Information for Teachers
- Conferences - subject specific days led by our own staff here in college, where you have the opportunity to discuss how our students achieve such high results, consider resources and teaching strategies.
- Resources that have been discussed at conferences involving our staff
- Q-project IT resources - IT help sheets and examples of quizzes & other activities
- Staff vacancies
- Our value added and monitoring systems - now adapted and used by over 920 schools and colleges across the country.
If you are looking for subject specific teaching ideas and strategies please start with our Beacon subjects page on our former site or look at our pages on the use of target grades and progress grades with teachers and personal tutors.
Value added and monitoring systems
What is the gc System?
This could be divided into three main areas all of which interlink and support each other.
1) The ethos that everybody is an individual and to be valued.
2) A valued added system which along with a monitoring programme ensures that every student is strongly encouraged to realise their potential.
3) Tutors are on half timetables and have 4 tutor groups. Subject teachers teach 4 A-level groups and focus on their teaching while tutors deal with pastoral problems.
An Overview
The ALPS system is distilled from ideas which have been developed and put into practice over the past sixteen years at Greenhead College, Huddersfield. The effects in the college have been described as 'stunning'. With significant increases in its UCAS average points per student in this time to around 400 each year.
The fundamental principle behind the ideas is that every person is an individual, unique and exceptional, and is to be valued. The results for students and staff have been very substantial in both the formative process and the summative conclusions. What emerges is a highly trained and focused staff working annually with students who quickly become motivated themselves.
The ideas are simple and practical, but putting them into practice says much for the commitment, enthusiasm and motivation of a highly talented staff both teaching and non-teaching. Their own journey through the processes, not without pain at times, has increased their own self-awareness and self-belief, both in how good they are and in what they can accomplish with students.
For students, the processes have allowed real personal growth through raising expectations and self-esteem in the knowledge that they are valued, one and all, and have helped them make realistic maps of progression both in and beyond their time here.
The college rides very high in its sector in Government League Tables. More importantly perhaps, in recent rounds of inspections the college has received outstanding reports. Most recently in 2008 when the college was awarded grade 1 (outstanding) in all five inspection categories.
- Effectiveness of Provision - outstanding: grade 1
- Capacity to Improve - outstanding: grade 1
- Achievement and Standards - outstanding: grade 1
- Quality of Provision - outstanding: grade 1
- Leadership and Management - outstanding: grade 1
- (Equality of Opportunity - outstanding: grade 1)
The Ofsted Inspection Report had this to say -
"The overall effectiveness of Greenhead College is outstanding. 'Every student matters' pervades all aspects of the student experience. Students enjoy their studies and are eager to learn. Pass rates on AS and A-level provision are exceptionally high..... Throughout their time at college students make excellent progress in relation to their prior attainment and a much higher than average proportion of students achieve high grades in their subjects."
A grade 1 for Quality Assurance was awarded in both our FEFC inspections in 1994 and 1998 and confirmed by the 2004 Ofsted report.
The college also uses the system to monitor year-on-year performance taking account of the abilities of each year group as measured by incoming GCSEs. Using this method, it is simple to show for example, that more able students at the college achieve grades here which equal those achieved at the very best of the independent sector, and easily outstrip those of most of our local selective and independent schools.
The system can easily produce the yearned for added-value performance indicator that government, industry and education seeks. The research and development has been thorough and rigorous. Many in post-16 education who have examined the processes we use have recognised a system which has been developed by practising professional teachers rather than by theoretical academics. The system is not just a product - it has process integrated into it. This has led to the raising of expectations and standards of students and staff in many more institutions than this one alone. Many schools and colleges have adopted and modified our systems. Value added Alps reports and staff development may now be arranged through Alkemygold Ltd. run by our former principal Dr Kevin Conway.
