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	Using alternatives to GNVQs

	The Castle School
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The Castle School


		11-16 schools

		6th form schools

		Colleges

The school

The Castle School is a rural 11–19 comprehensive school situated in South Gloucestershire. It had 1,700 students on the roll in 2005, including 340 in the sixth form. It is a Leading Edge school with specialist visual arts status.

Vocational background

The school delivered vocational qualifications from 1992, as part of a broad-based curriculum. Vocational qualifications included the BTEC First Diploma, part one and full GNVQs and vocational A levels. The school is also part of a local network of schools offering GCSEs in vocational subjects. It offers applied art and design, applied business, health and social care and applied information and communication technology (ICT).
In addition, taster courses were developed at key stage 4 with local colleges as part of skills for working life, along with level 1 courses in work-related studies, ICT and GCSE in vocational subjects. However, post-16 fewer students took up intermediate GNVQ and vocational A levels as a result of changes to the specifications introduced from 2000 onwards.

Key challenges

GNVQs were very popular with staff and students, so the prospect of change was unwelcome. The school does not consider GCSEs in vocational subjects as providing an appropriate basis for one-year, year 12 courses. Any alternative qualifications must motivate students by offering exciting, practical and creative one-year courses that continue to improve achievement alongside GCSE resits and develop ICT skills. The school also values flexibility of choice within qualifications and assessment that is unit-based and compensatory (that is, students do not have to pass each unit within a qualification to achieve a grade).

The school hopes to raise the status of vocational education, both in the school and in the local community. The alternative provision should help to meet local employers’ needs for well-qualified employees with excellent customer service, ICT and communication skills. Nursing is a specific area where progression from the alternative provision identified to date might need further attention.

The school is conscious of competition from local colleges with experience in delivering the alternative provision. Consequently, the level of demand for the alternative provision is unpredictable and recruitment unsure. Equally, successful implementation will depend on staff retention.

Other considerations include a lack of funding, time and other resources to support the planned changes. In particular, it has proven challenging to find enough time to devote to preparing resources and writing assignments. Time was set aside for this work using in-service training days and the summer term. Staff morale in the face of change is also a factor, as is the potential strain on local businesses as a result of the demand for more access to them at a time when this is already proving difficult.

Progress

From September 2004 the school replaced GNVQs and/or GCSEs in vocational subjects with the BTEC suite of qualifications for its post-16 provision. Qualifications offered to year 11 students in spring 2004 were: First Diplomas in caring, travel and tourism and IT practitioners and National Diplomas in early years.

Given student interest, it was thought likely that BTEC National and First Diplomas in early years and travel and tourism would recruit and run, but that BTEC First Diplomas in caring and IT would not. At this point the school still needed to identify replacements for art and design and business GNVQs. The school arrived at these decisions as a result of:

discussion about suitable provision
extensive research into available courses
a survey of the intentions of year 11 students
presentations to students and parents
the publication of options information booklets.

When selecting the BTEC suite, staff looked for courses that offered a suitable form of assessment and a wide variety of teaching and learning styles. Some students welcomed the idea of 100 per cent continuous assessment/coursework. Parents and employers recognised the BTEC suite of qualifications by name. The school felt that it would be important to be able to mix and match alternative provision with A level/AS level/vocational A level and to resit GCSEs. Other stakeholders also showed interest in the added flexibility that the BTEC suite could provide.

These plans were written into the school’s development plan, courses offered and initial discussions took place about timetabling, staffing and rooming. A great deal of effort was spent completing the necessary paperwork to become an approved BTEC centre, including the preparation of staff CVs and example assignments for each course.

Specific funding was used to release staff to carry out these activities. Future funding was earmarked to:

continue these discussions
produce marketing materials
write assignments
develop teaching resources.

Communication

The school gave presentations about vocational education to students and their parents at a parents’ evening. Wall displays, handouts and a course booklet were used to support the dissemination of information. Students received information through their year 11 tutors, while staff received it through vocational and tutor team meetings. Discussions with employers, local schools and colleges, higher education and other partners such as Connexions continued.

