Ceredigion’s plans to have one huge campus for sixth form provision are on the backburner. So the time to discuss what would be good for our post GCSE students is right now. I’m ready to offer my opinion in the hope that it will spark post-consultation debate amongst students, parents, teaching and support staff, as well as providers which of course includes our local council.
Current provision is a mixed bag with six schools offering A-levels plus a variety of other courses. Then we have the two campuses of Coleg Ceredigion, Hyffordiant Ceredigion Training plus a few apprenticeships offered elsewhere. Quite a number of students travel out of Ceredigion to access courses not available here. Many travel a long way to Newtown, Coleg Sir Gâr in Carmarthen or Llanelli, and even as far as Haverford West.
I would like people to discuss the following questions: What courses are missing in Ceredigion? How can courses be best provided, where and by whom? Do some courses need to be delivered in more than one place, in which case who is best placed to do it? How are providers paid and by whom? Can this be done in a more equitable and efficient way? In short, if we start with a clean slate, how would you wish to see provision for post GCSE?
It’s difficult to disentangle oneself from what’s been the norm. For instance, I hear that the best teachers will be lost from schools should they stop providing A-levels. The best teachers are needed at every level and are especially needed to teach struggling students so I ask them to reconsider their stance.
I’ll kick-start the discussion with some ideas. Ceredigion is a large, rural county dependent on farming. Horticulture is likely to be of more importance in the future. Next to farming, horticulture will offer huge employment opportunities and should thrive in our rural counties. Yet, there is nowhere here where it’s taught. The nearest is Bridgend. I would love to see an agriculture and horticulture college in the centre of Ceredigion. It could also offer different courses as well as be a centre of excellence for students with additional learning needs or developmental disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). My dream is that a horticultural college would have accommodation too for those students who don’t cope with travelling and for students from our neighbouring counties.
Many students with ASD are currently offered what I term holding courses, a bit of this and a bit of that, anything to keep them occupied but often not supported to gain an actual qualification or a skill-set that would lead them to hold down a job. I know of students with ASD who’ve spent an extra year at school, as is their right, coming out with not a single piece of paper, and then attending college for several more years but achieving absolutely nothing. This can’t be right. So ASD students’ needs must be part of the big discussion. Apprenticeships need to form part of our conversation too. For employers taking on an apprentice has to be a bonus not an obstacle.
It’s easy to see how on-line learning can become part of the sixth form provision. It will work well for certain subjects. For other subjects teachers can travel to different campuses. Where students need to do the travelling, it has to be made simple for them, with bus passes that can be used on all service buses, not just on college buses.
The consultation is over, that doesn’t mean we stop talking and wait for our big boss at Penmorfa to decide what’s best.