CHILDCARE

CURRICULUM DESIGN

At Cranbury College, we offer a vocational childcare course in both KS3 and KS4. This allows our students to gain essential life skills as well as pursuing a career in this area if they wish. This qualification is designed to stimulate interest and encourage the learners’ understanding of the skills and knowledge needed to care for young children. It builds on the knowledge covered in Entry Level (3) Award/Certificate in Caring for Child / Children. In addition, the qualification allows flexibility in its offering with a mix of vocational and personal and social development (PSD) units.

It is aimed at a range of learners, including young people needing to develop life skills as well as those who are thinking of working in childcare.

Childcare Implementation

Throughout students’ course of study with us at Cranbury College, we are committed to ensuring all students gain key skills. To ensure that our curriculum meets the needs of students, we have allocated dedicated time within our curriculum for skills lessons as well as the study of key content required for Childcare qualifications. We have also ensured that we have chosen units in KS3 that are embedded within the KS4 curriculum, ensuring all students have the opportunity to access the highest level of qualification, and leave Cranbury College with the qualifications and skills they need to pursue the next chapter in their lives.

KEY STAGE 3 

The design of the caring for children curriculum at KS3 is to give learners the basic knowledge and understanding of a variety of topics within the qualification. The focus is on giving them full exposure to the breadth of childcare topics so they can make an informed choice when they choose their options. By the end of KS3 we expect all learners to have successfully completed the six chosen units to enable them to have a broad experience of the variety of childcare options available. 

Assessment

In KS3, we complete end of module internally assessed assessments, as students are not registered on the course at this point. The intention behind this is to offer the experience of childcare and mimic some of the assessment process.

KEY STAGE 4  

At KS4, for learners that join us in Y11 we have chosen 3 units that amount to the needed credits to gain the Level 1 Award. For those who join us in Y10, there is an opportunity to gain the Level 1 Certificate by completing a higher number of credits. If a student joins us with previous experience of childcare courses, there is the option to complete the Level 1 Diploma in Caring for Children. There is also the possibility of work experience for our KS4 learners, to enable them to develop their key skills in this area.

Assessment

In KS4, there are up to 4 externally assessed pieces of coursework for students to complete. These are moderated externally as well. Students receive their grades in the summer exam release date. The grading system is laid out as “achieved” or “not achieved”.

Progression

The initial Award has natural progression into the Certificate, and the Certificate into the Diploma. The units taken in each of these can count as credits towards the next level of qualification – this encourages students to progress to a higher level.