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Firstly, welcome back after the Easter break! An important milestone in your annual school calendar, I’m sure. No doubt a busy term lays ahead for you and your school. To support you with the delivery of all NCFE qualifications, we’ll look forward to continuing to support you with our award winning service during this busy time. Last term NCFE also hit a very important milestone. But before I go into that I’d like to give a little bit of context. In September 2013 we saw the first Year 11 pupils begin their V Cert studies with NCFE. As a new range of qualifications designed to respond to the Department for Education (DfE) performance table we were certain of their value to you and your pupils.

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‘Everybody has A*s – employers want character’ (p10) – John Cridland, Director-General of the business lobbying organisation the CBI, wants schools to do more to develop character – he said in an interview with TES that his members would look "at all elements of a learner’s CV, rather than merely the qualifications, because everybody has A*s." He also called for Ofsted to judge schools on the holistic development of pupils, looking at a students’ ‘whole education’ – which has aligned with recent announcements from Education Secretary Nicky Morgan and Labour’s Tristram Hunt.

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As we get increasingly closer to May’s General Election, each of the major political parties are setting out their stall in terms of how they would improve education within Schools. With this in mind, it’s interesting to see Labour’s pledge to move arts to the heart of education, giving each child an entitlement to a creative learning experience. In his first major speech on the arts, Ed Miliband, Labour leader, told a gathering of cultural leaders that arts, culture and creativity would be integral to the next Labour government’s mission. He talked passionately about the “wider impact” these subjects can have on a young person’s education.

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Last month the Education committee published the report on PSHE and SRE in schools. Describing the government’s strategy for improving education in this area as weak and as a mismatch between rhetoric and the actual steps that have been taken to improve education in this area, the report didn’t exactly hold back.

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‘Open traineeships up’ plea as starts hit 5K in first quarter (p2) – the government has been urged to open up more traineeships as ‘figures show 1,700 more people started on the scheme in the first three months of 2014/15 than in the entire first half of last academic year.’ Chief Executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) Stewart Segal said that he was encouraged by the figures – but called for a relaxation to the current rule that only allows Traineeships to be delivered by Ofsted grade 1 or 2 providers.

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A new campaign by employers is backing ‘soft skills’ as a key factor for success in the workplace. Research has shown that transferable skills such as problem solving, initiative, and team work have a clear economic value worth a huge £88bn to the UK economy. Business giants such as McDonald's, Barclays and the CBI are supporting the campaign to promote the value of these skills, underlining how essential they are in terms of young people progressing into work from education.

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Following the season of lavish spending over the Christmas period, it's now the time of year many people look at getting their finances back on track and spend more consciously. However, recent studies have shown that young people are now more likely than ever to turn to payday lenders as they struggle with personal finances, with no real knowledge of how to manage their own money.

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A number of schools have been hit by the changes in which qualifications count in the school performance tables. This year, 330 schools fell below the required benchmark which is up from 154 in the previous year - clearly a big increase but probably not a big surprise to the schools it has impacted upon.

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Apprenticeship reforms ‘not in long grass’ — Boles (p3) – The Skills Minister is under pressure as it was confirmed this week the government has gone back to the drawing board with plans to route apprenticeship funding through employers. Boles has had a tough week, he was in front of the Education Select Committee following the publication for the government’s plans for Apprenticeship funding, where he admitted that time was running out for the funding reforms, and that any announcement might be delayed until after the General Election (which, as you all should know by now, is 7 May).

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The government and Ofqual have recently confirmed that from September 2015, new GCSEs and A Levels will be taught in schools and colleges across the country. From September 2017, all of these new qualifications will have been implemented. Maths, English language and English literature will be the first new GCSEs to be studied in the next academic year, with other subjects following in 2016. The first results of these new GCSEs will be released in August 2017, reflecting the change to exam timetables specifying that learners will sit exams at the end of their course. Previously learners were able to sit assessments throughout the two-year period.

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Blog posts for tag:schools

An important milestone for V Certs

Policy Corner - 17 April 2015

Embedding creativity in your curriculum

Life Lessons

Policy Corner - 17 February 2015

Hard facts back up soft skills

Helping learners manage their finances

DfE changes begin to bite

Policy Corner - 29 January 2015

Changes to GCSEs and A Levels

Authors

Lindsay Plumpton

David Grailey

Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

Esme Winch

Michael Lemin

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Blog posts for tag:schools

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Authors

Lindsay Plumpton

David Grailey

Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

Esme Winch

Michael Lemin

Categories

Archive