The factors most affecting communication were changes to specifications and approval requirements and the need for promotional materials for some of the alternative provision. The school planned to develop materials based on available texts, magazines, local workplaces and venues and the internet, though availability of time would be an issue. The need for increased access to businesses at a time when this is becoming harder and more expensive caused the school some difficulties.

Position at June 2005

By June 2005 the school had completed the BTEC First Diploma courses in early years and travel and tourism and successfully negotiated the National Standards Sampling (NSS) and Integrated Vocational Assignment (IVA). The school was pleased with its progress but noted that this had not been a smooth year of transition and on several occasions staff had wished that they were able to keep GNVQs. The decision to replace GNVQs at intermediate level with BTEC qualifications from September 2004 was made because they:

are a recognised qualification brand to parents and employers
are perceived as having potential for fun and relevance to real-world experience
offer suitable progression at a variety of levels and sizes, ie BTEC Introductory Certificate or Diploma, BTEC First Certificate or Diploma, BTEC National Diploma or Certificate
can be mixed and matched with GCSE resits in mathematics and English or with A levels
fit within the school’s timetable framework.

BTEC First Diplomas in early years and travel and tourism

The school found that the early years course was just manageable in the time available for committed year 12 students. Of the five students enrolled, two completed the course to pass level, following resubmission of work to ensure standards had been met, and one completed units only. The other students were hampered by illness or decided to take up the opportunity of employment. One student hoped to progress to the new GCE A level and the others found employment in unrelated fields.
The school may consider offering the BTEC First Diploma in health and social care in the future but will not offer the full BTEC National Diploma in early years, as it found the requirement for work placements unmanageable.
The one-year, year 12 BTEC First Diploma in travel and tourism enrolled 14 students, of whom six completed the course to pass standard, following a difficult NSS sampling and IVA assessment. Edexcel BTEC certainly applied rigorous standards and were sometimes very demanding in their expectations and unrealistic in their detailed requirements for pass level. However, determined students succeeded in the end and were well placed for future courses. Fifty per cent hoped to progress to the level 3 course, two students to further education college in level 2 practical courses and one into employment.

Lessons learnt from BTEC First Diplomas

In considering BTEC Firsts as a successor qualification to GNVQ intermediate, centres might wish to note a number of lessons learnt from the school’s experience.

Students gained considerably in interpersonal and organisational skills and independence in learning, but needed considerable staff support.
Motivation was high, especially in the practical elements of the courses.
Practical work was highly motivating in travel and tourism and students gained good life skills in planning and running study visits – just a pity they had to provide so much of the formal evidence in written form.
Students were well prepared to progress to applied GCE A level.
Visits and visitors were extremely helpful in motivating staff and students and providing information.
Transition to BTEC is quite difficult due to the necessity for approval and detailed faculty/departmental paperwork.
Students need to be dedicated and committed and very close to C grade at GCSE to have a chance of gaining a pass.
Work experience in early years is quite demanding of local employers.
The depth and detail required are greater than that for GNVQs.
The amount of teacher contact time required should not be underestimated.
Access to the internet and computers is essential as up-to-date resources are scarce.
There is no textbook available as yet for travel and tourism and therefore resources are scarce and internet plagiarism is a problem.
Early years was prone to last-minute changes by the awarding body.
Every part of the syllabus must be covered and mentioned in the coursework, even at pass level.
Standards are difficult to judge without sample work.
NSS sampling is very precise and detailed and correct presentation is essential.
Internal Verification must be rigorous and detailed with considerable evidence of feedback to assessors.
Witness statements need to be personalised and detailed – which can be very time-consuming and demanding in a large class. The teacher’s signature should be sufficient to evidence that an activity has taken place.
VA requirements are open to wide interpretation, eg is ‘an information sheet’ one for all four companies investigated or one sheet per company?
External verifiers/moderators varied greatly in terms of their approachability and helpfulness.
Exemplar material at pass, merit and distinction, as provided by QCA for GNVQ Part One/Full GNVQs/AVCEs, would be helpful.
Awarding bodies/external verifiers need to note the desire for more locally based training and increased clarification of the IVA. They should also recognise that schools need support the first time through and are very different organisations from colleges.

