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Flexible /
Alternative Curriculum
Many
examples of good practice are happening on the fringes of secondary schools
curricula. Morag Watt records several of these in this report.
Meeting a
Variety of Needs - Developing Alternatives to the Curriculum in Scottish
Schools
Review of current
examples of good practice:
Enterprise, Preparation
for Work and Personal Development Education.
Schools face ongoing
challenges in meeting the wide variety of needs and demands that come
together everyday, e.g. exam results, parental concerns, behaviour, and
government initiatives. Increasingly there is often contradictory political
and media pressure about failing schools and pupils’ preparedness for work.
With Inclusion, the range of pupils in most schools is wider than in the
past, older pupils are encouraged to stay on in secondary schools for
longer, the forthcoming Education (Additional Support for Learning)
(Scotland) Bill, will oblige schools and authorities to make appropriate
provision for pupils whose educational progress is affected by a wide range
of barriers to learning, including social background and behaviour. Many
schools are recognising that the existing curricular choices are no longer
appropriate for all pupils and are developing a variety of courses that aim
to meet some of the needs that 5-14, Standard Grade and Higher Still do not
address.
Whilst some course options are devised
solely in-school, the majority are linked with outside agencies some of whom
offer nationally recognised awards which are ‘good currency’ for further
education and employers.
ASDAN, an alternative accreditation
scheme, and the
John Muir Award are good examples of how outside expertise
can be incorporated into course planning allowing pupils to work towards a
variety of goals in and out of school and gain valuable awards. Personnel
from outwith school are often responsible for the delivery, giving pupils
experience of working with other adults who may be very differently skilled
than teachers.
Case Study
Land Based Courses
Some schools develop courses to meet local needs or respond
to local employment issues; Breadalbane Academy and
Portree High School both offer popular courses relevant to pupils and employers
in rural areas. An additional aim is to encourage pupils to stay in these rural
locations having gained relevant skills, whether in IT or more traditional
trades. A successful Gamekeeping course was already running at Breadalbane Academy
and this has developed into the Land-Based Skills Course. Pupils learn a
variety of skills including fencing, drystone dyking, use of machinery and
tools, game bird rearing and even pest control and tractor driving at locations
around Breadalbane. In the Portree HS Rural Skills course, skills like drystone
dyking are learned along with ICT at the local Inverness College
campus, pre-driving skills and First –aid amongst others. Pupils’ efforts
are rewarded through the John Muir Award. Both schools developed excellent links
with the local business community, and receive funding from a variety of
sources. Breadalbane Academy were donated a redundant portacabin which is now
used as “The Classroom in the Hills” located some distance from the school
beside the pheasant pens. The project has developed important links
with Perth College which
provides a lecturer, and
LANTRA,
The Skills Council
for the environmental and land-based sector, licensed by the UK
government to drive forward the new skills, training and business development
agenda for the sector. The course is viewed as ‘training for the real world’ and
pupils have to take on responsibility for themselves and others when using
equipment and handling the livestock.
The Breadalbane Academy
courses started through one teacher sharing his interest in rural pursuits
with pupils. And his Landrover!
In many cases it is the vision of individuals that has driven the projects.
Room 13,
an Art – based project, now several years old and winning acclaim and funding,
is remarkable in how it has challenged existing practice in two Fort William
primary schools with pupils as company directors responsible for all aspects of
the project including employing the artists –in-residence, securing funding and
working with the media. There is a related investment group, camera club,
debating club, cultural trips and major expeditions. Older pupils
are allowed out of class to make use of the studio or engage in Room 13
activities at any time during the school day. These could range from
a visit to the bank to filming a documentary with input from professional
filmmakers. Pupils agree to ensure that formal class work is always
completed well. Younger pupils are also welcome and secondary pupils
make use of the facility after school. The Headteacher and staff are
supportive; “We can see a difference in
the child as a whole, we see their confidence building and attitude changing, it
is something everybody in the school welcomes”.
Plans to develop the project into secondary schools are in discussion but as
with Eco Schools the concept may be more suitable in the primary sector.
However, aspects of the project will work well.
