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

14-19 PATHFINDERS: THE SECOND YEAR176. Several pathfinders were explicit in aiming to engage all 14-19 year olds. Forexample, one coordinator wrote:The original Pathfinder proposal was always intended to develop a universalcurriculum model for all studentswhile another stated that:It is an important tenet of this Pathfinder that the 14-19 phase of education is theindividual career development phase. This applies equally to all students, be theyfollowing academic or vocational courses, be they underachievers, high-flyers orsomewhere in between.177. However, the patterns of involvement by different groups of young people were also aproduct of the curriculum provision which was offered. For example, if at 14-16 the majorityof additional provision was in level 1 courses, these would inevitably tend to recruit lowerachieving students, especially where they were set against GCSE courses in school optionsblocks. Alternatively if the focus of provision was on GCSEs in vocational subjects thiswould attract a group of learners who were considered capable of achieving at level 2. In thiscase however, the precise nature of the students recruited might also depend upon how thecourses were placed in school option blocks. For example, if their placement precluded thepossibility of students taking three science subjects or two modern foreign languages thiswould reduce the likelihood of higher achieving students taking the courses.178. This leads on to a third set of processes which helped to determine the patterns ofinvolvement which emerged. These were concerned with the ways in which the provisionwas perceived by different participants. For example, a number of respondents complainedthat although the activities were aimed at a wide range of students, in practice it had generallybeen easier to persuade schools to let lower achieving and more challenging students engagein pathfinder activities. One coordinator put this point quite bluntly: “Reluctance of someschools to target higher ability students for inclusion on the project”. In their report onGCSEs in vocational subjects Ofsted stated that there was the perception in several schoolsthat the courses should be targeted at lower attaining students (Ofsted, 2003a).179. Reluctance to participate might also come from students themselves, or their parents,and might be related to the nature of the activity or its location e.g. if this involved travelling59