Pre-vocational
Dec 6th, 2005 by Don Ledingham
8.30-9.45am Met with Jennifer Tulloch who runs “The Shed” our pre-vocational centre for S3 and S4 pupils. Jennnifer has done a wonderful job getting this centre up and running with over 200 pupils accessing the facility during the year. However, there is a need for us to reflect upon the future of pre-vocational work in East Lothian for a number of reasons.These reasons are as follows: the lease on the facility runs out in 2008; the drop out rate for S3 students is very high; schools are reporting that S3 students are finding it very difficult to catch up on the work they have missed when attending the centre; transport costs are exceptionally high - for a relatively small number of students - could this public money be better spent for a larger number of students?; the courses are bolted-on to the curriculum, as opposed to being built-in; the links between colleges; schools and employers are not explicit under the current arrangements.
Taking these points into consideration the following decisions have been taken: a strategic group has been convened chaired by Paul Raffaelli to devise a long-term sustainable strategy for pre-vocational work in schools; we are proposing to drop the S3 element of the provision; Jennifer Tulloch will use the time freed by this to explore the potential of establishing a couple of pilot satellite pre-vocational programmes in a two of our towns by linking with local employers and using college staff - it would be our hope that these opportunities would link more with the school curriculum and perhaps articulate with serial work placement; we will reconsider how we are making use of the budget available for pre-vocational work with a view to supporting this long-term strategy over a three year period with a view to ensuring that pre-vocational opportunities are in place in all our towns by the time the lease runs out on “The Shed”. We are having a meeting on the 19th December where a variety of people with an interest and responsibility for this area will discuss these proposals in more detail.
10.00-11.00 I chaired a capability hearing. One of my duties is to sit in judgement on capability matters. Of course I cannot go into the details of the case but it is a significant responsibility to have to decide upon the future of a teaching colleague. I was reminded during the process how important it is for everyone to have supportive and well informed union representation.
11.00-12.45pm Child Protection Inspection Briefing - came in late to the breifing due to the hearing. Two HMI were providing information about the new child protection inspection regime which we will probably undergo in the next couple of years. It's always better to be forewarned. I was impresssed with the quality of the briefing and appreciated the common sense and practiocal approach being taken.
1.00-2.00 Caught up on correspondence.
2.00-4.00pm JCG Joint Consultative Group on Education. This is a more meeting between unions and management about a range of on-going issues are raised by the unions. They included: long-term absence; budget issues; PPP; FE staff teaching in schools - or not as the case will be; curriculum for excellence; better behaviour - better learning; and others. I'm a great believer in transparency and I hope that this approach is helping to promote good working relationships between the unions and employers.
4.00-5.00 Quick chat with a few people I needed to catch up with and then home early.
