Barry Comprehensive School

About the centre

Staff delivering the WBQ

Students

Ten students completed the programme in 2005. Nine achieved the Intermediate Diploma. 25 commenced the programme in September 2005, numbers falling to 12 by January 2006.The WBQ has become a one-year course.

Of special note…

Much effort has been made to make teaching/learning programmes more relevant for the students, providing meaningful and enjoyable learning experiences that meet their needs.  Of particular note has been the WBQ’s students involvement in fund-raising activities at the School where they have become the Charities committee and, for example, designed and delivered the School’s ‘Children in Need’ programme to gain WWO and PSE accreditation.

The organisation of the Year 12 tutoring system has also been improved and now all WBQ students form part of one mentoring group, based with their tutor in his IT room.  All students in the Sixth Form on the Barry Comprehensive site are now ‘screened’ for basic and key skills  and required to follow appropriate key skills courses whether they are following the WBQ or not.

In launching the pilot three years ago, the School also made a decision to plan for the long-term and has been constructing a key skills approach at Key Stage 3 which gives all pupils the opportunity to gain certification in all three of the core key skills by the beginning of Year 9.  The programme, entitled ‘The trays will travel’, adds value to the School’s transition and PSE delivery and has seen a complete reorganisation of pastoral approaches in Years 7 and 8 where English and Maths teachers now form the Year 7 and 8 tutor teams respectively.  The project has this year been recognised with the  WSSA’s national key skills award and in December 2005 the team made a presentation to the Basic Skills Agency’s national conference in Westminster in the presence of HRH the Princess Royal.  

The School successfully applied to be part of the pre-16 pilot of the Intermediate and new Foundation diplomas.