Level 2 awards

Further changes were made at The Castle School, with BTEC Firsts replacing GNVQs in art and design and business from September 2005. Art and design was submitted following internal development and verification using ideas generated within the school’s Visual Arts Specialist status provision with visiting crafts and arts experts or artists in residence.

Business staff refined their assignments and added their CVs so that the approval process could be continued. The ability to offer BTEC First Diploma in business may become necessary at key stage 4 due to the school’s considerable unease with the present applied GCSE unit 1. Alternative courses such as GCSE business studies were also investigated. As with early years and travel and tourism, the numbers requesting these courses from year 11 were low.

The school decided not to offer applied GCSEs to year 12 students due to the academic nature of the award and the requirement for lengthy written descriptions and analysis. Students attracted to a one-year, year 12 course are looking for more practical courses and teachers think that they would find applied GCSEs tedious.

GNVQ ICT was not replaced except by a continuation of the use of CLAIT. The school hoped to develop the progressive AiDA, CiDA and DiDA courses in key stage 4 and in year 12 to replace CLAIT, but level 1 and level 2 courses are needed within this suite of qualifications.

Level 3 awards

BTEC National Award in early years made steady progress and the school is pleased that the demands for hours of work experience were reduced for the new BTEC health and social care award. This makes this award more attractive to school students.

Although it had been prepared to do so, the school decided not to run the BTEC travel and tourism National Award as students’ expected some externally tested units. Interestingly, the school notes that key stage 4 and year 12 students increasingly prefer some examined units. This trend is linked to the perception that examined units require less continuous work than coursework, which students (especially boys) find has become unrealistically demanding and lengthy.

The school was impressed with initial investigations of the new A levels in applied subjects. These would appear at first sight to provide a genuine alternative to A levels, although the examined units are potentially difficult for weaker students due to the breadth of requirements. The A2 may also prove demanding due to the synoptic requirement. Whatever course is developed, the school hopes that there will be no further changes for a minimum of five years, preferably longer. Frequent change does not enable the development of useful resources or allow teachers to get to grip with the criteria, and many staff are suffering from initiative fatigue and overload.

Collaboration is taking place for the sixth form to alleviate the problem of small AS/A2 group sizes and to co-teach languages, some vocational subjects and perhaps law, using video conferencing or by moving students to one site. A suitable leaflet for students is being devised to raise awareness of such collaboration between centres. Future discussions are also considering swapping teachers between college and schools for A level business modules.

Vocational outreach centre in Thornbury

During Summer 2005 collaborative meetings between the four stakeholder institutions took place. The final decision was that a centre was needed for health and beauty, hospitality and catering, construction and media/ICT. A new building was requested at a separate, central location away from any of the stakeholder locations, so that students would feel that they had a fresh start to their studies in a new environment. It was recognised that additional learning might be needed at a school centre but it was hoped that the new build would provide suitable wet and dry classrooms/training rooms. Due to the decline in numbers in the primary sector, redevelopment of a junior school site become possible as the relocation of the special school. The draft bid in principal for the development of a vocational skills centre in Thornbury was completed and forwarded to the local education service for consideration.

Staff considered various models and agreed to develop a pilot in health and beauty. The headteachers and the college principal drew up a suitable protocol of intention to collaborate in the development of such a skills centre, leaving the responsibility for training with the college but proposing to share the costs of such a venture.

The writing of the bid required considerable time for initial outlines, discussion and revision both among the four stakeholders and with various interested parties, including outside agencies, planning officials, local employers and prospective students in the respective schools.

Lessons learnt from the bid include the following.

