Choosing diplomas

This is an interesting challenge. For those of us immerced in Diplomas there is a tendency to lose sight of the importance of all the other routes available to year 9 learners in our enthusiasm to get Diplomas off the ground. In Stockport we have just come to the end of a programme of events designed to encourage young learners and parents to consider Diplomas. Some of the preliminary discussions with young learners were done through careers lessons using our own resources but most of the events were on a larger scale and included the DCSF Roadshow ( which i would recommend and will run again next year) to supporting schools at options evenings to discussions in each school with groups of learners and parents to a Local Authority Parents evening. We now await the results of our labours as students commit to the new courses.

There is a definite shortage of written materials to interest this age group. The materials produced by the DCSF are fine but teachers need more user friendly exercises upon which to base a careers lesson. There is definite scope for us to work together to produce some really attractive interesting materials that can be used in class. I think the challenge of encouraging this age group will become less so as young learners who have already done a year or two years of a Diploma course become available. There is great scope for making this problem part of a diploma course in something like Creative and Media. The development of short Drama presentations or films would provide a very powerful tool in aiding understanding. Equally difficult is encouraging learners at the age of 16 to think about doing a diploma. The schools tend to feel that the responsibility for this lies with the colleges. Although information is available in the college prospectus it is generally brief and in need further explanation ( which could take place in a months time at an open evening)!

The idea is that when we close each hot topic, the guest blogger will summarise the discussion and make any concluding remarks! As this was our first hot topic discussion, it is not too surprising perhaps that we haven't had a lot of posts for me to summarise! C.Thomas mentioned the video clips on the www.direct.gov.uk/diplomas website as being particularly suitable for Y9. Sue Barr, one of the Diploma IAG champions, had a good idea which she used in a workshop I attended. She collected colourful gift carrier bags of varying sizes and wrote labels on them. The biggest bag was labelled 'The Diploma'. Then, one at a time, she pulled the smaller bags out of that one. She discussed the meaning of the label on each bag: 'Principal Learning', 'Additional and Specialist Learning', 'PLTS', 'Functional Skills', 'Work Experience', 'Extended Project'. When the bags were lined up on the table in front of you, it was really easy to grasp the structure of the diploma! Let me know if you have any other suggestions!

There are some great video clips on www.direct.gov.uk/diplomas which would work well with Year 9 and couold be shown to the whole class. They mainly feature KS4 learners following diplomas so suit Year 9.