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Entry Level Certificate
Organisational issues
Important steps and decisions to take prior to introducing the course are:
- Funding for INSET prior to the introduction of the entry level course is to be recommended so that teachers are familiar with the requirements of the course and the types of assessment the students will need to undertake.
- the opportunity in training days to review schemes of work, resources and teaching and learning practices.
- staffing – choosing the correct staff who will embrace the new initiative is essential. With an Entry Level certificate course it is important that members of staff are well organised and can encourage the students to keep neat and organised portfolios of work.
Preparing for the assessments
The reading and writing tasks are set by the Board. It is important to make sure the right ones are used (with some awarding bodies they do change every year). Using past examples can be excellent practice together with the Listening and Speaking examples suggested on the website (AQA) (easily adaptable for French/German/Spanish).
When completing continuous assessment tasks the availabliity of ICT makes it more manageable for students to sit a task when they are ready to do so, enabling others to be engaged in practising another skill.
A good model to follow may be to undertake the assessments in the following order: Reading, then Listening, Speaking and finally Writing, as the skills build on each other.
Administration
Each awarding body produces guidance documents for teachers on their own administrative procedures. Teachers need to be sure that they are familiar with the paperwork which needs to be completed for the specific Entry Level course being delivered and that they are aware of key dates for work to be submitted.
A suggestion made by Ringwood School who follow an AQA Entry Level course is as follows:
'You are advised to keep up the paperwork as you go along, one file per student, recording their achievements per Unit. The group have to complete 4 separate units (one per General Area). We tend to complete 6 or 7 allowing for absence and ensuring that the students are able to put forward their very best work.
3 Levels are possible, students can mix and match within Units. Aim high: there is no point in letting students believe they can only achieve a Level 1. They can drop a level on certain tasks and still achieve the number of points required for Level 3.'
Parental concerns
Parents may be concerned if their child is following an Entry Level course and not a GCSE in a foreign language. Teachers may need to be aware of this issue and be prepared to explain to parents that the course is more appropriate for their son/daughter as it offers ongoing assessment at a basic level in line with their abilities. Students who have followed an Entry Level course can progress to a GCSE or other level 1 or level 2 course.
Performance points
It is important to note that the peformance points for an Entry Level certificate will reflect the level of difficulty of the qualification and will not be comparable with a GCSE language qualification. For more details about performance points for Entry level courses consult the National Database of accredited qualifications or the Post-14 qualfications spreadsheet from the our website.
