There's a lot going on at the moment for anyone involved in secondary ICT.  Obviously there is the ICT diploma which is starting imminently.  Then there is also Functional Skills - English, Maths and ICT.  These will be a component of all diplomas and any partnership offering any diploma will be required to delivery the ICT section.  We are also faced with the new National Curriculum and its implications at KS3. 

So ICT will continue to feature highly in High School provision and this puts ICT teachers in a strong position for the future.  I am very interested in all the new developments and eager to be involved.  However, at times it is feeling a little like swimming through treacle with so much new information to absorb, disseminate and ultimately use in practise.  This fast paced development will provide many opportunities for teachers who get involved and are open to new ideas and ways of working.

I have just returned home from Diploma Training for the Open Opportunity partnership in Norwich.  Diplomas appear to be the biggest shake-up that education has seen for many years.  There is of course the concern that this is just the Governments latest initiative and I am sure that those who are much more experienced teachers than me will feel this more keenly. 

However, I feel (maybe naively ) that the huge investment in these new courses will mean that they have to work.  And, probably more importantly, they appear to offer a real alternative to the current model of education our young people receive.  They will be complicated to deliver at first because they are so different to what we are used to.  But with the will and a positive approach they have the potential to give students a very good experience and some real skills to take out into the workplace.  I think they have the potential to address the problem of disaffection that some students are suffering from.

One concern thrown up today was how they would sit alongside a traditional timetable for those students not following a diploma route.  Obviously the devil is in the detail - but I don't believe this is something we as teachers have to worry about - unless of course we also have a timetabling role.  There seems to be a lot of finance available to make this work.  Another concern was how level 3 diplomas would sit alongside A Levels for university applications - at the moment there is no clear answer to this and this is something that needs to be clarified before we can confidently offer this route to all our students at post 16.

One huge benefit is the chance to work collaboratively with our colleagues at colleges.  It will give us the opportunity to share good practise and we can all learn from each other about the different delivery approaches we use to engage students.

Overall - I think diplomas offer us and our students many opportunities which we should not allow to pass us by.  Let's hope they deliver all that they promise.