First Steering Group Meeting

Setting the scene: Our consortia (I imagine) is a rather large one. By that, I mean that we have 9 institutions (hang on let me check...) yes, 6 schools and 3 colleges to be exact.

Schools:

• Archbishop Tenison's -co-lead with Croydon College
• Norbury Manor
• Virgo Fedelis
• Addington High
• Ashburton
• St Mary's

Colleges:

• Croydon College -co-lead
• Coulsdon College
• St Josephs College

Of the schools and colleges mentioned above, the attendance was as follows:

• Archbishop Tenison's -Me
• Norbury Manor -Deputy Head (Curriculum) + another teacher of ICT
• Virgo Fedelis -Head of ICT
• Addington High -Head of ICT
• Ashburton - /
  St Mary's -/
• Croydon College - /
• Coulsdon College -Head of Business & ICT
• St Josephs - /

There was also a most helpful 14-19 development officer present to oversee and do all the 'real' answering of questions!

So some tea/coffee/biscuits later, we had a prompt start at 4PM. The Agenda twisted and turned (as these things do) to adapt to the question at hand, but in essence things went as follows:

1) Welcome and Introductions
2) Purpose of the Steering Group (another post may be necessary for this, I think!)
3) Role of the Curriculum Group
4) Post 16 Diploma in IT estimated entries for 2010
5) Brief discussion of models (funding and allocation of roles within steering group)
6) Agenda for next meeting to include (Choosing a Spec, Deciding on projects, mapping employers to units, levels and project involvement, Possible funding models (how to spend the 40K!)
7) Next meeting -16th June, Tuesday!

Invitation to first steering group meeting....

With some positive results to go on, I was advised to invite steering group members to a meeting at the beginning of May. In the run up to the meeting, my school had agreed only to release me as 'Lead' and for the responsibilities associated with the role, for 12 lessons and the equivalent of 16K of funding in return. A 14-19 Diploma Development Officer agreed this would be the best way forward and this was confirmed via a written e-mail to our headmaster. Consortium funding has now been increased to 40K for the year 2009-2010, and the allocation of the remainder of the funding as well as delegation of roles and responsibilities within the steering group will need to be on the agenda for an upcoming meeting (perhaps not the first one though!)

Collaboration, as anticipated, proves to be one of the main problems of working as a Consortia. Teachers are busy people! Replying to e-mails and coming to after-school e-mails aren't the sort of things they would automatically prioritise! Below is a copy of the second reminder e-mail I sent out to all members.

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to invite you to an IT Consortium Meeting on the 6th May, Wednesday at Archbishop Tenison's (3:30-5PM) Details are in the attached meeting agenda. As we are at a crucial stage of both perfecting our application and embarking on the preparatory year leading to delivery in 2010, I appreciate your commitment to attending these meetings. Your input will be necessary (see agenda) on a number of things, and it will also be an ideal opportunity for formal introductions to members in the group! We hope to present an overview of the year ahead as well as look at a Diploma in IT specification comparison (which promises to be revealing!) Please confirm your attendance (or let me know if you are unable to make it) by replying to this e-mail. Snacks/drinks will be provided so I do need numbers ASAP. You can also visit a site (still under construction) www.croydondiplomas.tk for a copy of the agenda and all related documents. I have created an online forum for any questions or answers you might have to the posted threads.

With warm regards,

RB

I used moonfruit (www.moonfruit.com) to set up a super-quick website complete with a forum and poll! http://croydondiploma.moonfruit.com/ No one uses it of course, but it is useful (even just for me) to have a record of meetings, logs, and important documents altogether in one public place! Fronter may have been an alternative but logging in and remembering an id and password is just one more thing to do!

Through the Gateway at last....nearly!

I should admit that the Gateway results were not at the forefront of my mind during the Easter Break, but when the results did come (after having been postponed once!) they were as follows:

6th April, 2009
Diploma Gateway 3 Results
Consortium ID: 84
Information Technology: 2

Explanation of Gateway 3 Categories

Category 1 – recommended to go through for 2010 delivery with no conditions

Category 2 – recommended to go through for delivery from September 2010 with conditions that need to be met within 3 months (review June/July 2009)

Category 3 a): not ready for September 2010 delivery– could potentially start in 2011 if conditions are met within 6 months (review Oct/Nov 2009)

Category 3 b): not ready for September 2010 delivery – could potentially start in 2011 if conditions are met within 12 months (reviews Oct/Nov 09 and June/July 2010).

Categories 2, 3a and 3b – Please refer to the Decision Panel Remarks at the end of your feedback for details about your conditions

The Decision Panel Remarks for IT were as follows:

Key points:

Fairly good proposal overall; strengthened by good links with HE.

Details need to be provided of how employers will be engaged in planning, delivering and monitoring all aspects of the diploma, including applied learning and potentially the project;

Clarification is needed over employer engagement being sufficient given the numbers of learners forecast.

