In this month's spotlight we hear from John Kyrle High School, Ross-on-Wye, and how they have progressed from struggling to offer vocational course to successfully integrating applied learning into the curriculum for all students.

The early years

In 2004 vocational education in our school was poor. A limited range of courses was planned within a narrow definition of ‘vocational’ – beauty therapy and construction. These were aimed at learners towards the lower end of the ability range as accessing these courses meant opting out of a modern foreign language and a GCSE option. However even this limited provision fell through leaving learners who had opted for them high and dry.

2005 brought a fresh impetus with the appointment of a new curriculum deputy. Construction and beauty were revived through external providers. The primary care trust contracted to deliver construction on our site and a local college took on beauty therapy, with learners travelling. Unfortunately the college were unable to staff this provision and withdrew in July.

Taking control

This led to the school increasingly looking to take control of provision in house and on site. To this end:

• A hair salon was created in a small room in the sports hall and the parent of a sixth form student stepped in with tuition in hairdressing. The capital cost of the salon was small – less than £5000
• We advertised for our own construction tutor and took on an experienced part-time builder to work with disaffected KS4 students
• We accessed internal expertise; one part-time science teacher also ran a garden design company and she offered a course in horticulture
• The construction students designed and built the horticulture facility – raised beds, paths, greenhouse base, sheds, etc. This gave them a vested interest in looking after it, and there has been virtually no vandalism after hours
• We developed a new partnership with the Royal Forest of Dean College (RFDC) in Gloucestershire who took on the hair salon. They now come on site and deliver an NVQ in Salon Services to Y10 and 11

From vocational to applied learning

In 2006 and 2007 we extended the provision further. Our work with RFDC was extended – they have a superb practical workshop facility in Mitcheldean, Gloucestershire, and we began to send learners to work there either on construction or motorcycle repair. In response to learner voice and local need we also engaged a local farmer who was looking to diversify into education and training and we now send half a dozen students to the farm to study agriculture

In 2006 we were designated as high performing and we applied for second specialisms in vocational education and MFL. The costs were mounting and the additional funding would be crucial in maintaining the provision. But as part of the application process we reconsidered the meaning of ‘vocational’ education.

• With vocational stemming from the Latin vocatus, a calling, we began to think wider than construction and hair dressing
• Everyone at some point will make the leap from an academic route to a vocational route. Academic qualifications are only the tickets to a vocation – ask the newly qualified doctor, architect or teacher!

We therefore reorganised the year 10 option blocks, turning one into an ‘applied’ block. Into this went salon services and horticulture, as well as OCR National ICT, Applied Business and GCSE Childcare. We also introduced new courses – Applied Art GCSE and BTEC Sport. From 2008 we will offer BTEC Music and Applied Geography.

Careful scheduling allowed us to timetable core learning of English, maths and science in key stage 4 into 3 days a week. A revised options pattern freed students to access college courses for a full day. Partnership work with other schools and the college has paved the way for Diploma work in two days a week.

This provision means that students take a technology, and modern foreign language, an applied subject plus two additional choices. We look on this as a GCSE Baccalaureate and we think we are preparing students effectively for the 21st Century world of work.

With education authorities now expecting to see applied learning we feel we have fully embraced the opportunities that VSS offers in the widest sense and were pleased to receive external validation from the University of Leeds who have extended their work after evaluating the 14-19 pathfinders, from the SSAT and from Ofsted, who praised the impact of the specialisms in an inspection which rated us as outstanding in January 2008.

Author

Dave Boyd, Deputy Head
Email: Davidboyd@john-kyrle.hereford.sch.uk 
Tel: 01989 764358

John Kyrle High School is an 11-18 comprehensive in a semi-rural location with technology specialism since 2001 and second specialisms in VSS and MFL since 2007.

Exam results in 2007 show 52% of pupils gained 5 A*-C including maths and English with CVA score of 1006 and 50% of pupils achieving A and B grades at A-level.