2006: Supporting teaching and learning in colleges and schools

It's been another busy year supporting teaching and learning at pre-university levels, mainly overseeing the implementation of the brand new Edexcel qualification GCE Advanced Level in Media: Communication & Production. I have been Edexcel's Chair of Examiners for the subject since 2001, and we have worked hard each year on the GNVQ and AVCE qualifications, which have been very popular in Further Education colleges in particular, with the total number of candidates reaching several thousand in some examination series. As well as moderating coursework marking to national standards, we set and examined thirteen exam papers each year without a single scandal in the media over mistakes or malpractice - unlike a number of subjects under several of the exam boards - and you know how much certain people in the press like to have a pop at this subject above all others!

The GNVQ and the AVCE are almost finished now, with just a few retakes due in January 2007, but the new GCE looks like becoming another popular qualification as centres begin to offer it to their students - this time many schools are coming on board, as it is easier to resource than the other two. I have been working in my own spare time with two other senior members of the examining team, Philip Holmes and Paul Baylis, to write attractive and accessible textbooks for the separate AS and A2 awards within the qualification, as well as a Teachers' Resource File, and these were published by Heinemann in August. The writing team has been so successful that the original editor, Elaine Tuffery, asked us to also write a textbook for the new BTEC First Certificate and Diploma in Media now being taught in hundreds of schools as an equivalent to upto five GCSEs. This third textbook is now in production, as is an accompanying Assessment & Delivery Resource, with publication due early in the new year.

Also in our spare time, Paul, Phil and I will soon be tackling a textbook for the ever popular BTEC National Diploma early in 2007. It will be written to the latest specification - the third version of this very vocational qualification. I'm pleased to see it is still as popular as ever, having a particluar interest in it, as a member on three separate occasions of writing and editing teams assembled by Edexcel to ensure that it remains relevant and up to date.