This month sees another milestone for Post-16 education with the introduction of Key Stage 5 minimum standards for all schools and colleges.

The standards, which are published at the end of April by the Department for Education, will cover performance in A-Levels and vocational qualifications being taken at Level 3.  They’ll be used to identify centres and those below the standard will be deemed as performing poorly.

Anyone who attended our Annual Summit in February will already be familiar with the new standards – just one of the perks of being a member - as our event included a workshop on their implications.  To reflect their importance we’ll be adding the new standards to our online Post-16 Datadashboard.

Under this new system, each Level 3 qualification will be defined as either vocational or academic and the DfE has already said it will be looking closely at how schools and colleges are performing in all aspects of their Level 3 provision.

The Department has also said that institutions will be seen as underperforming if fewer than 40% of students achieve an average point score per entry in both vocational and qualifications.

It will also be possible for schools and colleges to fail the vocational minimum standard, the academic standard or both, so this really will have massive implications for everyone working in the sector.

It will be the schools and colleges, which plan effectively and monitor student performance as closely as possible that will do well under this new system. Early intervention can prevent issues becoming problems and effective performance data analysis will play an important role in this.

Alongside the introduction of the minimum standards, I was pleased to hear Andrew Webb set out his vision for the coming year as the new president of the Association of Director’s of Children’s Services.

Speaking last week at an event at The King’s Fund in London, he said:

‘We must concentrate on what our children are being taught and how rather than where. I want to make it very clear that I believe we need to focus rigorously on the needs of all children, in all population groups; to tailor our teaching to meet specific differences; and to expect all young people to want to meet stretching targets, particularly in the core subjects.”

Mr Webb spoke about the need to engage young people in a “lifelong journey of learning” and it was refreshing to hear someone from a children’s services background speak so passionately about the benefits of education.  This mirrors our commitment in Learning Plus UK to make a difference, not a profit and to support schools and colleges in understanding the role of data to help students achieve.

In other news, Learning Plus UK will be at Queens University Belfast on Friday, 19 April, for another of our free teaching events on the European Union. For more information, or to book a place click here