Foundation and Higher Diploma:
opportunities for co-learning
A curriculum can cater for both Foundation and Higher Diploma learners side-by-side.
We've developed guidance for schools and colleges planning their curriculum to cater to the needs of both Foundation and Higher Diploma learners. In Opportunities for co-learning: Foundation and Higher Diploma, we follow these principles:
- the Foundation Diploma as a distinct qualification
- the Diploma as a flexible qualification
- the need for curriculum planners to adapt to changing circumstances
- a balanced approach.
The Foundation Diploma as a distinct qualification
The Foundation and Higher Diplomas have been developed as separate and distinct qualifications. The ranges and contents are different and the two Diplomas are of different sizes.
Content
The difference in content is reflected in the guided learning hours for principal learning, which is 240 for Foundation and 420 for Higher. This is a difference equivalent to around 1.5 GCSEs.
Learning times
Learning times are different too, with 240 guided learning hours allocated to generic learning within the Foundation Diploma (the same size as principal learning) and 200 within the Higher Diploma (less than half the size of principal learning). Young people benefit from the focus on generic skills in the Foundation Diploma.
Grades
While Higher Diplomas are graded A*–C and aligned with the higher level GCSEs (GCSE achievement at level 2), Foundation Diplomas are graded A*–B. The grading system for Foundation Diplomas deliberately does not line up with the lower grades GCSE. It is intended to give young people achieving a Foundation Diploma a sense of achievement and raised self-esteem. The Foundation Diploma is to be positively presented and regarded as a qualification in its own right, not as a 'failed Higher Diploma'.
There are currently 15,000 14–16 year olds accessing the key stage 4 Engagement programme through 70 partnerships across the country. There has been no problem recruiting students for this programme who are not motivated by the current key stage 4 offer. For many students, it is an interim solution. Such students may eventually take the Foundation Diploma, but they would need individual attention, which is difficult to achieve in a co-learning situation. The issue is often motivation rather than ability.
The Diploma as a flexible qualification
There are ways to use the flexibility of the Diploma to encourage the highest level of attainment in each component. Diplomas are large, composite qualifications with separate accreditation of all constituent parts.
This means that students may not be working entirely within one level. A student taking level 1 principal learning and project, for instance, might achieve functional skills and ASL at a higher level. Such a student would then only have to complete principal learning and the project at level 2 in order to complete the Higher Diploma. Learners would therefore be motivated to higher achievement or to progress more rapidly from one level to the next.
Conversely, learners who can achieve principal learning at higher level who might struggle with functional skills – some students in special schools for instance – should be encouraged to take level 2 principal learning. Such students would be able to accept their principal learning award as a separate qualification or continue to work to the full Diploma qualification with the necessary support.
The need for curriculum planners to adapt to changing circumstances
There are two reasons why centres want to be able to co-teach. The first relates to viable class sizes. The second relates to students with potential being committed to two-year level 1 courses.
Class sizes
The issue of viable class sizes can be addressed by a qualification that is designed to be delivered in partnership. Many curriculum planners who may still be thinking of single-institution delivery need to be encouraged to think about possibilities across a whole consortium.
Getting the right levels
The issue of young people being placed at an inappropriate level needs addressing. But co-teaching is only one way of doing this. Some consortia are already planning ways to address this issue more creatively. Examples include:
- parallel timetabling of Foundation and Higher Diploma learning, so that a student can be transferred easily from one to the other if appropriate
- all students starting the Foundation Diploma, so that students suited to moving on to the Higher Diploma can do so at an agreed point
- parallel timetabling of years 10 and 11 (possibly also 12) in each line of learning, so that some students who started on Foundation Diploma in years 10 could begin the Higher Diploma after one year
- better assessment of students' needs and potential not only at the start of key stage 4 but throughout the first teaching period, so that as far as possible they are placed correctly or are moved at an appropriate early point to the Higher Diploma. (This has proved to be critical in the success of the key stage 4 Engagement programme.) Awarding bodies' specifications vary. Curriculum planners will need to analyse their chosen specifications carefully and consult with awarding bodies to identify appropriate transfer points.
Analogies with GCSE co-teaching
Some argue that as co-teaching happens for GCSE it therefore should happen for Diplomas. This assumes that what happens in respect of GCSE is good practice. The reality is very different though. Too often, most attention is given to those students likely to achieve grade C or above, and too little to those working at level 1, who in fact tend to require more individual attention. An April 2008 report by the Bow group shows that over the past decade the number of students leaving school without five D-G grades has risen. Almost 90,000 students were in that category in 2008, the highest figure since 1998.
The Diplomas are meant to be about transforming teaching and learning. Together with the secondary curriculum review, the Diploma gives schools a rare opportunity to review and redesign their curriculum to make the most of the new curriculum and qualification landscape. But encouraging the same delivery pattern for Diplomas as GCSEs will not radically change the provision for level 1 learners in the way the Diploma was meant to.
A balanced approach
Our guidance takes a balanced view. While making it clear that the Foundation Diploma is designed as a distinct qualification and that the needs of young people at level 1 must be met, the guidance recognises that some consortia may wish to introduce co-learning. In doing this there is an emphasis on the need for personalisation of the curriculum for young people.
There are skilful and experienced teachers who will be able to deliver learning to Foundation and Higher Diploma students within the same learning environment. Our guidance gives them the opportunity to do that and enough information to point them in the right direction.
Last modified: 29 Mar 2010
