What does the provider need to do to improve?
- Improve rapidly the quality of the apprenticeship provision, by:
- ensuring that assessors review the progress that apprentices are making with them and their employers more frequently, setting specific targets for learning and progress within challenging timescales
- providing good quality off-the-job training that reflects the level of the apprenticeship and the skills, roles and responsibilities that apprentices have in their jobs
- developing apprentices’ understanding of how to keep themselves safe from the dangers of extremism and radicalisation, and of British values.
- Improve rapidly the quality of teaching, learning and assessment in GCSE mathematics, by:
- ensuring that teachers plan and teach lessons that enable students to develop and master the specific skills that they are not yet proficient in
- using information on what students have achieved in lessons to plan further learning, checking learning frequently and thoroughly.
- Improve the progress that students, especially the most able, make, by:
- ensuring that teachers assess students’ work promptly after submission and provide them with feedback on their work that identifies clearly what they have done well and what skills, knowledge or understanding they need to develop further
- agreeing specific actions with students that will help them achieve or exceed their target grades.
What does the college need to do to improve further?
- Improve apprenticeship provision through close collaboration between college and subcontractor staff teams so that apprentices’ learning and assessment are carefully planned and learners make consistently good progress. Increase the frequency of assessments where needed and ensure that staff make best use of apprentices’ time in college to help all learners achieve their learning goals as quickly as possible.
- Review and improve the arrangements for the promotion of cultural diversity within the curriculum so that learners are well prepared for life in modern Britain.
- Ensure that the online marking system is fully effective by clarifying the guidance provided to teachers for correcting errors in spelling and grammar on learners’ written assignment work.
- Monitor learners’ progress on the second year of two-year courses to make sure that those at risk of leaving early are supported quickly and effectively.
What does the college need to do to improve further?
- Improve the proportion of students who achieve their qualifications by continuing to develop the effectiveness of initial advice and guidance, to ensure all students are enrolled on a suitable programme of study which fully meets their needs.
- Establish a rigorous target-setting and monitoring process which sets challenging targets for students, taking into account their ability and potential. Regularly review the progress of students and apprentices to ensure they are achieving their targets, and implement improvement actions where students are underperforming. Implement actions to reduce underachievement by particular groups.
- Increase the proportion of good and outstanding lessons by ensuring that feedback from lesson observations focuses on the progress students are making in lessons. Provide teachers with training to help them plan lessons which enable all students to make the progress of which they are capable, both in lessons and in their qualifications.
- Provide further opportunities for all students to improve their English and mathematical skills as part of their study programme. Ensure that all students who do not have GCSE English or mathematics at grade C or above have the opportunity to achieve these when it would be appropriate for them to do so. Develop teachers’ expertise so that teachers can maximise all available opportunities to develop students’ English and mathematical skills in subject lessons.
- Improve the performance of apprentices by ensuring that realistic targets for achievement are agreed and that they receive regular and timely reviews of their progress which clearly inform them of what they have to do to improve prior to the next review. Ensure managers regularly monitor the progress which apprentices are making and take appropriate steps when progress slows.
- Improve the accuracy and effectiveness of self-assessment and quality improvement. Accurately identify the college’s strengths and areas for improvement, setting specific and measurable actions for improvement where required. Ensure that staff complete the actions agreed within challenging timescales to improve the pace of improvement.
What does Berkshire College of Agriculture need to do to improve further?
- Ensure that teachers plan activities in all lessons so that the needs and interests of all students are met to enable them to reach their full potential.
- Improve the quality and consistency of partnerships to secure the involvement of employers in the design, review and evaluation of vocational courses.
- Ensure that the cross-college enrichment programme is appropriate and accessible to all students to enhance students’ experiences at college.
- Ensure a more systematic approach to planning and monitoring the promotion of equality and diversity, to improve the consistency of practice across the college.
Areas for improvement
- inadequate indoor specialist sports accommodation
- insufficient development of links with the sports industry.
Areas for improvement
The college should address
- the continuing inadequate achievement of apprenticeship frameworks
- the continued improvement needed in success rates, especially at level 1
- unsatisfactory provision in sport
- the significant proportion of teaching that fails to meet the needs of individual learners
- the effectiveness of individual progress reviews
- inconsistencies in the promotion of equality and diversity in the curriculum and the stronger compliance needed with race equality legislation
- insufficient rigour in the use of data and the setting of targets to improve performance and raise success rates across all aspects of provision.
Areas for improvement
- Retention and achievement rates on horticulture programmes
- Rate of progress of NVQ assessment on all programmes
- Assessment and internal verification practice
- Target setting and progress monitoring for learners
- Effectiveness of management of work-based learning
Areas for improvement
- Retention and achievement rates on horticulture programmes
- Rate of progress of NVQ assessment on all programmes
- Assessment and internal verification practice
- Target setting and progress monitoring for learners
- Effectiveness of management of work-based learning
What should be improved
- pass rates in some areas
- provision of courses at level 1 and below
- awareness of equality and diversity in staff and students
- achievement for work-based learners
- practical teaching in animal care and equine studies
- arrangements to assure the quality of teaching and learning
- monitoring of performance indicators and targets
- arrangements to teach key skills.
n/a
|
