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

14-19 PATHFINDERS: THE SECOND YEAR487. Although students can, in theory, choose all of their subjects away from theirhome centre, they are encouraged to choose at least half of their options at ‘home’ inorder to avoid excessive travelling. In practice there is usually enough choice of coursesavailable at ‘home’ for this to happen. About 40 varied courses are available and includeAS/A2, AVCE as well as Level 2 courses.488. Collaboration is now being refined by the Curriculum TLG:‣ some courses are available at several centres and it is now the practice that centresare paired in the same option block so that if students numbers drop (asfrequently happens at the end of AS) the courses can then be taught in one centre.‣ some courses have shared teaching between two centres so that teacher expertiseis maintained and there is obvious pairing‣ centres are working towards the adoption of common specifications – i.e. the samecourses and examination board options being offered in several centres to assistavailability and make pairing and sharing feasible‣ common assessment, guidance and reporting arrangements have been developedand are regularly reviewed489. Some level 2 vocational ‘packages’ are being piloted in two schools with theaim of producing greater curriculum coherence. One package, for example, combinesICT and Leisure and Tourism courses, in addition to which students may retake somesubjects, do one day a week work placement and be involved in the Personal Challenge(see below).490. One effect of this post-16 collaboration is that average group sizes rarely fallbelow 13 and pairing and sharing will prevent very small groups running year 13, thusmaking provision more cost-effective.491. Building from the long-established post-16 partnership, 14-16 collaborationis increasing, sometimes drawing on specialist school facilities and expertise. The collegealso provides three of the schools with the option of fifty places at its vocational centre.Students will be able to work in a variety of vocational areas e.g. motor vehicle145