Feedback & Student Voice from Phase 1 Pilot - by Sylvie Trevena

Functional Skills feedback meeting 21.07.08

Advice offered by the pilot 1 group to new centres

· Research current exam board offerings to see what will suit your circumstances and your learners (but remember they are also piloting their assessments and they will change).
· Joint ventures in centres have been really helpful; ‘joined up thinking’ between English, maths and ICT has resulted.
· Small groups rather than whole cohorts are advisable for the pilot.
· Make the skills learners need explicit (don’t just set practice for homework and hope for the best).
· Make the transferability of those skills explicit, ideally drawing this out of the learners.
· Enable them be introduced to and to practice and use the same skill in different ways in different contexts (including cross curricular) with different resources.
· The pilot is worth getting involved with even if you are not a Gateway 2 centre, you can understand it better and have an informed opinion of how Functional Skills are developing.
· There is a positive advantage to the school and the learner to obtain this qualification. It is worth points!
· There is some commonality with Study Plus: enjoyment, clear progression, real life scenarios.
· QIA website especially useful http://excellence.qia.org.uk/page.aspx?o=159670 and the Excellence Gateway http://excellence.qia.org.uk/page.aspx?o=whyregister&returnURL=%2fpage.aspx%3fo%3dnav-myeg .
· Be brave …. this is the chance to try new ideas, there is no expectation that they will all work or that you will get it right first time.
· Some ideas to try
§ Collaborate using a wiki
§ Reflect using a blog
§ Wii …lots of ideas especially data collection and brain training …hard to reach learners found this engaging (investigate funding this through molenet and Cornwall College)
§ Nintendo DS…braintraining, competition, motivating especially for low attainers, good way of building skills (project in Scottish Primary schools)
§ Inspirational figures… Tim Rylands (English) and his use of MYST http://www.timrylands.com/ , John Davitt and the difference engine etc. http://www.newtools.org/
§ Applemac website has good ideas, especially related to music and media
§ Microsoft have good educational resources too

· Keep an eye on the QCA website and take part in the consultation on the new GCSEs scheduled for first teaching in 2010 for English, maths and ICT http://www.qca.org.uk/qca_18259.aspx. The draft criteria for each include a reference to Functional Skills.