Douglas Combined Sixth Form

[Andy Onchan]

1 hour ago, manxman1980 said:

I don't see how this reduces costs...  At the moment sixth formers going to a school can use the school buses already being used by those in years 7 to 11.  Move all the sixth form to a central location and you have to pay for additional services to get them to the new location.  Assuming it is in Douglas you also add to the traffic entering and leaving the town each day.

Then you have to consider how much overlap there is in A level subjects.  Teachers don't just teach A-level students.  I had the some of the same teachers in year 7 as I did teaching a level courses in years 12 and 13.  You will still need teachers for years 7 to 11 so where is the saving in teaching staff?

Even when it comes to resources you won't save much as you simply move them from the existing sixth forms to this new central location.  

In fact the more I think about it the more useless a centralised sixth form college sounds. 

It reduces a call on CAPEX and releases more space for other students, isn't that what the teachers are warning against.... other non-6th form pupils being taught in portacabins?

[manxman34]

9 hours ago, Derek Flint said:

From an educational standpoint, it makes absolute sense to have everyone in one place for sixth form. The Island tries to be all things to all people and forgets that it is smaller in population terms than many provincial towns. 

It doesn’t. You do like making pronouncements, don’t you? Having a sixth form in a school helps recruit quality staff: the converse  is also true. Recruitment and retention is in the worst place in living memory and you want to make it worse? The imbalance in numbers in the 2 Douglas high schools is because the DESC ballsed up the legislation around catchment areas, giving themselves no room for manoeuvre. Amend the legislation, direct new Year 7 as needed to equalise numbers - sorted at minimal cost with immediate benefits and problem completely solved in 2 years. 

[Andy Onchan]

6 minutes ago, manxman34 said:

It doesn’t. You do like making pronouncements, don’t you? Having a sixth form in a school helps recruit quality staff: the converse  is also true. Recruitment and retention is in the worst place in living memory and you want to make it worse? The imbalance in numbers in the 2 Douglas high schools is because the DESC ballsed up the legislation around catchment areas, giving themselves no room for manoeuvre. Amend the legislation, direct new Year 7 as needed to equalise numbers - sorted at minimal cost with immediate benefits and problem completely solved in 2 years. 

And what about the portacabins..... will they no longer be required?

[manxman34]

48 minutes ago, Andy Onchan said:

And what about the portacabins..... will they no longer be required?

Unless there's a sudden surge in residency, I think they'd be gone - or most of them, anyway.

 

[english zloty]

1 hour ago, Andy Onchan said:

And what about the portacabins..... will they no longer be required?

C formers were taught in portacabins. Never did them any harm being that the majority ended up MHKs

[2112]

3 hours ago, english zloty said:

C formers were taught in portacabins. Never did them any harm being that the majority ended up MHKs

Some can write all joined up, and some know the alphabet

[0bserver]

Just build one all-island Sixth Form Centre in Douglas. 

Centralise their learning, it's mental how some get denied the opportunity to study one subject, but a school 10 miles away offers it to their students. 

 

Might also be a chance to flush out some of the more militant teachers from the island's education system.

 

[TheTeapot]

6 hours ago, 0bserver said:

Just build one all-island Sixth Form Centre in Douglas. 

Based on everything you know about how things go with government projects on the Isle of Man, what exactly is it about this idea that makes you think it would work?

It would take 10 years to build, cost three times as much as the original expensive proposal and end up being unfit for purpose.

[Meoir Shee]

9 hours ago, 0bserver said:

 

Centralise their learning, it's mental how some get denied the opportunity to study one subject, but a school 10 miles away offers it to their students. 

 

It’s mental how some don’t realize schools have been supporting students in doing this for years.

Refer to page 10, collaboration with other schools

 

 

[Derek Flint]

15 hours ago, manxman34 said:

It doesn’t. You do like making pronouncements, don’t you? Having a sixth form in a school helps recruit quality staff: the converse  is also true. Recruitment and retention is in the worst place in living memory and you want to make it worse? The imbalance in numbers in the 2 Douglas high schools is because the DESC ballsed up the legislation around catchment areas, giving themselves no room for manoeuvre. Amend the legislation, direct new Year 7 as needed to equalise numbers - sorted at minimal cost with immediate benefits and problem completely solved in 2 years. 

Do you work in education?

 

[Derek Flint]

This doesn’t necessarily need the building of a dedicated brown field centre. It could go at the College but more likely st Ninians. Agree a suite of subjects based on the last ten years data, and then concentrate your excellence there. Teachers will still teach the whole age range but the numbers then increase from 3’s and 5’s in a class to something meaningful. 

Release of capacity elsewhere improves standards and teacher workload.

[Yibble]

11 hours ago, 0bserver said:

Just build one all-island Sixth Form Centre in Douglas. 

Surely somewhere a bit more central? Let's make Foxdale a centre of educational excellence. This would be an excellent idea for another splendid IoMG project.

[Roger Mexico]

5 hours ago, Derek Flint said:

This doesn’t necessarily need the building of a dedicated brown field centre. It could go at the College but more likely st Ninians. Agree a suite of subjects based on the last ten years data, and then concentrate your excellence there. Teachers will still teach the whole age range but the numbers then increase from 3’s and 5’s in a class to something meaningful. 

Release of capacity elsewhere improves standards and teacher workload.

I'm afraid Derek, like many of the extremely elderly, you have lapsed into the delusion that schools must be exactly the same as they were when you were young.  But as well as exciting new technologies such as computers and pen and ink, rather than a select few staying on for post-16 education, now practically everyone does.  These figures from the UK give 86% going on to an 'educational destination' and other figures I have seen suggest an increase on that in the last few years. 

Some of this will be in subjects at UCM, but most, including 'practical' subjects are taught in the schools.  So there's no real saving in amalgamating Sixth Forms on one site because they are already pretty full.  And as already pointed out, schools make special arrangement for minority subjects already.

There are also the dangers of over-provision.  According to the Census the the peak age for children was 12 with 1025 aged that at the end of last May.  But these kids will already be in Sixth Form before anything can be built and numbers drop off pretty quickly for younger groups.  There were only 657 under 1.  So while there may be problems at the moment, by the time any solution is found it won't be needed.

Edited March 11, 2022 by Roger Mexico
Add Census link

[manxman34]

5 hours ago, Derek Flint said:

Do you work in education?

 

Obvious why you were traffic not detection

[manxman1980]

@Derek Flint out of interest how many provincial town's or areas with a population of 80,000 have their own Police Force and Chief Constable?