Monday 20 October 2014
Taking part in the pilot has been extremely important and useful to both myself, and the students involved. It has given us the opportunity to look at the assessment criteria before it is released and set a benchmark for the new grading system. It made [our learners] more motivated and self-driven learners by including an enterprise element. All in all an exciting and innovative project. Carol Bell, Instructor at The Academy at Shotton HallOver the course of the last school year we kept you posted on our V Cert qualification developments. Schools have continued to work with us to contribute to both the development and review of V Cert qualifications. As with previous years, last year saw a number of schools involved in piloting our new V Certs by delivering a selection of sample units to their pupils. Once again, we really wanted to give schools the opportunity to explore what we’d developed so we could ensure that the qualifications continue to engage pupils.
To date some of the schools completed their pilot as a single unit, some trialled the whole qualification and some used it as an opportunity to teach the Level 1 and Level 2 qualifications together to see how they aligned in mixed ability classes.
But this is only half the story with schools and educational professionals also greatly contributing to the design the V Cert content from the start. This is why we’re now asking your school to get in touch if they’re interested in being involved in both the development and piloting of newly developed V Cert qualifications during 2015. You’re our customer and we want to keep the needs of your school and pupils at the heart of what we develop.
Being involved in the development of future products offers your school the chance to shape the subjects and content of what’s developed. Whether it’s answering a survey, attending qualification development days, or providing feedback on content, your school’s involvement can be as little or as much as you’d like. Being involved in piloting the qualifications once developed has some real advantages to your school too. Here’s what Carol Bell Instructor at ‘The Academy at Shotton Hall’ had to say at the end of the last pilot:
"Taking part in the pilot has been extremely important and useful to both myself, and the students involved. It has given us the opportunity to look at the assessment criteria before it is released and set a benchmark for the new grading system. We were able to put the funding available to good use by providing more resources and materials for the students to use. The students saw this as an opportunity to be involved with something from the start and as it was done during the holiday meant less pressure as far as completing work within school timetabled sessions. It also made them more motivated and self-driven learners by including an enterprise element. All in all an exciting and innovative project and we look forward to the qualification going live from September."
Given the pressures that schools are under, NCFE would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every school and staff member that’s been involved in reviewing all V Cert qualifications to date. Without your help it wouldn’t be possible for us to continue to develop the qualifications and resources for schools.
If you’d like to be involved in future V Cert developments and test pilots then please email our school qualification development team on [email protected].