Collaborative Approaches to 14-19 Provision - Communities and ...

14-19 PATHFINDERS: THE SECOND YEARthemselves as members of the Collegiate. Specific objectives include widening the choice ofcurriculum pathways, developing individual learning plans and establishing a VocationalSkills Centre.Features of the Pathfinder346. The main development has been the growth of the Knowsley Collegiate programme.Through this around 500 14-16 year olds learn for part of the week at institutions other thantheir home school. They are able to select from a wide variety of courses presented in anauthority-wide prospectus. When the 250 students on the work-based learning programmeare added to this around 33% of the 2003/4 year 10 cohort are learning away from their homeschools for part of their time. This development has thus expanded the choices open tostudents very substantially, especially in vocational learning. The majority of the courses areprovided by the college, many in the newly opened Vocational Skills Centre. However, inaddition to the provision offered by the college some training providers also offer places andthere is a small amount of movement of students between schools.347. The Collegiate development is supported through a strong infrastructure and is led theCollegiate Executive group. Within the college development is led by a senior manager andthere are coordinators in each school. The Collegiate concept is strongly supported by thecollege management and teaching is carried out by experienced lecturers who are enthusiasticabout teaching 14-16 year olds. A programme of staff development has been provided tosupport college staff in this work. A set of protocols has been developed by school andcollege staff to govern arrangements for monitoring attainment, attendance, behaviour and soon. The college exercises some control over recruitment to the courses through conductinginterviews with students and there are procedures for removing students from inappropriatecourses. These developments have thus enabled the ambitious Collegiate concept to beimplemented at 14-16 thus broadening choice of learning and progression pathways for alarge proportion of Knowsley students.348. A key development within the collegiate has been the opening of the VocationalSkills Centre at one of the two main college campuses. This large capital development,funded from a variety of sources, has facilities for catering, electronics, engineering,107