Key Stage 4

I just think what you're doing, what you've described, I don't really see many departments where that doesn't really apply.

Okay, practical, dance, drama, but classroom-based, Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4, I just go over what you're talking about.

We use these exercise books to practice.

And then there is a regular time where we are made accountable to the things that we have apparently learned.

Yeah, very, very good point then.

And that's really relevant in terms of Key Stage 4 GCSE because you can go through the exam board with either limited notation sight reading skills, stave notation that is, or in the case of some of my students in one previous school, very little to the next to nothing.

um because there are workarounds because the actual paper that students sit a we're talking maybe one section a couple of questions that are focused on notation and oral training

but

the rest are all about listening to the the example and then making those ones so to go from that quite rightly to go to a level music and be thrown in um way in the deep end is is a is a huge huge hurdle and perhaps that that points towards trickling down.

Well, if we need to sort out the potential decline of A-level music, maybe we need to drop down to Key Stage 4 and then Key Stage 3 and understand, do we want our students who are studying to be able to read notation? And if so, we would then need to go and change Key Stage 3 in order for notation to be fully embedded in terms of what we do.

then you drop down to key stage two key stage one where you embed all those important reading skills like they would have in any other subjects so it's it's a very very valid point um which also perhaps could point to students as well who potentially have that ability to study a level of music in terms of their ability on their instrument they might be fantastic composers they might you know use music programs and able to orchestrate and score wonderfully well but wouldn't know the dots and wouldn't know the notes.

I

And I believe that actually in the last year, we had something like less than 20 new D&T teachers training as a result of that.

So the access to potentially where construction or electrical or plumbing people might all come into to support this in a broader curriculum at Key Stage 4 will be tricky enough.

And if we had someone on here today from post-16, they'd be saying to you, We'd love to deliver more of these courses at post-16, but haven't got the leaders with which to deliver them on the ground in a post-16 perspective.

And of course, we also need to remember that there needs to be a flow and a pathway to post-16 from the pre-16.

And I'll give you an example.

We've just had to take the computer science of the Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 curriculum because we can't recruit.

Design has only just come back on because after two years we've managed to find a teacher.

So, you know, on paper all of this sounds great.

Today I am joined by Bronwyn Webster.

Bronwyn is a teacher of science at the Nottingham Emanuel School and she has successfully run Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 at AYLA for four years with a wonderful statistic that 10 of the school have actually completed the award along with this bronwyn took some students with us down to the nsln conference last year where they delivered on their experiences of ayla and she is also amazingly on the ayla scnd working party so

welcome bronwyn thank

you for having me for those of you not familiar with ayla the archbishop's young leaders award is a fully resourced leadership and character education program for young people from Key Stage 1 right through to Post 16.

And I've got to tell you, we are so happy that you did.

Thanks.

So as we mentioned earlier on, you've been delivering AYLA with Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 students for a number of years now.

What keeps you coming back to it?

Again, without asking, what do you want to be when you're older?

Yeah that's interesting and when you and from your experience working with like Key Stage 4 students especially when it comes to like GCSEs and options and even me when I think back years ago my time as a head of year that was one of the difficult, one of the most difficult periods for students.

What do I pick, you know, in terms of GCSEs? Some are considering subjects that they're good at, subjects that they're interested in.

Some look as forwarders, you know, university, what subjects do I need to study? Some look as forwarders.

No, that's true.

And if we rewind a bit then, and obviously, you know, that's regarding post-16.

If we think about Key Stage 4, Year 11 and GCSEs, like it's this thing that every year between May to July, there's this whole, you know, it's GCSEs.

And then in August, it's Results Day.

the other way around.

I think it'd be harder at Key Stage 3 than Key Stage 4.

Oh, no, no.

For me.

No, but I'm talking about in class, though.

Their capacity to cope with the bigger class size.

Personally, I think the Key Stage 4 and 5 would cope with that better than Key Stage 3 would.

Would you have enough