The Changing Landscape Post-16 Steve Dann, Vice Principal, LRSFC Jo Trump, Deputy Principal, HRSFC

Study Programmes Alison Wolf’s review in 2011 outlined the need for a broader and more individualised curriculum offer for year olds Change in funding to allow providers to create flexible programmes based around 600 GLH rather than on quantity of qualifications Future of A Levels – Steve Dann

Combinations of the Substantial Qualification Applied 180 Credits Applied 120 Credits A Level /60 Credits A level/ 60 Credits A Level/60 Credits 1 2 3

Academic, Applied General and Technical qualifications Future of A Levels – Steve Dann Classification and statement of purpose

Vocational Qualifications Promotion of the Tech Bacc

UCAS Tariff Reform

A Level Reform Curriculum 2000Reformed Time – 3 stepped Phases 2015, 2016, 2017 Applied General Reform Old – Pearson and OCR Reformed Pearson and OCR Time – overlapping transition ?

Qualification Reform means 1.Review of the STRUCTURE 2.Review of the ASSESSMENT 3.Review of the CONTENT Each with separate input, consultation & phased introduction Future of A Levels – Steve Dann

Area Reviews (July 2015) The post-16 education sector is critical to our strategy of raising productivity and economic growth. In the last Parliament we made substantial progress in driving up the quality and rigour of the post-16 offer, including introducing reforms to apprenticeships, reforming ‘A’ levels, improving and simplifying the national funding formula for 16-19, and removing 6,000 low-value qualifications from performance tables and public funding. But, we must go much further. As set out in the Government’s productivity plan, Fixing the Foundations – creating a more prosperous nation, improving productivity is a key national challenge. In addition to the expansion of the Apprenticeship programme, two major planks of reform will be critical to achieving our objectives: Clear, high quality professional and technical routes to employment, alongside robust academic routes, which allow individuals to progress to high level skills valued by employers; and Better responsiveness to local employer needs and economic priorities, for instance through local commissioning of adult provision, which will help give the sector the agility to meet changing skills requirements in the years ahead, building on the agreements with Greater Manchester, London and Sheffield.

Area Reviews – the local context Five waves of Area Reviews up to December 2016 Reviews will consider the economic and educational needs of the area, and the implications for post-16 education and training provision A BIS and DfE spokesperson said: “The reviews will focus on the current structure of FE colleges and SFCs, although there will be opportunities for other institutions [including schools and independent providers] to opt in to this stage of the analysis.”

New AS and A Levels Same standard of difficulty Linear assessment AS levels become a separate, stand-alone qualification and do not count towards the final A level grade Reduction in coursework – typically 20% at A level other than practical / performance subjects

Impacts of A level Changes Standard offer at both SFCs from September 2016 will be three linear A levels (plus the Extended Project Qualification at HRSFC) A minority of students will be offered the opportunity to do a 4 A level programme AS levels will no longer be offered from 2016 other than for the remaining legacy subjects where the AS remains as 50% of the final A level grade for one last year

What is the future of AS levels? Will any post-16 schools and Colleges still offer AS levels? What do universities think? What will the impact be on accurate A level prediction? What about social mobility and aspiration? Currently an AS is worth 50% of an A level in the UCAS tariff scheme for university entrance, though you can't count an AS result if you also have the full A level in that subject. The new AS also counts, but only for 40% of an A level.

Timescale for Reform September 2015 – English x 3, History, Sciences x 3, Art, Photography, Psychology, Sociology, Business, Economics, Computer Science September 2016 – Rest of the NC subjects (e.g. Drama, Music, RS, Languages, Geography, PE) September 2017 – Everything Else, including Maths Throughout these hybrid years, students will be on a mixture of assessment pathways. Some will still do an AS that counts as 50%, some will not do an AS at all.

Holistic approach to ‘study programme’ curriculum Maths and English GCSE re-sits Students’ capacity to manage their own learning will become increasingly important How to prepare students for final high-stakes examinations? New-style GCSEs don’t arrive until 2018 (2017 for Eng & Ma) What are the teaching and learning implications of curriculum and funding reform post-16?

What are the IAG implications of curriculum and funding reform post-16? Importance of ‘right-first-time’ subject choices for a linear curriculum Impact of E-Bacc and Attainment 8 measures on schools’ curriculum offer and students’ choices? Understanding ‘facilitating subjects’ Demand levels of 4 linear A levels Entry criteria on 1-9 scale