 so the decision was taken not to offer GNVQ ICT in 2004/5.
The successful introduction of GCSEs in vocational subjects did, ironically, affect recruitment to the school’s sixth form. Students who had achieved closer to their potential at key stage 4 moved to other institutions offering more specialist vocational provision, structured training programmes or employment. This especially affected recruitment for one-year, year 12 programmes, for which the current offering is BTEC First Diplomas in business and sport, with mathematics and English GCSE resits. The school also found that the vocational A level in business did not meet the needs of some students.

Position at September 2004

Six students completed and passed the BTEC First Diploma in sport, which was introduced in September 2003 to extend the one-year, year 12 offer at Uplands. One of these students progressed to a BTEC National Certificate in sport at Beacon Sports College while three of the others continued at Uplands to complete level 3 AS or AVCE courses. The other two found employment.
In addition to the BTEC and GCSE resits, these students also completed an intermediate GNVQ in ICT. As noted previously, the results were disappointing and the decision was taken not to continue to offer GNVQ ICT. The head of ICT used this as an opportunity to rationalise ICT provision and maintain specialist teaching across the subject.

Position at March 2005

The BTEC First Diploma in sport recruited a disappointingly small second cohort of four students. This was in part due to the lack of marketing in comparison with the first year. It was decided that more proactive engagement of staff in marketing the courses would be needed in 2005/6.
The size of the class limited the scope of the course and this is reflected in staff and student comments. Students perceived a lack of variety in lessons and staff found it difficult to plan for them. Staff regretted the absence of work experience and planned to address this issue in subsequent years. However, students were involved in joint events with other BTEC providers and Wealden education business partnership in ‘Dealing with the public’ and ‘Key skills for the workplace’, and were also involved in a number of sports activities with local schools.
Only two of the four students were considered likely to complete the course. One was very successful and made a full contribution to year 12 life and the other significantly developed self-confidence. He felt he was ‘doing well, instead of just hanging on at GCSE.’
The BTEC First Diploma in business was added to the one-year year 12 offer in September 2004 and attracted a small cohort of four students. In contrast to sport, business staff believe the small class size for the BTEC first diploma has contributed to success in terms of retention and successful achievement, and this is reflected in student comments. All four students carried out a two-week work experience at February half-term and all found this useful in terms of real contextual understanding of their studies and as a break from the classroom. There have been joint days with students from other schools and with the local education business partnership, looking at dealing with the public and interview and presentation skills. These have been well received by students and staff.

Issues

As the BTEC courses were barely marketed in previous years, all year 11 students in 2005 were interviewed by a member of the senior team following their mock GCSE examinations to establish the appropriateness of their intentions for post-16 study. The interview notes were attached to the students’ application forms for year 12 and reviewed after Easter by the senior team. Students who had applied for level 3 study but whose performance in year 11 suggested they might not achieve the necessary results were re-interviewed.
It was envisaged that this process would enable the head of sixth form and members of staff responsible for the BTEC courses to identify potential students and positively market the courses, in advance of results, to raise their profile. The aim was to maximise the numbers of students taking these courses and to ensure they do so as a positive decision.

Position at June 2005

Although issues arose in the second year’s delivery of the BTEC First at Uplands, the implementation of the courses was successful in terms of those students who completed the programmes of study. In business, four students completed the course and were expected to gain one merit and three distinctions. All testified to the positive effect on them of having completed a programme of study where they felt they could enjoy the prospect of success and significantly improve their level 2 qualification portfolio. This changed the way they look at education.

Staff reaction was also interesting. Some staff acknowledged a considerable learning curve, whereby initial assumptions about where students would be joining the course were challenged. Many have previous sixth form teaching experience at level 3 courses only and so to begin teaching sixth formers with an average GCSE score of D or E was a culture shock, to say the least. However, they learnt from the experience and gained in confidence as they prepared for following years. In this sense, they were quite grateful for the small group size. Interestingly though, these assumptions undermined the marketing of the BTEC in the spring and summer terms among year 11 students who looked unlikely to achieve entry to level 3 courses. The pervading sense among some students, staff and parents was that no one would opt for these courses before they received their results. However, four students have opted for this course.

There was considerable interest in the BTEC First Diploma in sport in its first year from the local Learning Skills Council and partner schools, but the level of interest appears to be less this year. The main member of staff delivering the course was keen to market this proactively with year 11 students for 2005/6. The small group size (four students) and poor group dynamic would appear to have been more of an issue in sport. Unfortunately, two students dropped out of this course for reasons not related to their ability. This highlighted the need in future years for greater involvement of the delivering member of staff in the setting up and marketing of the course and also for a more robust system of monitoring sixth form students during the year. Of the two students likely to complete the course, one was very successful and made a full contribution to year 12 life and the other significantly developed self-confidence.
The staff regret the absence of work experience in vocational provision and plan to address this in the following year. However, students who were involved in joint events with other BTEC providers and Wealden Education Business Partnership in ‘Dealing with the public’ and ‘Key skills for the workplace’ were also involved in a number of sports activities with local schools.
It is important that the emphasis in BTEC First Diploma in sport is restated and that business continues to develop and does not experience a second year similar to that experienced in the sport course.

