Blog posts for tag:Schools

The Department for Education (DfE) has recently made some significant changes to the way that secondary school performance is measured, having an impact on schools up and down the country. The aim is to reform the way that schools and colleges are assessed so that all pupils, regardless of background, can make progress and find success across a broad choice of subjects and study programmes. The government’s vision was to reward schools that set high expectations for the attainment and progress of all their pupils, provide high value qualifications, and teach a wide variety of subjects across a balanced curriculum. The focus was to ensure that accountability became “the servant, not the master, of excellent teaching”. In other words, the accountability system should work with and not against teachers’ main objective – to help their pupils gain the skills and qualifications they need to succeed in their future.

As we’re all aware, GCSE equivalency plays an important role in many learners’ lives by giving them access to vocational subjects which they can excel in by demonstrating the skills they perform best at. Following on from the government’s changes to these courses and key recommendations by Professor Wolf on 14-19 studies, NCFE decided to create our own new suite of qualifications: V Certs. From September 2013 most vocational qualifications have ceased to hold GCSE equivalency so will no longer count towards your school’s performance tables.

There’s no denying the importance of basic English and maths skills, as they are a mandatory requirement of most employers. The state of literacy and numeracy skills in England however, looks bleak following the Organisation for the Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) October report showing England’s 16-24 year olds ranked 22nd (literacy) and 21st (numeracy) out of 24 countries surveyed. NCFE is offering solutions to this skills crisis and has developed a suite of 130 fundable English and maths qualifications ranging from bitesize, single unit qualifications to certificates. NCFE is focused on tailoring to each learner’s individual needs, and these qualifications can be mixed and matched but also used as pre-GCSE training.

It should be part of a school’s remit to develop pupils’ self-belief, perseverance and resilience, according to advice from a cross-parliamentary group, supported by the CBI. The group suggested that a school needs to be more than just an ‘exam factory’, and that students should leave their education as well rounded individuals, equipped and ready to face the challenges that lie ahead of them.

The Department for Education has published its latest league table data showing that more schools in the UK are meeting government targets on GCSEs. The tables for 16-18 year old students have been split for the first time between academic and vocational qualifications. A total of 154 state-funded schools out of about 3,200 are classed as under-performing, which is 61 fewer than last year. Schools are said to be below target if fewer than 40% of pupils pass GCSEs including maths and English, with grades between an A* and a C, and pupils are not making enough progress.

Schools’ career services are not up to standard, according to education watchdog Ofsted. Three quarters of schools visited were reportedly not delivering effective careers advice and Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw commented, "It’s worrying that the new arrangements are failing to provide good guidance." The main concerns were around a lack of employer involvement and a propensity to promote academia over vocational training, resulting in young people leaving education unaware of the full range of options available to them.

Welcome back everyone! Here we are once again at the start of the new academic year. I’ve no doubt that you’ll have hit the ground running and are already juggling multiple responsibilities as you welcome in your new school year groups and prepare them for the year ahead. Being this hectic does of course present many challenges not least the pressures on time. I firmly believe that NCFE as your Awarding Organisation is in a unique position to help you and your school get the most out of your precious time by providing you with the best possible support and service.

Exam results day – it’s a stressful time in the lives of teens across the country as they find out the grades they’ve been awarded in return for their hard work. In the current economic climate, it’s arguably even more nerve-racking as school leavers face a daunting unemployment rate of 40%. So what’s been the outcome for the class of 2013? Well, there’s been a drop in the proportion of GCSE exam entries awarded top grades for the second year in a row and the overall pass rate also fell slightly, for the first time in the exam’s 25-year history.  

Over a third of 16-25 year olds with poor exam results surveyed for The Prince's Trust charity believed they would "end up on benefits". The report suggested that many had experienced problems at school or home so their exam results did not reflect their true potential. In response to the report, the government said that it was "taking decisive action to transform vocational education" and a spokeswoman for the Department for Education (DfE) said the government would fund "a place in education or training for every 16 and 17-year-old who wants one".

Looking back it seems that not a single month has gone by without education being in the national news headlines in some shape or form. Rightly so, given the importance of education in our society, but sadly the stories haven’t always been upbeat. And while the team here at NCFE has been busy working on new qualifications to meet the latest DfE changes, we’ve been acutely aware of the wider challenges and changes facing all of you in your schools. For those of you already working with us, I hope that our continued commitment to customer service goes someway to helping alleviate the challenges you’re facing. Against this background of change and challenge, all our focus remains on the pupils. So with this in mind, perhaps one of the most thought provoking discussions that’s received recent media coverage is the report from the Children’s Commissioner for England. The report paints a very bleak picture of the impact that budget cuts are having on children from poorer families.