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SECTION 1
Executive Summary
1.1 In this strategy we explain how we
will increase and further enhance school/college
partnership
1 to extend opportunities for
pupils to access high quality experiences and gain full
recognition for their learning with Scotland's
colleges.
1.2 We want colleges to help develop the
attributes and abilities of pupils to enable them to become
successful learners, confident individuals, responsible
citizens and effective contributors to society and at work
by assisting schools to deliver the purposes for education
outlined in
A Curriculum for Excellence. This requires
partnership working across both the school and further
education sectors, with the focus on the pupil.
1.3 All secondary and special schools in
Scotland will by 2007 have effective, meaningful and
appropriate partnership with at least one college for S3
pupils and above. College options will be made available to
pupils as they are with all other students in further and
higher education - on the basis of available capacity.
Given there is an inevitable limit on capacity to maintain
colleges' central ethos due regard will be paid to pupils
who will benefit most from activities that enhance their
life chances.
1.4 In the Partnership Agreement, the
Executive committed itself to allow 14 to 16 year old
pupils the chance to develop vocational skills by opting
for further education courses during part of the school
week. We want to widen pupils' opportunities and ease their
transition from school to further learning, training or
employment. Further education courses can present pupils
with opportunities to broaden their curriculum choices and
enrich their educational experiences. We want to make the
most of pupils' talents. That means finding the most
suitable way of stimulating their interest in learning. For
some, vocational education can provide the context which
best engages them.
1.5 Colleges may also offer excellent
opportunities for pupils highly gifted in sport, music or
dance, but unable to attend one of the National Centres of
Excellence to benefit from the more intensive specialist
tuition available there. However, school/college
partnership is more than exclusively vocational. Colleges
present the opportunity for pupils to study some specialist
subjects, such as Sociology, which may not be taught in
their school.
1.6 We will deliver the Partnership
Agreement commitment principally by:
- working with the Scottish Qualifications Authority
to develop skills for work courses to supplement other
nationally recognised qualifications for pupils in
vocational subjects as another option choice, for
example as an alternative to one or more Standard
Grades; and
- establishing long-term, clear and stable funding
arrangements in place of the current funding mechanism
that disadvantages colleges in providing courses to
pupils (because it fails at present to deliver fee
income to colleges).
1.7 We will make available, in addition to
existing resources that colleges devote to pupils'
learning, more than £41.5m across financial years 2005/06
to 2007/08.
This will support, among other things:
- an increase in college activity for pupils,
including more pupils accessing college
learning;
- ensuring that college activities for state
school pupils that form part of their school-based
curriculum are eligible for automatic
fee-waiver;
- training for the new professional development
award and units for college staff teaching under 16
year olds;
- training for all college staff on pupil welfare
and support, including child protection
matters;
- college activity to implement the Education
(Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act
2004;
- the reimbursement to colleges of fee costs to
Disclosure Scotland for the disclosure of existing
college staff; and
- enhanced careers advice to inform pupils of
school/college options and to help pupils reflect
upon their college learning in relation to
post-school career opportunities.
1.8 We will ensure school/college
partnership delivers quality, positive outcomes with pupil
welfare and support. This strategic framework for
partnership enables effective and flexible local
decision-making and initiative and removes barriers to
partnership. Linking effectively to wider partnership
arrangements will assist school/college partnerships to
access and develop a wide range of appropriate responses to
pupils' needs and capacities.
1.9 Schools and colleges already have in
place their own robust internal quality procedures to
measure progress on quality issues. To further ensure high
quality experiences for pupils:
- Her Majesty's Inspectorate of
Education, which undertakes independent
reviews of colleges and independent inspections of
schools, will carry out evaluations of school and
college contributions to partnership activity by, for
example, sampling within its inspection and review
programmes;
- the
Scottish Qualifications Authority will
develop new vocational courses, with quality
experiences at their core, in close partnership with
the education and training community, and employers'
organisations; and
- the
Scottish Executive will devise a new
professional development award and units, and
incorporate within the teaching qualification in
further education (
TQ(
FE)) professional development for
the teaching of pupils under 16 years of age.
1.10 Partnership will be developed with a
view to the long term and it will grow in an evolutionary
way over the coming years. It may involve pupils learning
in college for part of the week. It also presents
opportunities for courses to be delivered by college staff
in schools.
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