Learning partnerships 'working'

Education inspectors say there is generally good collaboration between schools and colleges in England in reforming teenagers' learning.

An Ofsted report said progress was good in 12 of 16 local authorities visited between April 2007 and March this year.

Partnerships provided a broad range of studies for 14 to 19 year-olds - but progression needed to be "clearer and more coherent" on vocational courses.

Collaboration is crucial to the success of the Diplomas starting this term.

Ofsted was evaluating the progress of reforms first set out in 2005.

Its inspections pre-dated the introduction of Diploma courses, but it said planning for these was at an appropriate stage of development with some innovative approaches being introduced.

'Discontinuity'

The report is not without criticism however.

"Although the intention has been to establish a coherent pattern of provision across the 14-19 age range, in practice there was still a discontinuity at age 16 for many young people.

"In particular, progression routes on vocational programmes from age 14 through to 19 were often insufficiently clear."

In some areas a minority of youngsters were being persuaded to stay on into their existing school sixth forms to do AS and A-levels which might not be suitable.

Some students felt they had not been made fully aware of the range of options available to them.

"After a year in the sixth form, a few students had then moved to other institutions to follow vocational courses which better met their needs and aspirations," the Ofsted report said.

"Despite generally good advice about vocational options, choices and recruitment tended to follow traditional gender lines."

This was identified as a particular issue for improvement in three of the local authorities visited.

The 16 local authorities visited were: Blackburn and Darwen, Bournemouth, Bromley, Cheshire, Coventry, Cumbria, Hartlepool, Lincolnshire, Manchester, Newham, Plymouth, Rotherham, Rutland, Somerset, West Sussex and Wiltshire.

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