Tuesday 7 February 2012

Notice Board

Date SubmittedNotices

Tuesday 25th October 2011Dear Consortium Members,

With effect from 1st November 2011 centres will no longer have to inform AQA of the units they intend to use nor complete an "additional units" form (Appendix J). You should already have received copies of this information and an appendix to be added to your Guidelines and Administrative Procedures file (the purple file from AQA).

You will have received an email update from myself regarding this along with copies of the notifications attached.

As usual, if you have any questions or queries please do not hesitate to ask.

Best wishes
Nickie

Thursday 6th October 2011Partnership Team costings for 2011-12 have now been uploaded to the website. You can find them here:

http://www.partnershipteam.co.uk/cvcminutes/Partnership_Team_Costings.pdf

Monday 26th September 2011Did you know we are now on Twitter?

Follow @PartTeamLancs for all the up-to-date news.

Monday 26th September 2011Please note that AQA are running New Assessor course in Chorley on Thursdya 1st December. Please contact AQA Unit Award Scheme, Harrogate (01423 840015) for further details.

They are also running Unit Writing courses (charge ?91.00) but not in Lancashire. They will be held in Birmingham, Harrogate and London.

Tuesday 21st June 2011Following the popularity and success of our previous drop-in clinic, and knowing how busy you all are at this time in the school year, we have decided to hold another CVC Open Day in lieu of our usual CVC Celebration Event.

The CVC Open Day will be held on 5th July 2011 and the team will be available between 9.00am and 2.00pm. Please feel free to call into our offices (address below) at any point between those times.

We will be here to discuss:
~ AQA Updates
~ itemising and Summary Sheets
~ the new Assessment Form

Also available will be:
~ new units validated in the past 12 months
~ the Training Database and an early booking opportunity for all training in the new academic year
~ the opportunity to leave any minor amends or new units for us to prepare for validation over the summer period ready for use in September.

You do not need to book a time to call in and see us but it would be great if you could show an expression of interest by replying directly to this email or by calling the office on 01772 433311 so we can make sure we have enough chocolate biscuits!

As usual, if you have any queries please give us a call or drop us a line by email.
We look forward to seeing you on the 5th July.


Our next newsletter will be sent out following this event on 6th July.


Monday 20th September 2010
We have dates for our PSE and Preparation For Working Life Seminars

P.S.E. Seminar

18th October 2010
10am - 1pm
Lunch included
?30

Preparation For Working Life Seminar

15th November 2010
10am - 1pm
Lunch included
?30

Please call our office on 01772 433311
for further details and to book your place

Monday 21st June 2010
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
The AQA Unit Award Scheme and the Qualifications and Credit Framework




Q Will all AQA Units be on the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF)?
A. No, QCF qualifications are made up of "units" which are certified independently as well as in combination as a qualification. QCF units tend to be much larger than individual AQA Units and are less specific . AQA Unit Award Scheme Units offer the advantage of being tailor made to suit individual requirements.

Q. What is the purpose of the QCF?
A. The focus has been on the vocational rather than subject qualifications.

Q. Does AQA have any qualifications on the QCF?
A. AQA has offered a Level 1 QCF Award in Personal, Social and Health Education (500/3050/A) since 2008. A number of centres have used this successfully as their Foundation Learning (PSD) provision. It is currently being revised to offer a wider choice of units and to allow for qualifications of two sizes: Award and Certificate, under the revised title of Personal and Social Education (PSE). It is intended to offer the revised QCF qualifications from September 2010.

Q. What is the point in doing AQA Units?
A. Centres can use free standing AQA Units to give credit for achievements which are too specific to be recognised by a qualification or to motivate students to progress to other stages, e.g. Entry Level and QCF qualifications. Units can also be used to record prior achievement so that students can be fast tracked against a QCF qualification. Some of the learning may be transferable in the future but it will be dependent on the learning outcomes and if they match learning outcomes on the qualifications on the QCF. UAS Units can also be used to recognise specific achievement as a student progresses towards achieving the new QCF qualifications in Personal Progress.

Useful links
www.partnershipteam.co.uk
http://web.aqa.org.uk/qual/elc/prepwork.php


Information relating to Foundation Learning/NQF/QCF/Functional Skills
www.education.gov.uk/
www.ofqual.gov.uk
www.qcda.gov.uk
www.excellencegateway.org.uk
www.accreditationqualifications.org.uk


Monday 29th March 2010SOCIAL NETWORKING

PARTNERSHIP TEAM Ltd STEP INTO THE 21st CENTURY

Follow us on Twitter
@PartTeamLancs
http://twitter.com/PartTeamLancs

for all the up-to-date news

Thursday 25th February 2010IMPORTANT NOTICE:

If your centre has to change their address you should send notification on HEADED PAPER to:

National Centre Number Register
OCR Centre Services
Cambridge
CB1 2EU


and they will notify AQA on your behalf. You will receive confirmation from AQA in due course.

Here at Partnership Team we would ask, respectivley, to be kept in the loop and for you to email us notice of any changes of address to the usual email address (nickie@partnershipteam.co.uk)

Wednesday 17th February 2010HALF TERM UPDATES:

Please note that the next CVC meeting will be on 5th May 2010 and will be our annual Celebration Event. More details to follow.