My conclusions from this were that we need to
1) Produce a comprehensive list with employers/clients mapped to specific units and linked clearly to the estimated numbers for delivery in 2010
2) Provide a few examples/models for delivering the project (Level 1, 2 and 3) with employers/clients on board.

The Perfect Line Lead: The Ultimate Job description

Another session involved brain storming in our groups (that kept rotating like you wouldn't believe) about what would make the Perfect Line Lead. Our facilitators made it clear that in this case we were talking about the PERSON SPECIFICATION, not the organisation. In effect we were trying to conjour up a job advert. To be Line lead you will have to do blah blah and blah. You will have to be this that and the other. The brainstorming was divided up in to.

Perfect Line Lead. Roles and Responsibilities
Perfect Line Lead. Characteristics, Strengths, qualities and skills.

In this (and the following session on the Perfect lead partner) I realized there are two types of people in the world: Those that categorise using subheadings, and those that (in utter disorganization) list things in a random and chaotic manner. I, just for the record, fall in the first category.

My list, that I partially ammended after having looked at the completed flipchart, was as follows:

LINE LEAD -Responsibility and Roles

1. Collaboration
As a Line Lead you will effectively collaborate with:
a)Schools
b)Universities
c)Employers
d)The Media
e) 14-19 Group people
f)Borough Representatives
g)Exam Boards/Awarding Bodies
h)Steering Group
i)Senior Leadership Team
j)Exam Secretaries (sigh)
k)Curriculum/Timetable related staff.

2. Curriclum Development/Operation
As Line Lead you will be responsible for the following (across the Consortia)
a) Resources
b)Facilities -including a VLE/MLE
c)Common Option systems
d)Logistics -travel etc
e)Infrastructure
f) Quality Assurance
g)Teaching (This was a controversial point!)

3. Subject Development
As Line Lead you will be responsible for
a)S.O.W's -innovation, building on good practice
b)Staff Training
c)Resources

And then moving on to LINE LEAD CHARACTERISTICS.

The flipchart quickly filled up with a number of pointedly IMMEASURABLE objectives and qualities.

The Line Lead should be:
-Confident
-Funny (Good sense of humour) *This, most people seemed to think, was particularly important
-Authoritative
-Assertive
-An Excellent Teacher
-An Innovator
-Creative
-Manipulative (yes, someone did suggest this)
-Influential
-Diplomatic
-Experienced
-Visionary
-Enthusiastic
-Committed
-Dedicated
-Thick Skinned (the lady who mentioned this poked herself with a pen and drew blood (true story!)
-Experienced
-Trustworthy
-Successfull
-Engaging
-Organised
-Altruistic (think of the whole, as opposed to try and ONLY benefit their own centre)

If this is you, give up teaching and run for primeminister.

Vision of the future: Diploma Delivery in 2013

Let me start with where we ended up: With three boards full of pink, fluorescent yellow and green post-it notes. We were then asked to "shop" for ideas and discuss what we thought of what other people had written. The most intelligent looking man in the room (elderly, grey haired, with headteacherish good looks) was asked where he thought the Diploma would be in 2013. He replied "Well, I don't know about the Diploma, but I know where I'll be. FISHING". And on that note...

Today's meeting (17th March, Tuesday) was marketed as a training session, but of course turned out not to be. What we need -perhaps they don't quite have the resources to fill this need -are training sessions on exactly what to expect, what to do, and so on. What we get however, is "consultants" delivering "sessions" in which we are expected to provide the answers. They, in effect, are facilitators. Cynicism aside, the session today (I was only able to attend the AM seminar) was very useful. Two ladies from the -something beginning with N - were the facilitators and one of the broad objectives was to come up with a list of ideals. Peculiarly enough, the process was quite an engaging one and enlightening in that: When you're forced to think of the future, a certain vision (whether it be a nightmarish or heavenly one) emerges. We had a number of group discussions, followed by what one of the ladies described as "furious flipchart writing". The first of these involved brainstorming (I think the politically correct word is "thought showering") on a vision for the future. The three subheadings we were provided with were:

-Learning
-Collaboration
-Decisions

Under Learning I wrote:
-The Diploma goes International. China and India sign up to UK Educational Model! (ya right)
-Students benefit from meaningful and targeted work experience
Others wrote things like: 40% of pupils doing the Diploma, well developed routes, Good teaching, Engaged Pupils, etc...

Under Collaboration I wrote:
-Good "Communication" (this was every one's favourite word today)
-Well established Employer Engagement
Others wrote:
-Good links developed with the Media
-SMT/SLT's on board with Line Lead
-Centres of Excellence
-Direct input from Universities
-Employers on the board for Consortia Diploma subject line

Under Decisions I didn't write anything. Others wrote things like:
-Communication with exam boards
-Central decisions
-steering groups

No one even saw my (admittedly stupid) comment on the Diploma going International. Thank God for that!

