Interim report from the 14-19 Reform working Group (152kb 10 page pdf)
These pages are an attempt to brief schools and those advising young people, on the pre-16 link provision and opportunities that are available in Bury.
Over the past two years, many more year 10 and year 11 pupils have been attending courses at Bury Colleges, and taking part in work based training through local employers and training providers. With the raised profile of the 14-19 curricula, both schools and colleges are more aware than ever of addressing important issues such as funding, duty of care, health and safety and behaviour management.
These pages attempt to address some of these issues. It is hoped that relationships between schools and colleges become more effective and that high quality provision is backed by a mutual understanding and agreement of the need to service and protect the young people in our care.
However, quality flexible provision at Key Stage 4 is costly, and apart from capacity, funding is a real barrier to innovation in Bury. In the case of some small scale programmes, schools may decide that for individual students or small groups they are able to pay for provision, but many vocational programmes are expensive to run. Engineering, Hospitality and Catering and Hairdressing, may be costly, not to mention the additional cost of uniforms, kit and resources.
Bury Learning Partnership is committed to enabling flexible vocational education for our young people in Key Stage 4 and is therefore also committed to raising revenue from external agencies in order to turn good ideas and partnerships into reality.
Although these pages attempt to set out what is available to schools and young people, the process of application for participation operates somewhat differently to the normal full time college applications. For example individual pupils and their parents/carers cannot apply directly for places; schools approach Colleges, Employers and Training Providers on behalf of pupils. This is an important point in keeping with the legal framework and to involve all of those who have guidance responsibilities. Further, schools wishing to place groups and individual students need to approach partner providers in the spirit of negotiation and not assume that there is any legal requirement for a partner to provide for 14-16 yr olds. This is not the case. An alternative flexible curriculum is most effective when schools retain overall responsibility for supporting young people, setting targets with them and monitoring progress.
