The committee were joined by
Richard Kennell (RK), Vice Chairman of the Oxfordshire Skills Board, and
Richard Byard (RB), Service Manager - Economy& Skills to discuss the recent
series of visits to schools and colleges in the county exploring best practice
in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects and business
links.
Cllr Waine stated that the aim
of the visits had been to find best practice and the challenge now is sharing
this across the county.
RK explained that the Oxfordshire
Skills Board (OSB) has two main priorities. The first is the STEM agenda and
the second is business skills. The OSB reports to the Local Enterprise
Partnership (LEP) and is hoping to get some funding from them to put some
resource behind an initiative to look at best practice to share and roll out
across Oxfordshire.
The committee held a
discussion about the visits and particularly focussed on the need for links
with businesses to be reciprocal arrangements, and for careers related work to
be embedded into the curriculum, not just through one-off events.
RK agreed to take
forward the exemplar practice below and ensure it is disseminated through the
Oxfordshire Skills Board.
Children's
Services Scrutiny Committee- School Visits February 2013
Oxford and
Cherwell Valley College
- Currently offer 68 different
apprenticeships.
- Have invested £25k in a project working
in partnership with the New Engineering Foundation (NEF) - The Innovation
Institute to assess the skills need of the local market and ensure OCVC
are delivering the right courses and the curriculum meets employer needs.
- So far they have discovered that there
is a gap in provision of the lower end (level 1) and the higher end
(level 4 and above) courses.
- Have created SweetFE
- a community interest company. Businesses commission work for the
students to do which forms their assignments. This is contracted and
monitored by SweetFE. They also run a Dragon's
Den-style opportunity to bid for funding to start-up businesses.
- University Technical Colleges (UTCs)
take students from 14 to teach science, technology and engineering
focussed courses. One in Reading, one likely to be built in Didcot.
Students attend from 9-5 which equates to 13 extra weeks of education over
2 years.
- A group in ScienceValeUK
are working with secondary school students taking them to see STEM job
environments and working on projects with employers.
- Career days offering free, impartial
advice- not recruitment for OCVC- have been well received in the
community.
- Students are encouraged to get involved
in volunteering/paid employment in the college. Aim to employ 40% of their
own students.
- Peer to peer teaching through using
students as role models in primary schools.
- Developing a system to track students
over the long-term after they leave college.
St Gregory the
Great Catholic School
- Links they have with businesses are
reciprocal arrangements. Would like to share these links with other
schools.
- 25% of KS4 students have 1 day out a
week at OCVC to do a vocational course but do not miss out on any core
curriculum. This is expensive but there can be benefits from economies of
scale both from reduced OCVC costs and freeing up staff in the school. The
students are from a range of abilities.
- The college reporting system feeds into
the school's system and they have adopted the same praise system. There is
also joint training for college and school staff.
- The school has vertical tutor groups,
encouraging peer to peer mentoring and using the older students as role
models.
- There are weekly mentoring sessions for
all students. Looking to bring in businesses as part of this session to
motivate and inspire.
The Cooper
School, Bicester
- The school curriculum includes GCSE
level triple science. The course is available to students with a range of
abilities, and has had exceptionally high take up and attainment levels
since it was first introduced.
- This success has carried through into
AS and A2 level science courses. Once again take up has been extremely
high, with results being the best in the county despite the sixth form
only opening very recently.
- The same has been true of Maths at both
GCSE and A level.
- Key to the school’s success has been its
work aimed at incentivising students to participate in STEM subjects. This
has included building strong ties with numerous large employers in the
county which have given students a taste of the working world and enhanced
their understanding of how a company operates.
- Amongst the many schemes run in
collaboration with employers, notable examples include:
- Nuffield placements: Y12 students
completed four week summer placements in research environments,
undertaking real research in fields across the STEM spectrum.
- CERN placement: a physicist at CERN in
Geneva hosted a Y12 student for two weeks to work on analysing real data
from the Large Hadron Collider experiment.
- Mini Plant Oxford engineering project:
Mini Plant Oxford set a group of Y12 engineering a task to design and
build a downhill gravity racer. Parts were provided by Mini, and the group
took part in the a national competition with other schools who had
participated in the scheme. The group won both the ‘Best Engineered’ and
Mini award for ‘Technical Innovative Design’.
- The school has invested heavily in
developing its science facilities in particular.
- The school has also worked with younger
children to inspire them to achieve from an early age. This has included
year 9 pathways events, where students are encouraged to explore
opportunities for personal and character development. There are awards for
demonstrating initiative in these areas which are also integrated into the
curriculum.
- The school has also invested in modern
equipment which enables students to record themselves talking to camera
and presenting.
Faringdon
Community College
- The school has had an engineering
specialism since 2003.
- Every student studies at least one STEM
subject. Additional STEM content is included in other subjects beyond the
requirements of the curriculum, e.g. history includes lessons on science
and technology during the period covered in the curriculum.
- The school holds regular STEM events for
families and children outside of school hours. Recent examples have
included Flight Days, Ugandan Cooking, and Family Robotics.
- The school has strong links to local
businesses in Oxfordshire and Swindon.
- Month long outreach sessions are held in
ten local primary schools. These sessions introduce children in the
catchment area to STEM subjects before they arrive at FCC. Recent examples
have included Robotics, Podcasting Mechanisms, and Electronics &
Animation.
- Year 11 students at risk of becoming
NEET receive focussed careers guidance from the start of the year. Work is
focussed on raising aspirations and preparing students for interviews. The
school works in partnership with Swindon Technical College
- Of students going on to University in
2011, 37% chose to do STEM subjects.
- The school has a strong network of
business contacts through a number of conduits (e.g. Industrial Trust,
Oxford Trust / STEMNET) and through direct contact with employer groups.
Direct contacts have led to two-way projects such as a competition to
create a brand of soft-drinks for Crown.