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Travel and Tourism

    Mr wootten

Vision of the BTEC Level 3 National Extended Certificate in Travel and Tourism

The BTEC Level 3 National Extended Certificate is offered in the Business Studies Department. Just like all the other subjects offered in the Business Studies Department, the Travel & Tourism curriculum is designed to inspire, motivate, build resilience and engage our students to learn and understand the stimulating but complex World of the travel and tourism industry.  The subject is currently delivered at only Key Stage 5.

Travel & Tourism Curriculum

The travel and tourism industry is recorded to be one of the fastest growing industries in the UK. The value of tourism to the UK economy is approximated to be in excess of £120 billion. The sector employs around 3.1. million people. With the strategic location of Gatwick Airport in the local area, our students have developed a natural curiosity and interest to take up employment in the Travel and Tourism industry. The curriculum has therefore been designed not only to support the school’s ethos and objectives to provide a balanced but broad curriculum that is inclusive and accessible by all different groups of students, to help reach their potential but also to help students experience and understand the subject in such a way that it fosters their desire of carving a career through a challenging academic program that is enriched with real world case studies and hands-on experience.

The Intent

The BTEC Level 3 National Extended Certificate in Travel and Tourism aims to provide a broad educational base for further training, education and employment within the travel sector. The vocational context of the qualification provides our students with realistic work-based scenarios and projects. The BTEC National Extended Certificate qualification is equivalent to one A-level. 

It is our intention to prepare the young people in our care to be lifelong learners, responsible world citizens and positive contributors to their society. This is why when planning the curriculum, we have considered the wide social and economic experiences of our students. We already know that our students are keen to work in the travel and tourism industry due to Gatwick Airport situated in the local are; therefore, the curriculum is inclusive and accessible for the students and supports them in realising their full potential by:

  • Developing transferable skills to support progression to the next stage of education and for a successful adult and working life in the travel & tourism industry
  • Have knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and the natural and human environment
  • Enabling them to be independent, ambitious and confident learners who are fully engaged with their learning and development
  • Develop an understanding of the UK Travel and Tourism sector and its importance to the UK economy
  • Develop knowledge about the industries, and key organisations, within the Travel and Tourism sector, their roles and interrelationships
  • Gain a broad understanding and knowledge of vocational sectors within the industry  
  • Develop investigative skills of areas of specific interest in relation to travel and tourism business development

The courses on offer enable the students to have a clear and uninterrupted pathway allowing a variety of different progression routes into further education and apprenticeships. Long term and medium-term planning are in place for the course and shows progression as they are interleaved with other courses such as the BTEC Level 3 National Extended Certificate qualification.

Implementation

Students are taught based on the Programme of Learning that has been designed to incorporate the skills and qualities that have been highlighted earlier. Teachers are well-equipped with needed resources to support the learning of all the student.

Teachers engage in the whole-school professional learning programmes that help to sharpen their skills and ability to inspire the student to be successful in their external exams or their controlled/coursework.

As part of the whole-school monitoring and feedback, the teachers assess according to the school policy on marking and feedback. Students are also given the opportunity to correct their mistakes or misconceptions as may be required.

Teachers use direct instructions to construct or deconstruct modelled answers so that students gain confidence when developing skills in answering the long essay questions. The various types of homework, the topic activity booklets and revision workbooks to have helped to build the needed depth and challenge required at either Key Stage 4 or 5. Teams also have a number of teacher resources as well as the ‘Shadow Curriculum’ which students could fall back on during times when they may be absent from school for one reason or the other.

Teachers also use a range of teaching and learning strategies such as the PAR Model (Present, Apply and Review), Direct Teaching and the Bloom’s Taxonomy that allows for the learning objectives to mirror the assessment criteria. Grade boundaries are used extensively therefore students are aware of their target grades and or progress as well as the steps they need to take in order to make the necessary progress required.

Recently, teachers have introduced metacognition and retrieval strategies as well as Flip Learning to enable each student build their confidence to attempt and answer the higher marks in the exam and coursework.

Impact

The impact would be judged based on the quality of the curriculum. The quality of the curriculum will arise from:

  • Use tracking to encourage and motivate each student to achieve the maximum marks in the coursework
  • Use tracking to identify a SWOT analysis for each student to help them to prepare well for the external exam
  • Using appropriate scaffolding techniques to enable students in the SEND and disadvantaged groups to make the needed progress
  • Incorporate exam techniques and understanding of the command words in every lesson
  •  High levels of achievement in the results of the external examinations and coursework
  • Students are confident to choose Travel & Tourism in their next stage of education, employment or training 

Key Stage 5 Overview