{"id":6640,"date":"2016-04-18T06:43:21","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T06:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6640"},"modified":"2016-04-18T06:43:21","modified_gmt":"2016-04-18T06:43:21","slug":"bronze-and-a-lot-of-silver-and-gold-has-clotc-overstepped-the-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2016\/04\/18\/bronze-and-a-lot-of-silver-and-gold-has-clotc-overstepped-the-mark\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronze and a lot of Silver and Gold \u2013 has CLOtC overstepped the Mark?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There was a nice <a href=\"http:\/\/naee.org.uk\/learning-outside-the-classroom-mark\/\">blog<\/a> on the NAEE website last week about the\u00a0Learning Outside the Classroom [LOtC] Mark. \u00a0This is a UK\u00a0national accreditation for schools which, NAEE says:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\"<em>recognises existing provision and also assists schools to develop LOtC further<\/em>.\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Schools can apply for the\u00a0Mark at Bronze, Silver or Gold level. \u00a0The NAEE post goes onto suggest a number of (to me) sensible protocols that might govern such a scheme. \u00a0These are that such schemes should ...<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[i] get progressively much more difficult as you go from bronze to silver to gold, and that it should be really hard to get gold;<\/p>\n<p>[ii] that all awards should be time-limited;<\/p>\n<p>[iii] that the top awards should be dependent on accreditation visits by trained judges; and<\/p>\n<p>[iv] that the criteria for awards should be reviewed regularly with the aid of\u00a0an independent expert group.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Clearly, CLOtC has put a lot of thought into all this, as its guidance <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lotc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/LOtC-Mark-Handout-2015.pdf\">book<\/a> shows, and as you read it, it shows that a number of (but not all) the\u00a0protocols identified by NAEE were in their mind as they thought the Mark through. \u00a0The criteria (in 6 sections) are certainly very detailed, and there is also progression in each of the sections as you go from bronze to silver to gold.<\/p>\n<p>As I read it in detail, I had two thoughts:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>there is little in it that demands evidence of learning specific to LOtC<\/li>\n<li>it seems relatively easy to get silver and gold<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Why do I say this? \u00a0Well, with [1], at Gold level, the criteria for measuring impact are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>In addition to evaluating academic progress, the organisation has procedures in place to monitor less tangible outcomes, e.g. behaviour, level of engagement and confidence. <\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Records are kept of improvements in all areas and these are communicated to parents and governors, both as statistics and as individual reports\/case studies <\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Each child has a personal LOtC development plan which is used in evaluating the success of the activities he\/she has been involved in <\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These seem to be\u00a0about \"procedures\", \"records\" and \"plans\". \u00a0They are not about actual impact and learning.<\/p>\n<p>With [2], although it's early days, a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lotc.org.uk\/lotc-accreditations\/lotc-mark\/lotc-mark-accredited-schools\/\">map<\/a> of successful schools shows the following numbers of awards:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Bronze \u2013 54<\/p>\n<p>Silver \u2013 28<\/p>\n<p>Gold \u2013 15<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is a very high proportion of silver and gold. \u00a0If these\u00a0are too easy to get, they will hardly\u00a0be worth having.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There was a nice blog on the NAEE website last week about the\u00a0Learning Outside the Classroom [LOtC] Mark. \u00a0This is a UK\u00a0national accreditation for schools which, NAEE says: \"recognises existing provision and also assists schools to develop LOtC further.\" Schools...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6640\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}