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ICT 2010 Functional ICT GCSE Imedia arghhh!

Last post 11/11/09 at 12:05 by OCR, 7 replies
Post started by coleman01 on 17/10/09 at 18:46

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  • coleman01 avatar
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    Posted by: coleman01 17/10/2009 at 18:46
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     Hi all,

     Wondered if I could express some confusion and ask for someone to point me to where the QCA give a firm answer to this one, as I cannot seem to find it.

     

    My school delivers a lot of ICT courses at GCSE (Applied, GCSE, iMedia, OCR Nationals, ECDL). With the new specifications coming in in 2010, we can safely say that Applied and GCSE are going, and OCR Nationals the year after.  That bit I am fine with, and we have looked at different courses, namely Edexcel, AQA and WJEC (WJEC being very interesting).

     

    So, as I understand, if you deliver a diploma, you must also deliver functional ICT - that is statutory.

     The new specifications should cover functional ICT (WJEC GCSE ICT 2010 Unit 2 is mapped directly to functional ICT framework). 

     

    So my confusion is then, do you have to teach functional ICT as well, or is it given by proxy? WJEC board say that you must also sit the functional ICT exam as well?

     

    Also, what about courses like iMedia? Is it a legal requirement to deliver functional ICT in addition to this, as the course does not meet most of the functional framework? Or,is Functional ICT merely optional, and we can continue delivering iMedia as an ICT option without worrying about functional ICT?

     

    If anyone who can give me a firm answer to exactly whether functional ICT is statutory from 2010 and must be delivered - and can point to where it says this in black and white,  I would be grateful.

    Many thanks.

     
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    Posted by: HappyHippy 17/10/2009 at 19:36
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    As I understand it - and this is only hearsay, but the best I can offer - FS is required for the Diploma but is otherwise unnecessary. We certainly won't be teaching/running it next year (GCSE, iMedia,Nats @ KS4)
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    Posted by: tonyuk 18/10/2009 at 10:15
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    Correct Functional is only necessry for Diploma students hough judging by the results this year that may well change and become unlinked after all pupils not getting their diploma because they did not get 1/2 a GCSE in English , Maths or ICT becomes a bit silly!!!

    IMedia will exist after 2010 though with some extra units (I suspect) and this sits underthe media banner (at the moment) and no Functional is required!!

     

    Hope this helps 

     
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    Posted by: dokusu 18/10/2009 at 11:10
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    The position is that only Diploma students need FS and it is a separate exam to English/Maths/ICT GCSE.

    However, QCA (or whatever its called this week) is considering going back to the original idea that a GCSE C grade in the 3 core subjects was equivalent to FS. One crucial factor is that parents want their kids to do core subject GCSE so effectively Diploma students still have a double hurdle. Plus of course the league tables only count GCSE English and Maths so no School can give them u=up and substitute FS.Someone forgot to tell Ballsup and his predecessors the consequence of this change (to placate public schools) would have...

    FS was probably originally intended to replace GCSE English/Maths entirely but still have some credibility with employers. But the political dogma of 'standards' and resulted in it being rendered worthless. It's the educational equivalent of HIPS, something you don't need but can't do the course without. Talk about killing off a qualification before it starts...

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    Posted by: McJob 18/10/2009 at 11:33
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    This makes me laugh. What do LEA inspector/advisors do? They spend their time bullying Heads of Department in subtle ways to go on their 'courses' where they confuse everyone with stuff like APP, then when they are really needed, to answer clearly questions like the above and to 'advise' (the clude is in their job title), they are nowhere to be seen.
  • coleman01 avatar
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    Posted by: coleman01 18/10/2009 at 12:05
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     Does that mean then, we can pick one GCSE (e.g. WJEC GCSE), which covers FS and just go with it without any worry about having to teach FS separately?  Does it mean we can also continue teaching iMedia and OCR Nationals without any concern?

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    Posted by: tonyuk 18/10/2009 at 12:59
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    Yes you can pick Nationals and IMedia without any concern and to be honest if you are not doing any Diplomas in your school I would ignore the FS completely!
  • OCR avatar
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    Posted by: OCR 11/11/2009 at 12:05
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    coleman01:

    My school delivers a lot of ICT courses at GCSE (Applied, GCSE, iMedia, OCR Nationals, ECDL). With the new specifications coming in in 2010, we can safely say that Applied and GCSE are going, and OCR Nationals the year after.  That bit I am fine with, and we have looked at different courses, namely Edexcel, AQA and WJEC (WJEC being very interesting).

     

    OCR Nationals are being prepared to fit the new Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF). OCR has taken the opportunity to gain practical input from the teaching community and update content where appropriate.

    Key developments include:

    • same subjects and levels as before
    • content updated where required, minimal other changes
    • no change to guided learning hours (GLH)
    • renaming of qualifications and unit titles to fit QCF
    • accredited specifications available on OCR website from summer term 2010
    • support materials available for first teaching September 2010 e.g. model assignments

    Please see the OCR Nationals website for further details
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