Qualifications & Courses
Courses and qualifications are offered at different levels the following information will help you decide at what level you are at and what level you can go on to study.
The diagram on this page shows the different Qualification Levels available.
Go to the next page 'Qualification Levels' to read about the different qualifications available to you.
Changes in Qualifications:
Do you know how a vocational qualification compares with a GCSE? There are lots of changes to the way qualifications compare.
The Government has brought in new guidelines for all KS4 qualifications. More information can be found on the Department for Education website. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/AdvancedSearch/search/C.view=search_en/results?q=changes+to+qualifications&s=&sa=0&hf=10
The following changes only affect the school’s Headline Measures. For other school measures, and for individual students’ achievement, all vocational and academic qualifications will continue to be recognised elsewhere in the performance tables.
The Government has brought in new guidance for how schools performance will be measured from 2014. These are referred to as the Headline Measures, which will change from assessing volume of achievement to assessing
breadth of achievement. This means all qualifications – regardless of size – will count as the equivalent of 1 GCSE.
Double awards (a single qualification which currently counts as two in the tables), including GCSEs, will only count as one for the 2014 performance tables and onwards
Currently, the only Level 3 qualifications that count in the KS4 performance tables are AS levels, Free Standing Maths Qualifications, Asset Languages and graded music exams. No other Lev el 3 qualifications will be considered for inclusion in the 2014 tables.
Offer pupils proven progression into a broad range of further qualifications or careers post-16, rather than narrowing their options
be of a size of a GCSE or bigger (with 120 guided learning hours or more)
have a substantial proportion of external assessment and require learners to use knowledge from across the subject - Include a synoptic assessment
be of appropriate content suitable for 14-16 year olds, includes development of sector or subject specific understanding as well as transferable knowled
have graded assessments (those with simple pass or fail results will be excluded)
have external assessment must contribute at least 20% to the final grade
have been taught for at least two years and will also be expected to have good levels of uptake among 14 to 16 year olds