Also our bi-annual invoicing periods have altered by approximately two weeks. You will receive two invoices - one in March and one in September for the following periods:
March: Invoice to cover September to February
September: Invoice to cover March to August


Finally, please remember to check the appropriate pages of the website for new training dates and for the date of the next Preparation For Working Life Seminar


Monday 18th January 2010We now have a conveniently located, fully accessible training room available for hire for small conferences, training sessions and meetings.

Our training room can comfortably hold between 12 and 15 delegates and seating and tables are provided.

Please see the downloadable pdf (ROOM HIRE ADVERT) or contact us for more details and prices.


Tuesday 12th January 2010More feedback from a school in Lancashire who have been using the AQA Unit Award Scheme in their Withdrawal Unit:

The units are tailored to individual students' needs and are so flexible and easy to teach. They give a solid platform to allow staff to be creative
Wendy Storrie
Darwen Aldridge Community Academhy

Tuesday 24th November 2009The next Consortium Validation Committee (CVC) meeting
will be held on the following dates:

Thursday 10th December 2pm
Friday 11th December 10am
in our new training suite - Room 1 of Leyland House
(You only need to attend one of these meetings)

Please could you contact us either by replying directly to this email or by phoning the office on the number below to confirm your attendance on the most appropriate date. As usual, the meeting is open to all members of the Lancashire Consortium and we will cover updates from AQA, Harrogate and Partnership Team. This is also your chance to raise any queries and to bring any new units to be considered.

There is no charge for this meeting.

Wednesday 23rd September 2009We've recently had a lovely email from Liz Whittle at St Thomas' Centre in Blackburn detailing the success of the AQA Unit Award Scheme in their centre:

Just to say thanks to the staff at the Partnership Team for all your help in enabling our students to continue to gain success through the AQA Unit Award Scheme. We have underpinned the Certificate in Preparation for Working Life course (L1 & L2) and the GCSE Religious Studies course with AQA Units. The units cover all the syllabus content so, as well as motivating students thorugh gaining the individual certificates, they are also left with targetted revision notes when the get their assessed work back. The units are used in other subject areas too but these two areas in particular have seen improvements in GCSE successes which are clearly down to the use of the Units.

Thursday 17th September 2009AQA UNIT AWARD SCHEME : APPROPRIATE USE

All Centre Co-ordinators will have recieved a letter from Graham Kendall, Senior Subject Manager of the Unit Award Scheme, following the recent adverse publicity in the press to bring to your attention the appropriate use of the scheme within your centre.

If you have any questions regarding this matter please do not hestate to contact us.

Thursday 17th September 2009NEW UNITS & MINOR AMENDS

All Centre Co-ordinators will have recently received instructions from AQA regarding sumbitting units (new or minor amends) for validation via a web link.

If you are writing a new unit or want to submit a minor amend please continue to send these to us at Partnership Team (as in the past) for us to cast a professional eye over and upload on your behalf.

You may send units either by email, post or bring them to the next CVC meeting. All email addresses and our office address are on the "Contact Us" page of the website.

Thursday 17th September 2009TRAINING - UNIT WRITING

During the year, AQA hold a number of training session at various venues around the country. Their Unit Writing course costs ?80.00 per delegate.

As part of your annual subscription to Partnership Team, ALL training sessions (including Unit Writing) held by us are free and we can usually accommodate more than one place per centre.

Our next Unit Writing training session is booked for 29th September 2009. Please contact us if you would like to book yourself or a colleague on the course.

Wednesday 16th September 2009TRAINING SESSIONS

Dates for all training sessions are now available via the "Training Courses" link in the navigation bar on the left hand side of the screen (Members Section).

Please contact the office on 01772 433311 to book a place for yourself or a colleague.

Many thanks

Tuesday 1st September 2009Dear Colleague,

Please may we remind you that your website access and password should not be given out to any other centre or organisation. We have recently received a large number of requests for Summary Sheets and Checklists from agencies who do not directly pay a subscription to us.

If you are in partnership with other agencies please feel free to ?spread the word? but we stress that we cannot provide administrative support to external parties with whom we have no service level agreement.

We appreciate your co-operation with this matter. As usual, if you have any questions or queries please do not hesitate to contact us.


Tuesday 1st September 2009NEW CENTRES

When your first assessment is complete you must submit your Unit Advice Form to AQA, Harrogate. This process will trigger the nomination of your external assessor. Once you have the contact details for your external assessor you should make contact and arrange for their visit to your centre.

PLEASE DO NOT SEND YOUR ASSESSMENT TO AQA, HARROGATE

After the external assessor has visited your centre he will take the assessment paperwork with him, write his report and forward everything to AQA, Harrogate. Once AQA have registered the students they will forward the assessment to Partnership Team for the certification process.

We would like to advise you that AQA have a set charge for the external assessor to come out and visit your centre. This charge is not regulated by Partnership Team Ltd.

If you require a complimentary "health check" on your first assessment please contact our offices to arrange a meeting.


Thursday 23rd April 2009Current newsletters, the training database and general information will be uploaded to the website on a regular basis for reference purposes.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any queries regarding the information provided by Partnership Team Ltd.