A NOVEL initiative started by Okehampton College which has attracted the interest of many other schools, will culminate next week with the college?s first ever graduation ceremony for Year 11 students.
Parents and friends will be invited to the sports hall next Thursday (May 20) at 7pm to watch a total of 215 Year 11 ? those aged 15 to 16-years-old ? students receive a graduation certificate from college principal Mr Chris Powell.
The 22 students who graduated with the highest number of points will also receive special medals to commemorate their achievement.
Year 11 Graduation is an Okehampton College initiative started last September, similar to an American style graduation but with a focus on local issues.
Graduation co-ordinator Nicola Ferguson said the programme was a ?home-grown mechanism? which had proved ?very successful in promoting the various factors that contribute to student success during Year 11.?
She said the original idea for the graduation programme came from educational welfare officer Jane Lake, and a complex system embracing a number of different factors was drawn up last summer.
Miss Ferguson said it was difficult to say how much of the increase in attendance rates among this year?s Year 11 students could be attributed to the graduation programme, but noted there had been a marked improvement.
?Usually, Year 11 attendance is lower than for Years 9 and 10, but that has not been the case this year. Attendance levels are 92% for the school as a whole and it has been just about 91% for Year 11, which is good,? she said.
Miss Ferguson said each student will be given a page for their record of achievement detailing how they scored their points throughout the year.
She said students had been told around Christmas how they were performing, giving an opportunity to mentor those who looking as if they might not graduate.
Miss Ferguson said the students who had the best points score under the system were not necessarily those who excelled academically, but tended to reward ?good all-rounders?. She said the system also meant that vocational education students, some of whom were taking fewer GCSE examinations, were not at a disadvantage and had done just as well as other students.
She said there had been ?a lot of interest? from other schools in Devon considering introducing their own graduation system.
Year 11 students learned at the beginning of this school year that they had to achieve a minimum number of points in various categories in order to gain their graduation certificate. The categories were: attendance rate; effort made in the GCSE subjects; punctuality in handing in coursework; exam entry.
There was also an opportunity to gain points for participation, representation and community input. There was no minimum or upper limit for this category. Students gained points for this by representing the college in: sport, music or drama; attending revision or other clubs; taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh Award or Ten Tors; holding a position of responsibility within the college and having an involvement with an out of school club and many more besides.