New Secundary Curriculum - help!

[Nelleh]

I have three teenagers, work in a secondary school and am currently studying for a teaching degree.

Despite all of this, I knew very little about the New Secondary Curriculum until I began research for a university report.

I have been considering ways to measure how much parents know about what is happening in their children's schools and realised this is an ideal forum!

The government has spent around 1.5million on the DCFS website. However, how do parents know where to look? Apart from what your children's school have told you (and some have not signed up to the new curriculum), what do you know about it? Had you heard of it? Have you ever read anything in the general press (apart from the odd article in the Guardian?)

If you are aware of the NSC I would really welcome your comments.

For instance, in the UK, vocational qualifications are generally viewed as inferior to academic qualifications (anyone know a poor plumber?)yet the NSC promotes diplomas which have GCSE equivalency. Will employers give diplomas the same status? A student previously estimated to be an unsuitable candidate for GCSE will now have the opportunity to achieve the equivalency to around 5 grade Cs.

This will (and does) have an interesting impact on league tables!

Is it up to schools to teach our children PSHE and citizenship. Are we walking into a nanny state with our eyes wide open?

Yes I know about the new curriculum as have a daughter in year 10 and it was brought to our attention when she took her options last year.
She hasn't taken a diploma but many of her friends have. They attend a college or specially built tech college shared by 3 schools, there they can study, engineering, hairdressing and something else!! can't remember many details. They can also go to a college that offers singing and acting.They spend wednesday studying for the diploma and then the rest of the week studying the traditional subjects back at school.
Its been popular with lots of children but I have to admit that I'm glad my daughter is taking a traditional route as she hopes to teach, and do feel that the first few years the children are guinee pigs, but the investment is massive so presume all should be well established when my younger children have the choice as well.

Just read op again and in our school they are not being sold as inferior but in addition to gcse's. Children take the diploma which is equivalent to I think 2 or 3 gcse's and then take the traditional gcse's over the remaining 4 days at school, but obviously don't do as many.
I should think it was a timetable nightmare for the school and not all children got the options that they wanted.

Did you find out about the changes from the school? Have you ever heard anything about them in the media?

How will the changes effect your child?

What will happen if the conservatives win the election?

I am not knocking diplomas. I think they are fab! We have a massive skills shortage and the students love college. They make learning relevant.

At my school, diploma students spend a day at college, do some core subjects at school and spend around two school days doing 'functional skills', 'college link' and 'life skills'. This is how they solve the problem of the timetable!

As a trainee teacher (as well as Mum) I worry that actually some students are finding the new diplomas too hard.
My son might have opted for the Engineering Diploma but its not on offer locally. I do know one student who is at the end of year 10 thinking of opting out of the diploma as he is struggling (also personal problems).

However I don't think most parents realise how much everything is continually changing, unless they've had one child through and then watch their second. e.g. Coursework!

Should there be more media coverage? There is for negative stuff!

Our school oofers them, but there has been very little take up, I was a bit when I heard they are the equivalent of 5 GCSEs from one day per week at college.
Perhaps I should have encourged DS to take 5 diplomas and he could have 25 GCSEs at the end of Year 11

I obviously need to check my sources regarding GCSE equivalency! Clearly they were exaggerating!

However, what I am trying to get to is how MUCH parents know about the New Curriculum, how they feel about it and whether they know where to find information.

Are parents happy with the less prescriptive approach and do they place the value of diplomas lower than GCSEs. We tend to be stuck in our ways regarding hierarchy of qualifications.

I think diplomas are an excellent way of engaging bright people bored with academia.

Like other countries, I believe we should place a higher value on vocational skills.

Nelleh - I can only speak of my own experience.
DS is quite bright (although i accept we all think that about our DCs!) and neither he nor we felt that the limited diplomas on offer at his school would be of interest to him.
BUT tbh, the teachers were pushing them very much towards those students who were "bored with academia" (great phrase). In the same breath, the teachers also talked about students taking less GCSEs and having "catch-up time" in the week to ensure they didn't fall behind with their work, so there was a veiled suggestion that the diplomas would be best suited to the less academic students.

NB please don't flame me, I can only stress this was at our school and only very limited diplomas are on offer.

I think until the diplomas are proven, then they will be ranked lower than GCSEs, but then, I don't consider GCSEs to be a par with O levels.

I think the diplomas go some way to addressing the problem of how to deal with the non-motivated less academic student, but in a half-arsed way. There needs to be a system as there is in Germany and Belgium where you pick your 'stream', academic, practical, vocational, early on, and then do that for all your time at secondary.