Blog posts for tag:progression

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GCSE results – what’s the scores on the doors?

By Lindsay Plumpton, Communications Leader, Tuesday 26 August 2014

Lindsay Plumpton

This year saw a transition for GCSE Level qualifications, with a focus on end point examination, (removing the earlier ‘January series’ re-sit & modular examinations). Last week, thousands of teens received their all-important results and overall, the 2014 results show a 98.5% pass rate, down 0.3 percentage points (but with a rise in students receiving A*s). While some subjects, such as ICT, Computing and Business Studies recorded significant growth, the number of English entries dropped by more than 215,000. Among 15-year-olds, the number of maths entries dropped by 76 per cent, from 170,357 down to 39,292.

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Results Day – more young people consider apprenticeships

By Lindsay Plumpton, Communications Leader, Thursday 14 August 2014

Lindsay Plumpton

So the big day has arrived and the result is…. that the overall pass rate is down for the first time in 30 years.  However, the percentage of A* grades awarded has risen from 7.6% to 8.2%. Despite this, there are a record number of university places available and students could still get places at their chosen university, even if they have not achieved the required grades.

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Non-academic courses are still valuable to learners

By David Grailey, Chief Executive, Thursday 29 May 2014

David Grailey

In March this year it was announced that around 5,000 adult vocational courses would be cut in order to "simplify and streamline" the adult skills system in England. Skills and Enterprise Minister Matthew Hancock also took to Twitter to announce that the Government will be binning ‘low-value’ courses such as self-tanning, balloon artistry and instructing pole fitness in order to focus on qualifications that employers value. Read my original statement on the subject.

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Health education crucial to pupil progress

By David Grailey, Chief Executive, Friday 23 May 2014

David Grailey

Sec Ed have reported this week that the narrow focus on academia promoted by performance measures and Government policy could be ‘actively harming’ young people’s health and wellbeing. The article calls for PSHE to be made a statutory subject and for “health education” to be integrated into the wider curriculum. The academic group argues that education policy is increasingly encouraging schools to maximise academic attainment at the cost of children’s wellbeing.

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Changing attitudes towards maths

By , Tuesday 18 March 2014

The Welsh government have suggested that parents need to change their negative attitude towards mathematics in order to encourage their children to not only pursue the subject, but to realise its true value and ensure they excel in it. A poll commissioned by the Welsh government showed that 29% of parents admitted to making negative comments about maths in front of their children, such as “don’t ask me to do maths, I’m rubbish at it.”

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Helping learners prepare for GCSE English and maths

By , Thursday 13 February 2014

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.

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New-look GCSEs unveiled

By Lindsay Plumpton, Communications Leader, Tuesday 11 June 2013

Lindsay Plumpton

GCSEs in England are set to be overhauled, with exams graded from 8 to 1 rather than A* to G. It is proposed that the new-style exams will be brought in from 2015 and will spell the end of continuous assessment with a move towards final exams. Students will face more rigorous content and the format will be similar to O-Levels. The reforms will initially apply to a group of 9 core subjects.

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Re-engaging Britain's teens in education by David Grailey, NCFE Chief Executive

By David Grailey, Chief Executive, Monday 15 April 2013

David Grailey

A new report has highlighted the need to re-engage Britain’s young people in learning, as the UK falls to the bottom of an international league table showing the proportion of young people in education. The United Nations states that Britain ranked in last place, out of the 29 countries surveyed – with fewer than 75 per cent of 15 to 19-year-olds studying. However, initiatives such as the raising of the participation age together with investment in traineeships and high quality apprenticeships aim to tackle the issue.

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Proposed changes to Level 3 qualifications for 16-19 year olds

By Lindsay Plumpton, Communications Leader, Friday 08 March 2013

Lindsay Plumpton

Following the Wolf review of vocational education, the Department for Education is now consulting on proposals to establish rigorous standards for Level 3 vocational qualifications taken by 16-19 year olds in schools and colleges from September 2014. The plan is that only ‘high value’ qualifications that meet specific sets of requirements will count in performance tables from this point onward. Quality and rigour are very important to us here at NCFE. Supporting learners to reach their full potential is at the heart of everything we do. Therefore, we’ll be working with the Department throughout the consultation process to find workable solutions that will best support learners to achieve success.

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16-19 Study Programmes

By Lindsay Plumpton, Communications Leader, Wednesday 05 December 2012

Lindsay Plumpton

From September 2013, the ‘Raising the Participation Age’ (RPA) policy will come into effect for learners aged 16 to 19. This means that from Summer 2013, 16 year olds in education will be required to ‘participate’ in education until the end of the academic year in which they turn 17. From summer 2015, 17 year olds will be required to participate in education until the end of the academic year in which they turn 18. This participation will be counted as learners engaging in one of the following:

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