Education Case Studies

The Education Act 2002 – putting the recommendations into practice We have been consistently a lead school demonstrating best practice in the encouragement of student participation in our area. We were already doing a lot and that only helped us to understand how much more was required to meet the requirements of section 176 of the Education Act 2002 Consultation with pupils. The DfES has now issued guidance designed to encourage best practice on pupil involvement and provided advice on consultation with students when taking decisions that affect them. We recognise that many of the decisions that our Senior Management team take affect students and that by using Viewpoint we can involve our pupils in this more effectively. Evaluating Learning We are a large Connexions Partnership and I am conscious of our responsibility to provide our local Learning and Skills Council with feedback from students about their experience of the learning opportunities provided for them. This instruction to Connexions is CNX 55. We have experience of using Viewpoint with very large numbers of young people and felt that this would provide an excellent method to help young people give their views. We worked with the LSC to develop a questionnaire that allows young people in different locations, for example in school and college, and with training providers to give us their views. A few colleges have already used this, and have asked to access the data themselves so that they can act on student views. The process of gathering data is straightforward. We invite institutions to take part and arrange for young people to access computers to complete the questionnaires. The Viewpoint Organisation provides logins and other information to the institution, and their technician checks that everything is working. We are now better placed to understand and respond to learner needs, to identify levels of satisfaction and positive and negative factors affecting young people in different circumstances..