In 2018 we visited a small Highland secondary with just 450 students and 33 teaching staff that offered courses in beekeeping, travel and tourism, construction, childcare, and painting and decorating - and where the majority of its senior-phase students gained a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.
Kingussie High had more than doubled the number of subjects it offered in the wake of a negative inspection, and students’ attainment had gone from being below the national average to noticeably above it.
The school’s premise was that if it offered students courses they were actually interested in, then they were more likely to do well. As the headteacher at the time, Ollie Bray, put it, “young people will always do considerably better in subjects that they want to study, rather than ones they are forced to take”.
Mr Bray - who went on to work for the LEGO Foundation and is now a strategic director at the curriculum and inspection agency, Education Scotland - said that there were a wide variety of qualifications available in Scotland, but suggested that many education professionals, including headteachers, did not know the difference between an SVQ (Scottish Vocational Qualification), an NPA (National Progression Award) or an NC (National Certificate), or how an Advanced Higher measures up against an HNC (Higher National Certificate).
The upshot was that most students left school with a “narrow range of subjects and types of qualification - normally Nationals and Highers”.
Bray argued that some students would not be attaining “because they are in the wrong subjects”, adding: “If you only offer geography, history and modern studies, and the kids don’t like geography, history and modern studies, then they’re not going to do well in those subjects unless they are particularly motivated.”
Instead of trying to drive up grades in the courses that are already on offer - “trying to improve the number of Cs to Bs, or Bs to As,” as Bray put it - he argued that schools also needed to start offering courses that students actually wanted to do.
Jim Thewliss, the general secretary of secondary school leaders’ body School Leaders Scotland, pointed out that it wasn’t just headteachers who were in thrall to Highers and Nationals - that parents, too, had to be convinced other qualifications were worth having.
Rob Wallen, a former college principal and the chair of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) Partnership Board, said that timetabling half a dozen extra subjects was “more complex than simply saying, ‘You’re all doing N4’” - but he argued it was important “in order to meet the needs of all young people”.
Some students’ needs could be met through Nationals, Highers and Advanced Highers, said Wallen. But even in those schools, young people would benefit from “some additionality in the curriculum”, and most secondaries would need to offer a broader range to “motivate the whole cohort”.
Kingussie High demonstrated that even a relatively small secondary school could deliver a wide range of courses. But it also showed that improving attainment wasn’t just about driving up pass rates and grades - it was also about knowing your students and giving them more chances to gain qualifications by providing courses that interested them.
What happened next?
When the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) review of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) was published in June this year, one key criticism was the “misalignment” between the qualifications offered in the senior phase of secondary, and the aspirations of Scotland’s CfE.
The report criticised the emphasis that Nationals and Highers placed “on rote learning and memorisation”, as opposed to “more engaging, intrinsically motivating activities related to problem solving, creativity, cooperation or communication”.
Ultimately, its conclusions led to the ongoing review of national qualifications in Scotland, as well as the impending replacement of the Scottish Qualifications Authority and the reform of the curriculum and inspection body, Education Scotland. It will all become clearer when the Ken Muir review reports early in 2022.
However, the OECD also said that the availability of vocational qualifications was “an important development” and that “learners saw these options as giving them a broader experience”.
So, it would seem that although Kingussie High’s qualification innovations were featured in this magazine some three years ago, there is still much for other schools to learn from its approach. Official figures show that the number of school leavers achieving vocational qualifications is increasing, but it is still a minority of students who leave school with them. And - as assessment expert and Scottish government adviser Louise Hayward told us earlier this month - there is still a widespread assumption that vocational pathways are not as worthwhile as “academic” routes, even if that view is not openly expressed as often these days.
Recently, Tes Scotland homed in on one vocational qualification in particular: Foundation Apprenticeships (FAs). These were introduced in Scotland in 2016, but uptake remains low. Headteachers have said that lack of investment and promotion were to blame for FAs failing to take off.
You won’t find many people in Scottish education arguing against the need to embrace a wider range of qualifications in schools. But big barriers remain, not least in the rigidity of exam-dominated approaches to assessment, and in the difficulty of persuading students and their families that vocational studies are not somehow lesser than other routes.
Emma Seith is a reporter for Tes Scotland
