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.