Allow considerable time (minimum six months) to obtain necessary information, carry out research and arrange full and subgroup meetings.
Headteachers and principals need to cooperate to agree a protocol for working together.
Having someone in the local education authorities to act as liaison officer between the parties was helpful.
Access to a grant from South Gloucestershire to initiate meetings for senior managers was helpful.
Visits or information about similar projects (eg The Park Opportunities Centre in Knowle West, Bristol or Knowsley in Liverpool) was encouraging.
Outline financial costings help from the college was helpful.
Bid writers should include people with excellent knowledge of the local community.
Time is needed to enable local employers/councillors/other interested parties to return any questionnaires and follow-up any queries.
Labour market information is not always available in the desired formats.
School and college statistics are not always easily available or calculated in the same way.
Student returns are not always forthcoming from all parties concerned (although collaboration between the main players was helpful).
Use of year 10 students perhaps gave skewed results in that they overestimated their ability and therefore saw minimal need for a practical vocational centre.
Unfortunately in South Gloucestershire there is no surplus educational land that could be sold off or redeveloped at present, but primary numbers are declining in the near future.

Employer links

Some meetings were planned for late June and July 2005 for integration in applied learning at key stage 4 and post-16 the following year. Visits were arranged through the local Connexions advisor but several last-minute changes were needed due to employer problems. Lessons learnt from working with employers include the following.

The vast majority are willing to help and supportive if the timing is right and sufficient notice is given.
Bringing employers as visitors into school is beneficial for large groups and cheaper.
Visiting employers is helpful for small cohorts but costly (supply cover and transport).
Employers are still unsure as to the value of various qualifications and the need to change them so frequently. One overall framework with similar equivalents for certificates/diplomas from any awarding body is required and Nationals should be reserved for level 3 (ie OCR and BTEC Nationals should have different values).
More could be done at a national level to enhance employer knowledge of the current qualifications framework and levels of various qualifications.
NVQs should be carried out only in the workplace.
More practical and less theoretical vocational courses are requested.
Customer service skills for all are requested.
Employers desire some ICT skills but generally prefer to train on in-house programs.

Conclusions

The Castle School made considerable and rapid progress, but financial circumstances constrained support for the introduction of the replacement awards for GNVQs.

The school found that there are some suitable successor awards to GNVQs but that many are too academic, too vocational or do not represent a replacement for the GNVQ ethos.

At key stage 4 the school will continue to develop applied GCSEs. Overall the school was disappointed with the final grades achieved by applied GCSE students and will review alternative courses for business and ICT.

Possible business replacements will include the BTEC First Certificate and the business studies GCSE. The school found that students look for a continuation of the key stage 3 strategy with lively, well-paced teacher-led activities that provide a broad base for A level courses. The school has found that unit 1 within the applied business GCSE does not enable this at present and student disillusionment and poor results lead the school to consider the GCSE business studies as a more suitable alternative. In ICT the school plans to monitor the development of the DiDA suite of qualifications and will probably move to part of this in September 2006.

For post-16 students, the school will continue to expand its BTEC provision at First Diploma level 2, depending on student numbers, funding and lack of alternative course provision in the near future in Thornbury. Should a suitable venue become available, the school may develop more practical BTECs or other courses in collaboration with the local further education college, primarily at entry level and level 1. The school hopes to continue to expand its links with local employers for both existing and new GCE A level courses, as self-evaluation and personalised learning permit.

Feedback from students

Initial questionnaires were distributed in the autumn term of 2004 to six year 10 students studying vocational GCSEs in business, health and social care and ICT. These were completed in discussion with the students, who represented a very bright year group with an expected overall five A*–C GCSE score of 78 per cent. Very few less-able students had opted for vocational subjects in this year group. Responses were as expected. In late September 2005, follow-up questionnaires were distributed and two ICT students were questioned further to elicit more details than had been returned in their questionnaires.

Teaching and learning styles in business and health and social care were mostly teacher-led. There were opportunities for discussions as well as individual, paired, group and whole-class work. Students used computers to research and present their work, carried out visits, used text books for theory and used leaflets and company data to enable coursework. Few videos, audio tapes, role play or wall displays were used or created.

In ICT, teaching styles were predominantly teacher-led discussions and individual coursework, with occasional matching games and group discussions focused on data. In business, the examined work was fine and results were as they expected.

