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.
The report states that “The reforms are strongly regressive with low-income families with children losing more as a percentage of net income than high-income families. “The poorest 10% of families with children are experiencing average reductions in living standards equivalent to a fall of around 22% in net income, while the richest 10% of families with children have seen an equivalent fall in net incomes of only around 7%.”
With a direct link often made between poverty and educational under achievement, these recent comments come hot on the heels of last month’s speech by Head of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw.
In his speech, Sir Michael said that many of the poor children being left behind are an "invisible minority" within schools that are traditionally made up of a majority of pupils from more affluent areas. In fact Sir Michael suggested that some of these pupils are more disadvantaged than those from less well-off areas where poorer children are the majority.
Last year just 36% of pupils on free school meals achieved 5 good GCSEs including Maths and English and Sir Michael has warned that schools will be inspected early if poorer children there are not doing well.
Clearly the challenges of poorer families in England needing support with educational achievement is clear but with tough rhetoric from Sir Michael, what options are out there for schools to help with this challenge?
One potential option is the use of vocational qualifications as a way to motivate pupils who might otherwise struggle to achieve or engage with more traditional academic qualifications. Relevant for children from all social backgrounds, many of the schools we’re working with have been extremely positive about the benefits that vocational qualifications continue to bring to their school and pupils. From Enterprise and Creative Crafts to our latest V Certs, these vocational qualifications can help build pupil confidence and ultimately support overall pupil and school achievements.
If you’d like to find out more detailed information about any of our qualifications, including our new V Certs then please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us on 0191 239 8000* or email [email protected]. Or visit www.ncfe.org.uk/vcerts.