Resources -useful links!

CC4G flyer...

CC4G -Connect Create Go

Interactive Learning journeys for 10-14 year olds, mapped to the National Curriculum (Sport, Music, Environment, Fashion, More...)

www.cc4g.net

BigAmbition

Insider view of technology careers and education opportunities for 14-19 year olds
Inspirational Videos
Dream job quiz
Make It challenge
Competitions
More...

www.bigambition.co.uk

Diploma in IT

Showcase of the employer engagement tools for 14-19 year olds
Employer case studies
Multimedia Resources
"How to" Guides
More...

www.e-skills.com/diploma

E-Skills Staffroom -Coming Soon

Helps to deliver CC4G and the Diploma in IT

ICT resources
Manage student progress
Share best practice
More...

www.e-skills.com/staffroom

You've got to start somewhere!

My first "Lead Diploma Meeting". It started at 3:00PM and then just went on and on -and on. It should be noted that at this stage we still haven't officially gotten through the gateway -i.e our bid has not been approved as succesfull. Nevertheless, onwards and upwards in positive anticipation, everyone keeps talking about the importance of getting the ball rolling, and it is -rolling (slowly but surely). Teachers -deputy head teachers mainly -trickled in in dribs and drabs. There were two very outspoken (and rather wise) ladies from connexions (careers) present. Then there was a representative from Croydon College -on behalf of the Engineering Diploma, and a few other people (unrelated to teaching) but very important sounding (and looking) on the far end of the room. My co-lead partner from the college was also present and had a large notebook on which he appeared to be taking very detailed notes. I had my own "reporters lined excersize book" that I bought from the corner shop just down from Leon house and a new pen. Now, it was called the Lead Diploma Meeting, but what it really was was a meeting for people who had already been coming to this forum to raise questions, book 'sessions' and conferences with LSIS and provide feedback on their experiences so far. From that perspective it was useful to be present. Especially as it highlighted how much I obviously didn't know.

For instance, the first hand out we had was entitled "LSN Training options". The first two sub-headings in the report were

1. IAG -Training session for Connexions P.A's and school careers staff. Possible leading to connexions Diploma champions?

2. PLTS a) Support a session working with LA sta.....

I stopped reading right about there.

LSN?
IAG?
P.A's?
PLTS?
LA?

During the course of the conversation and the free and frequent use of these acronyms their meanings became (somewhat) clear, but it should be said that there is no sector like Education for the efficient use of abbreviations. If only everyone knew what they meant! For the most part, I was just listening very intently. A deputy head from somwhere or the other said her main concern was that the Diploma was only being recognised by universities that were desperate. At one point the connexions lady referred to the Diploma as being 'vocational' and was promptly corrected. The Diploma, she was told by the lady sitting next to her, was meant to be 'academic' not vocational. In my reasoning, the whole point of the diploma is bringing the strengths of both types of qualification together to form one all-round fantastic qualifications for young learners. The question of Information and Guidance (IAG) is however, an important consideration. There was some allocated to a man from the London Network Group -a group committed to supporting staff in the preparation and delivery of the Diploma. They are funded handsomely of course by the government and we can 'apply' for their services. There was a lot of talk about "health checks". You have to be alive to have a health check, and as we aren't quite at that stage, I switched off during this bit.

Anyway, so two hours later I had a notebook entilted "Steering Group" (a group that will only be formed once we know the bid is through). I noted down a number of things that I know will be useful to discuss, once, and if, things do progress.

Steering Group (Possible Points for discussion) (Who will be in my steering group?)

1. Functional Skills. Who will be responsible for the Consortia? War Forward: Mapping PSHCE to PLTS

2. The problem posed by Level 1 @ KS4. How many anticipated Level 1 learners would the consortium have at Level 1? Would Croydon College be the sole centre to offer this? One day instead of Two days? Could Level 1 be nested within the Level 2 offer (Norbury Manor has adopted this approach). Alternatively could an external workforce provider deliver Level 1. The other thing to consider is: Would level 1 learners be suited to doing other qualifications. Note: Level 1 at KS5 didn't (From their feedback) appear to be a problem

3. Level 3 Strand Coordinator -would this need appointment?

4. Employer Engagement

5. Inside Industry Days -to get people "interested"

6. Curriculum Training

7. Assessment Training

8. What is the incentive for other partners (the lead centre gets funding -what about other representatives, how can they be made effective collaborators?) Is the answer to build in Diploma related roles into existing job descriptions.

9. IAG arrangements. Consultancy Service does this. Funding available for IAG implementation.

One of the 14-19 representatives asked me if I had felt the meeting was useful. "You've got to start somewhere" I said.