In health and social care, the exam results were much as expected and the students hoped to resit in January. Students like the idea of resits. In ICT, a decision was made to switch exam board as the OCR exam required knowledge of all three units, which the students found too broad.

Student feedback from the different alternative qualifications

GCSE in applied business

Initially these students were enjoying the course. However, as the course progressed, students expressed concerns that:

‘The amount of coursework was too much to handle. There’s too much pressure.’
‘There’s too much emphasis on coursework and not enough about other aspects of business like marketing.’
‘There is more coursework than I expected. Exam GCSEs are easier.’
Some work experience was less useful for the course.
‘Why do two companies in unit 1? You only need one because you don’t have to compare them.’
‘Larger units need to be broken down into smaller bite-size pieces of coursework with more examples of different businesses, not just one or two.’
‘There’s not enough enterprise in the coursework. It would be better to run your own business or event.’
‘It’s hard to get high grades.’

On the positive side students also noted the following.

‘Units 2 and 3 were better and exams are about right.’
Feedback helped students understand how to improve their work.
Students were able to use real world examples (such as The Mall, Bristol, Essilor, Thornbury and Pizza Hut or WH Smith in all their work.
Having vocational links definitely made the course more interesting and visiting the companies to see how they work was good, especially on work experience.
‘I enjoyed the visits to companies in Bristol. They were interesting and informative – and fun!’
‘Visits to businesses have taught me a lot about how businesses are run.’

At the start of year 10, these students had no firm plans for the end of the course but by the start of year 11, they had decided to:

‘Get good grades and move into the sixth form for AS/A2s.’
‘Find a course with little or no coursework!’

One student’s longer-term plan to join the army air corps as a pilot had not changed.

Health and social care GCSE

Students enjoyed this course very much and found the subject interesting. In particular students noted the following.

‘I liked being able to get feedback and improve my work to get a higher grade – and doing well in the exam!’
Work experience with young children was helpful.

Students identified the following issues with the course.

‘I am finding it hard to manage all the coursework. It gets on top of you.’
‘I thought we’d learn more about children.’
‘I thought it would be easy but it’s quite hard.’
Visits to health care businesses were limited and no visits were made in year 10.
Other work experience had not been of any use to the course.
‘It’s difficult to get high grades.’

Although they enjoyed their course, neither student had ambitions to study the subject further. At the start of year 10, the two students wanted to go on to A levels, but by year 11 one, who had previously wanted to be a teacher, had decided to ‘Study health and beauty at college or in a workplace with training.’ The second student still wanted ‘go into the sixth form to do theatre studies/performing arts A level’ and then become an actor.

Applied ICT GCSE

Students chose this course for a number of reasons: ‘I thought it would be interesting’, ‘I would learn new skills’, ‘I like working on computers’, ‘my mates told me it was coursework and not tests’. However, they had mixed feelings about the course.

On the positive side:

students had been able to make very good use of their work experience in several aspects of their work, both coursework and exam.
a logo design competition from one workplace had been included within the course.
students found ‘it was useful learning about using ICT in business.’
‘I like using ICT. Designing my own business paperwork was good.’
‘I thought the course would be harder in terms of my ICT skills. I’m glad it wasn’t!’

Changes of staff and large student numbers (five classes of 20) meant that students did not go on any business or workplace visits except for work experience placements. While brighter students appeared to have a better knowledge of how to improve their work, less-able students only had a vague idea of how to gain more marks. Students felt the course would be improved by reducing the amount of coursework and the amount of ‘copying from the internet’. Students also identified the following issues with the course.

‘I haven’t enjoyed all the coursework.’
‘I’ve not really learnt anything new.’
‘I like the practical work but not always having to evaluate everything and annotate my work all the time.’
‘It’s too much about business.’
‘There’s too much to learn for the exam.’
‘Doing internet searches all the time isn’t very interesting but I’ve enjoyed finding out how businesses work.’
‘Harder than expected!’

In year 10 the two ICT students wanted to do A levels afterwards. By the start of year 11, one still hoped ‘to get good grades and go on to A levels in the sixth form’ while the second now wanted to ‘go to college and get practical training’.

Also see

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