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

14-19 PATHFINDERS: THE SECOND YEAR361. Lewisham has been in receipt of funding through its AW Action Plan, IncreasedFlexibility programmes and Excellence in Cities. There is a long history of collaboration inpost-16 education and training with federations of schools in the north and south of theborough establishing joint sixth forms, while inter-denominational schools and a Catholiccollege also work closely together. There are also good links between the further educationcollege and the schools. Strong leadership has been provided by the local authority.362. Thus although socially and economically Lewisham is somewhat deprived,educationally the area has a strong infrastructure and history of collaboration which provideda sound basis for the pathfinder.Pathfinder focus363. The pathfinder focused on two of the radical options outlined in the 14-19 Pathfinderprospectus. These were: Partnerships with Federations of schools and Entitlement.Lewisham was the only Phase Two pathfinder which adopted these options.364. As indicated above the area already had federations of schools working together in16-19 education and thus the aim was to extend this partnership working to 14-16, strengthenthe partnerships and draw in other schools. There is considerable institutional developmenttaking place in Lewisham with the opening of a newly built 16-19 centre in September 2004which will work with four schools in the north of the borough. Two federated city academieswith a single chief executive, governing body and sixth form will come into existence inSeptember 2005, while there are plans for a new 11-16 school scheduled to open in 2006.365. The key stage 4 entitlement is conceived in terms of four curriculum pathways - anacademic pathway focused on GCSEs and Accelerated AS levels; an applied pathwayfocused on GCSE/GNVQ/BTEC; a work-related pathway focused on NVQs and othervocational qualifications; a pre-vocational pathway intended to re-engage disaffectedstudents. The intention is that all students will have access to each pathway within theirfederation of schools - rather than within individual institutions.112