URGENT - Review of arrangements for silver awards

[Boyd Roberts]

Review of arrangements for silver awards – the requirement for participants to complete the award at bronze level before starting the silver award.

 

A couple of centres have been in touch about the requirement for silver award participants to have completed the bronze level award programme – over a minimum of six months - before starting the silver level programme,

Two situations have been identified where this is an issue.

1.         When new students join the school in grade 11 or 12, and would like to have the chance to complete the gold award before leaving the school. Under current requirements, with a minimum of six months at each of the three levels, and the requirement to complete bronze before moving to silver, and silver before beginning the gold programme, this would be impossible.

2.         For more mature, and particularly older students who wish to begin the IGC Award programme, and for whom the requirement to complete a full six months at bronze level before beginning silver would be off-putting, and possibly inappropriate. (Those who are associated with the International Award for Young People / Duke of Edinburgh’s Award will know that in this award programme, it is possible for young people to begin the silver award directly, without a requirement to complete the bronze award.)

So there are two questions.

1.         Should we retain the requirement that students have completed the bronze award before starting the silver award? (If we remove this requirement, then we need to reconsider the requirement that silver award participants mentor other Award participants.)

2.         Should we consider the possibility of individual students who would like to proceed to the silver award, being able to complete an accelerated bronze award in, say, three months instead of six months?

Here is my own response:

A distinctive element of the IGC Award is the involvement of participants in many aspects of the operation of the Award itself within centres. At both silver and gold levels, participants are expected to act as mentors for participants at earlier stages on their Award journey. Mentoring others in the programme would seem to require personal first-hand experience of the programme, and for this reason, my personal view is that the requirement for silver level participant to have completed bronze level should remain.

However, there is a case for considering an abbreviated bronze programme, of say, three months, for those, and only those, who are wishing to “fast track” to the silver award.

Please share your thoughts. Let’s discuss.

Please add any comments by JUNE 15^th, so that we can reach a decision soon afterwards.

[Cheryl Osborne]

From my experience this year with a number of silver and a couple of gold students, I think they do need to do some sort of bronze level first. I have students doing silver, who it appears peaked at bronze level. They are struggling to meet the requirements of the silver award and will clearly not be suitable for gold. So, I think it might be OK for some students to do an accelerated bronze program and that they mentor the bronzes when doing silver. It has been helpful to have silver students mentoring the bronzes at Discovery College. The students who are allowed to complete the accelerated program should be somewhat exceptional in terms of their commitment and maturity. Completing silver is no walk in the park (which is good).

I have 2 students doing gold who are clearly living and breathing the principles of IGC in their lives. These students stand out above the rest and would have been fine candidates for completing an accelerated bronze program.

Now that I have been through the process of allowing any bronze student to attempt silver, I will be more selective in future. It has created a lot of work for me trying to support these 'weak' students to complete the requirements for silver when the nature of the award at this level is to show increasing independence and student initiative. Some of my silver students will either need more than 6 months to complete their projects and other requirements or will not achieve the award at all at this level. They have found juggling their curriculum commitments with the award requirements a huge challenge (these students are generally ones who are finding their school work a challenge).

Facilitating the IGC Award has been a bit of a steep learning curve and I would like to make it more robust in the future. It has been interesting to see what other schools have been doing with their students as part of the program.

Cheryl

[Laura Boulton]

I agree with your thoughts above. Although we only do the Bronze level here at AIS Balikpapan, I feel the lessons learnt and the reflection process that students go through at the Bronze level is important. I think the accelerated option is a good compromise for those that need it rather than skipping the Bronze level altogether. 

Laura

[Andrew Baynes]

As a novice to the IGCA, (but experienced in D of E), my instinctive response is to suggest an extended Silver programme for direct entrants (as happens in D of E) - perhaps of 9 or 10 months - including the suggested 'accelerated Bronze' period as a formality, but not recognising this through certification (as it is below the standard required for Bronze). Perhaps this should only be available post-16, in recognition of the difficulty new pupils to a school might have  in completing all 3 levels of the award within a 2-year period of study, whilst also encouraging greater direct involvement - and greater availability hopefully of mentors! - of those of a more senior age. Those then struggling to reach Silver standards could then 'top up' their initial endeavours perhaps and still therefore exit with a Bronze award. However we are VERY new to the award and have no direct experience of pupils  - so please take my comments entirely in that context!