What is the NCLT Foundation Award?
The NCLT Foundation Award is a flexible award that provides challenge, rigour and commitment through participation with New College Bradford. It exemplifies the New Collaborative Learning Trusts core value of Social Mobility and the 5 C’s: Candour, Challenge, Collaboration, Commitment and Care. Furthermore it develops employability skills or soft skills such as communication and teamwork, resulting in participants growing in confidence and resilience.
The primary objective of the NCLT Foundation Award is to collaborate with secondary education providers across Bradford, utilising NCB facilities and intellectual capital, to promote aspirant attitudes, enrichment opportunities and enhanced levels of cultural capital across Year 9 and Year 10 cohorts. Year 9 and 10 students engaging with the programme will be afforded the opportunity to evidence excellence in the following areas: Personal Development; Community Service; Academic/Vocational Study and Independent Learning.
Introduction to the NCLT Foundation Award
Menu of activities / workshops
Maths – Problem-solving masterclass for top set students.
Computer Science – Programming challenges workshop. No prior knowledge/experience of programming required – just an interest and a willingness to learn!
Games Design – Games design workshop here at NCB so you can use our state-of-the-art gaming PCs.
Music Performance – Performance and workshops lead by 6th form Music students including voice, guitar, drums, keyboards, brass.
Sound Engineering – Record yourself or a band in our live room and music studio. Help setup the equipment and learn how to use Logic Pro X. If there’s time you could create your very own mix.
Music A-Level – Come ready to perform and have an introductory workshop on genres from Classical Music through to Rock and Pop from 1950 to present day.
Dance / Drama – Come along and be inspired by our students and take part in workshops that explore developing key skills and techniques for performance in acting and/or dance as well as focusing on group performance ensemble skills within a supportive fun and engaging environment.
Sport – Improve collaboration, generate ideas, solve problems and build team spirit with our high-energy Sport workshops.
What does it involve?
Participants are able to access 3 different levels across 4 areas where they will evidence participation, engagement and achievement. Bronze, Silver and Gold. The 4 areas are:
| NCLT Foundation Award Area | Example Activity |
| Personal Development | Whilst there are many ways this could be recognised an example is students taking part in a Public Speaking Competition or a performance showcase or talent show at their current school or at New College Bradford. Personal development links with the Arts Award when students develop communication, leadership skills and independent learning links when they research careers and opportunities and arts organisations. |
| Community Service /Volunteering | NCB Student Executive and / or Performing Arts students to work with Year 9 and 10 students in a community project (for example speed awareness / sustainability / keeping Bradford litter free / promoting cultural cohesion and health and well being through performance. Similarly this can be evidenced having completed the Volunteering section from the Duke of Edinburgh Award. |
| Independent Learning and skill development | Year 9 and 10 students create an Extended Independent Learning project or develop a skill that reflects a topic or activity of personal interest and can be in a format of their choice. This could be an essay on Sir Titus Salt, a collage of Hockney, a rap or poem outlining immigration to Bradford over the last century, a musical or drama performance with evidence to support skill development, or achievement in Sports Leaders with details of what activities were undertaken and what skills were developed. The work and progress can be showcased on the NCB website / this Blog and Open events highlighting community engagement and the journey that a student takes towards completion of their project or final goal. Again this can be evidenced through having completed the Skills development section from the Duke of Edinburgh Award or Arts Award. |
| Academic/Vocational Study | Predominantly enrichment activities and opportunities at New College Bradford or involving New College Bradford staff and students at centres. Activities that supplement the cultural capital of young people. Examples are French and Spanish Masterclasses; Music technology;Dance, lighting and theatre design; STEM; Contributing to Performing Arts and Music showcases, How we learn, metacognition and preparing for GCSE exams; Sports including representing their school at the NCLT Foundation Olympics. Again this can be evidenced through having completed the Skills development section from the Duke of Edinburgh Award or contributed to the arts activities as part of the Arts Award. |
Additional Evidence for the NCLT Foundation Award
Evidence could come from:
NCLT foundation award update
- Sports Leader Qualification certificate.
- Leadership Qualification certificate.
- Thank you for the letters you have received.
- Certificates from training you have attended.
- Photos of activities you have taken part in.
- Assessors’ reports (one of these is essential for each section to be completed).
Award Criteria
Bronze Award
Participation in one area that can be assessed or approved by your school or educational setting.
Silver Award
Participation in 2 areas from Personal Development, Community Service / Volunteering, Independent Learning and skill development, Academic / Vocational Study. 1 area will involve collaboration with New College Bradford. This could be a subject specific workshop for example with Maths or PE ( Academic / Vocational Study) or contributing to a showcase performance at College (Personal development).
Gold Award
Participation in 3 or more areas from Personal Development, Community Service / Volunteering, Independent Learning and skill development, Academic / Vocational Study. At least 2 areas will involve collaboration with New College Bradford. This could be a subject specific workshop, for example with Maths or PE ( Academic / Vocational Study) and contributing to a showcase performance at College (Personal development).
Students would receive enrichment specific awards, for example, public speaking trophy, alongside NCLT Foundation Award Certificates. These would evidence participation, engagement and achievement.
For those who then decide to apply to NCB at the end of Year 11, a Contextual Offer will be made of a reduced average GCSE Point Score threshold based upon the level of their participation in the Silver and Gold Award. For engagement in specific subjects, for example Music Technology, a subject specific Contextual Offer may also be considered.
Timescales and evidence
The length of time given is 5 months and this is to allow adequate progress towards completion of the Gold Award.
Keydates:
Centre registration – Friday 13th January 2023
Assessment window is the start of the 22-23 academic session and will close on Friday 5th May 2023 Celebration and Awards event at New College Bradford for all Silver and Gold participants late June / early July 2023 TBC
Note: The assessment window has been designed to allow maximum opportunity for learners to gather evidence through the 22-23 academic session.
To the Assessor
Thank you for assessing this participant in this part of the NCLT Foundation Award. As a centre assessor the only assessment that needs to take place is the completion of 1 area by the participant external to NCB for all levels of the award. You will receive a centre form near the end of the assessment window asking you to provide some details about what area the participants have engaged in and what evidence there is to support this. For the Silver and Gold Award students participation will also be collated at NCB.
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