‘Selling’ the Diploma - the practitioner’s perspective

Hi there

This is my final post about using the reflections of current learners and practitioners to get a better insight into what the Diploma involves, and to consider how to use that to raise awareness about the Diploma amongst other young people and their parents. I thought I'd use it to consider the Diploma from a practitioner's point of view.

As you'll know, Diploma delivery is quite unlike anything which has gone before, which Joe obviously sees as both an advantage and a challenge.

Again, I've included a few useful points from my conversation with Joe below, and one of the short films his school recently participated in.

Thank you for taking the time to read these posts and watch the clips. I really hope they have sparked a few ideas for effective IAG - good luck!

Best wishes

Carol

My question to Joe:
What one piece of advice would you give to fellow practitioners who are starting to deliver the Diploma?

Joe's response:
You need to plan very carefully and know where the learners are going, and sit down and read through the spec and the assessment criteria with them. It's very, very particular. If you don't give them that, you could waste a lot of time and energy doing amazing things that you think are very productive but in the end don't get you anywhere.

You also need to work in a team of people and use people who have got expertise in different areas. I benefit from being supported by technical staff and also teachers of other disciplines.

My question to Joe:
How do you think practitioners need to change to be best equipped to teach the Diploma in Creative and Media in the future?

Joe's response:
It's a case of going back and just ripping up the rule book really. It's a huge change - a change for the better - it's the way education has got to go.

People underestimate teachers' capacity for change. People shouldn't think they can't do it because they can. You have to really, really let go as a teacher and that's sometimes hard to do.

I'm still nervous sometimes when I say to them, 'I want you to go off and have your own meeting, I want you to do your own minutes, your own action points'. The temptation for me is to give them an agenda and quality control the outcomes, but that's not going to develop their functional skills or higher level thinking skills.

It's a journey and a massive change to take on as a teacher. It's a completely different way of working - it's very rewarding, it's enjoyable. You're talking about a much smaller group, more like an A level class size. Learners mature and they respond very quickly to the variety of activities they're being asked to do.

My question to Joe:
In your experience, what have learners struggled with?

Joe's response:
They struggle with how it all slots together or fits in, and the fact that there's no exam, and they're not working towards a test, so that is different.

You're also developing skills that are alien to some learners, like having to lead a group or be an advocate in a group or offering their opinions, making sure they make an active contribution in something, and being able to prove and justify that contribution, taking an active role in discussions, standing up, public speaking. I think learners have found those sorts of situations quite difficult.

My question to Joe:
What do you think your learners have enjoyed most so far?

Joe's response:
I don't know whether I've been lucky or not but they do act a bit like a family. They are together a lot, and there are squabbles and relationship tensions, so I have to manage that. But like any family that works well, they tend to work through these problems because they realise that the success of the course, and their individual success, is about working together as a team to get things done. There can't be grudges or hostilities and there can't be anybody that you don't get on with, and that's a lesson of work in itself.

In this clip we hear from Joe himself, as he talks about the high level of commitment required to deliver the Diploma and the results he's seen. It also includes an interview with Head teacher David Turrell, from Sir Bernard Lovell School, South Gloucestershire.

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