Successful Intervention with the Edexcel Project

Like a fool, I volunteered myself to spend the last 2 weeks of term working with a small group of year ten students who hadn't managed to sort out work experience placements. Most had a track record of poor attendance or behaviour at school. In the past, we have used an external organisation to provide ASDAN Wider Key Skills to this cohort but it wasn't going to work for this little group (or be cost effective).

I decided it would be interesting to have a go at the Edexcel Level 1 (or for some of them, Level 2) Project. In addition to the students developing their subject knowledge in a particular area and earning a half GCSE I had a few other objectives which should help them do better in all their other subjects:

1. Improve their research skills
2. Improve their ICT skills
3. Improve their communication skills
4. Improve their literacy and numeracy
   

I met the group individually about 6 weeks ago to explain what we'd be doing and find out about their interests, so we could establish a topic. I then asked our school librarian to get some books together and she put me in touch with the staff at the Millennium Library in Norwich, who kindly agreed to help us find books, newspaper articles and use the computers.

The week before we started, the group met for an hour to establish rules and clarify what we'd be doing. Everyone created a mind map of the area they wanted to research, and I allowed students to have a totally personal choice here, as long as they could come up with a question which allowed for a range of responses:

• Should boxing be banned?
• Is gambling dangerously addictive?
• Should smoking be completely banned?

When the fortnight began, we followed a similar routine each day: arrive by 9 and get a drink; work on the project for the first hour; learn a new skill for the second; further work on the project after break; literacy/numeracy (leading to the ALAN qualification) period 4; write up the day's diary and have a chat over a few games on the Nintendo Wii after lunch (assuming the other work was complete). We went into Norwich on the first Wednesday to visit the library (which was a new experience for many, and they signed up so they could take out DVDs and games in future). While we were there the students carried out a survey on the general public (scary!) about their chosen topic, which we then analysed and made into charts back at school.

So, how did it go?

Well, there was some poor punctuality, and one student dropped out entirely after the first couple of days, but the vast majority of the group attended regularly (more so than normal!), achieved the part or even full ALAN qualification (some at Level 2) and put together a project that both I and they are really proud of. Many of them dramatically improved their ICT skills in Word, PowerPoint and Excel, they can now structure a discursive essay and support their ideas with evidence, they can use references and produce a bibliography. When we looked at what they'd put together as a whole document (Introduction, Research, For, Against, Conclusion, Bibliography) it was a really impressive piece of work. On the last day, they were clearly nervous about presenting their findings to the group and one boy disappeared (ill!). The others stuck it out and delivered their presentations really well.

Conclusion

The projects haven't yet been moderated, but I'm hopeful we've got a range of responses from a B grade equivalent down to an F. Although it was tough going at times, I did enjoy the fortnight and I feel more comfortable with the Project as a form of intervention than some other qualifications, since I think the students genuinely learned a lot of transferable skills. I'm thinking about how we can use it next year as part of the overall arsenal of intervention techniques at our disposal. Anyone interested in the resources I put together to support the course is very welcome.