Alternatively employers recognise a need
within their industry:
FITA,
The Fish Industry Training Association, has run a very successful pilot
project out of Mallaig to encourage new young entrants to Fishing. The three
-week course delivered by ex-skippers, covers many aspects of the industry
from netmaking and navigation to the reality of a working week at sea.
Successful candidates will receive an SVQ level 2 award that is equivalent
to the first year of an apprenticeship.
Govan High
In Glasgow, Govan High
School pupils can leave school having started to learn a trade and gained
SVQ level 2 awards at the end of S4. The programme arose out of several
factors including low general academic achievement, high unemployment
amongst school leavers, a large building programme in the city and a great
skills shortage.
Vocational training at Govan High is fully timetabled with
Construction and Hospitality in the S2 option form. All pupils have
opportunity to take up one vocational course and drop one standard grade. At
the end of S2 all pupils attend Queenslie Training Centre for 2 weeks each
afternoon for tester sessions before making their choice of trades. Pupils
are paid when they give up their own time to attend and a 2- week course in
the summer holidays will also be paid.
Expansion of the project into Horticulture, Catering, Sport &
Leisure and Business is planned. All Glasgow schools are to be
involved.
Transport for pupils between centres is provided by city
transport. Health and Safety issues within the project have been addressed.
Pupil response has been very positive including some seeing
increased relevance of academic subjects for example maths.
Employers say pupils are better prepared for work with proven
skills and increased work ethic.
Many courses are designed to help pupils
disaffected with school and at risk of failing to remain within the
education system. Lochaber and Culloden High Schools use
ASDAN in their
Pupil Support Bases, offering pupils unlikely to gain conventional awards
due to absence or disruptive behaviour the opportunity to successfully
complete courses in Citizenship, PSE, Employment, Careers and Work- Related
topics, Preparation for Life and Key Skills at Bronze, Silver and Gold.
In other schools
ASDAN is offered to the whole of S3 for enrichment or as a column
option.
Prince’s Trust
The Princes’ Trust XL clubs encourage independence;
increase motivation and self-esteem. Citizenship, Enterprise and the
development of lifeskills are the ethos of the club. Clubs meet 3 times a
week and offer a ‘rich mix’ of pupils, usually those at risk of failing,
opportunities to meet together, develop interpersonal and other skills and
undertake sport and enterprise activities, often around fundraising, for
example running the ‘Tuck-wagon’ for the school walk. In
Lochaber they have
found that pupils with behaviour problems can be excellent with the disabled
pupils in the group.
Outside
Agencies
Many outside agencies link
with schools to offer opportunities for personal development through
participation in a variety of activities. The Outward Bound organisation has
a range of short or residential courses that offer real challenges.
Forest Enterprise, BTCV
and Council Ranger Services can offer structured opportunities to contribute
to local amenities and gain useful skills; in Lochaber a group of boys from
the Pupils Support Base helped build part of the acclaimed Witches Trail
mountain bike course.
Many of these activities
can be accredited and offer very significant, real, preparation- for- work
opportunities, often to pupils whose attendance and attitudes need to
improve if they are to be useful employees.
Skill Force
The Skill Force Initiative
is an innovative project, modelled on a successful US scheme, where recently
retired military instructors are deployed in schools to teach vocational and
employment skills, which is currently running in parts of Scotland and
funded by the Scottish Executive whose Circular, ‘Guidance on Flexibility in
the Curriculum 3/2001’ advocates ‘a more appropriate curriculum to support …
a much broader range of pupils’.
Duncan Cameron, at Lochaber High School, is a
good authority and is developing a page for the Highland Council website on
alternative curriculum issues.
These examples of
alternatives to the standard Scottish school curriculum demonstrate how
schools and business are working together to meet the demands of government,
communities, employers and pupils themselves for a change in emphasis
towards the curriculum. Benefits for all involved can seen in projects for
minority groups; pupils gain a variety of important skills including
self-motivation, business acumen and working with others which the standard
curriculum cannot offer, teachers take on new approaches and employers may
gain better prepared potential employees.
Morag Watt
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