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

14-19 PATHFINDERS: THE SECOND YEAR250. A SAM licence has also been bought for Cumbria schools. This is a GCSErevision package which covers many subjects. It is interactive and available to thestudents at home. Student use is logged and information about use and achievement issent periodically to schools. This has been a revelation to teachers as students proved tobe using the packages much more than anyone expected. For example, one headteacherwas surprised to learn that one of his students who had been excluded from school hadspent much of the two days at home working through SAM packages!251. As a result of these and other developments e-learning is being seen by someCumbrian heads as having great potential for supporting 14-19 teaching and learning.One headteacher suggested that one way in which collaboration on courses might takeplace in the near future is by students working through part of a module in their ownschool with an interactive learning package written for the course. Teacher support couldbe online, via email and through occasional face-to-face lessons.252. A common online prospectus, Futures 4 Me, will be fully operational by thesummer of 2004. This will provide information on all learning and progressionopportunities in schools, colleges and work-based learning providers for 14-19 year oldsin Cumbria. At the time of our visit data for West Cumbria and Barrow-in-Furness hadbeen entered. The prospectus will have links to Connexions and higher education and willprovide information on careers areas.253. Another interesting Pathfinder project, the Summer Project, was held in WestCumbria in summer 2003. Thirteen young people aged 16-17 spent a week working outwhat the government’s plans for 14-19 education published in the White Paper ‘14-19:Opportunity and Excellence’ might mean in West Cumbria. They represented everysecondary school in the area and the local college. They did not know each other beforethey met on the first day. The young people used their pooled experience of their ownschools and other information to help them plan and carry out research into the potentialfor better co-operation between all learning providers. In groups they investigated arange of issues including the achievement of maximum choice of sixth form subjects,ways of making learning attractive for all young people, provision of post-16 learning by81