Communication materials and activities

These courses were marketed in the same brochure as other post-16 courses. It is important that these courses have due prominence in the promotional materials and events to help overcome misconceptions. In particular the school is keen to get away from the notion that these are courses you end up doing, having ‘failed’ everything else. To this end, a specific BTEC event within next year’s sixth form open evening is planned.

There has been greater consistency in the advice and support given to year 11 students about their options through interviews with members of the senior team. The school hopes to refine these to provide an earlier check on students who may have unrealistic expectations. Managers observe that some of the students on level 3 programmes this year have struggled and even withdrawn, and might have been better suited to a different programme.

The impact of the change process

The school is keen to address the narrow focus of the provision for a one-year post–sixth form course. The school is also interested in the wider issue of how decisions by students are made and how, or whether, interested parties are informed. These lessons informed the planning and implementation of a curriculum review that took place in September 2006.

Key issues identified are to broaden the sixth form’s vocational provision, ensure greater coherency to the level 2 offer and maintain and develop partnerships with other providers. The success of this process is seen as hinging on joined-up planning and thinking. At the moment, the emphasis in the planning of shared provision has been on key stage 4, as this is where the first courses will be delivered. However, it is important that the head of sixth form is aware and involved, as appropriate, as this provision is extended.

Monitoring activities

The assessment calendar, which applies across the whole sixth form, includes these students. The school did not face any issues with monitoring students’ progress in terms of course requirements. Next year, in addition to their membership in sixth form tutor groups and the usual assessment cycle, BTEC students will meet regularly with an identified member of staff to discuss other issues, such as how they feel about their courses and what aspects they are enjoying or not enjoying. Soliciting this kind of feedback has formerly been carried out on a reactive, rather than a proactive, basis.

Future plans for the introduction of alternative provision

BTEC First Diplomas in sport and business are being offered again for 2005/6. In addition, BTEC First in early years is also being offered in partnership with another local school. The other school will deliver the teaching parts of this course, since it has experience in doing so. Work experience will be provided at Uplands’ own crèche. In addition, students will complete GCSE resits in English and mathematics, as appropriate, and remain on the college’s roll. This is the result of work done by the youth centre manager in developing a programme-led apprenticeship model of delivery.

Work experience, which has been successful in business this year but absent from sport, will be a key feature of both courses.

Students will have a range of other courses to follow in conjunction with their BTEC, including GCSE resits in mathematics and English, GCSEs in human biology and environmental science, a level 2 business and language qualification and key skills. This aims to ensure that students have a full and varied timetable – which was in some degree lacking in the absence of ICT. It is recognised that this is not an ideal and wholly coherent provision but this will be reviewed as part of the sixth form curriculum review about to take place and will involve investigation of other courses, such as Edexcel’s Diploma in digital applications.

This review was implementation in September 2006. It will examine the Uplands sixth form curriculum for the first time since the implementation of Curriculum 2000 and aims to meet the needs and interests of future students by providing a flexible and accessible curriculum. It will reflect the increasingly vocational provision being developed at key stage 4, particularly the introduction of GCSEs in vocational subjects, and will provide an attractive and relevant level 2 curriculum.
A recent Ofsted inspection of the local authority found a shortfall in 14–19 vocational provision in the county, so a vocational centre is being planned between Uplands and three other local schools in partnership with a sixth form college. This will improve vocational provision and it is envisaged that students would be taught there two days a week by college tutors. It is being developed to meet the need for increased flexibility at key stage 4 and, if it goes well it will be extended post-16 on a programme-led apprenticeship model.

Lessons learnt from managing the change process

The change process does needs to be managed and coordinated at a senior level to ensure joined-up thinking and decision making.

As with other initiatives, all of those involved in vocational provision (eg the faculties, sixth form, college managers and wider agencies, such as Learning Skills Councils, should not assume that once a cycle has been completed and is securely in place, it can simply be replicated across other subject areas/schools.

The importance – and difficulty – of providing effective communication cannot be overestimated.

The delivery and teaching of courses should be active, rather than passive. This applies equally to marketing and monitoring.

Also see

> Using alternatives to GNVQs
> Using GCSEs in vocational subjects within the key stage 4 curriculum