What does the provider need to do to improve?
- Further improve teaching and learning so that all students make good progress and achieve to their potential by:
- increasing the proportion of outstanding lessons by ensuring that internal lesson observation systems identify the precise characteristics of the very best teaching and learning, and building upon current strategies to share best practice
- ensuring all lessons have sufficient stretch and challenge to meet the needs of all students, including the most able, so they can accelerate their progress
- actively promote equality and diversity in lessons particularly by using naturally occurring opportunities to develop students’ wider understanding of issues.
- Tackle underperformance on a few weaker courses by:
- improving the percentage of higher grades at GCE AS/A
- level improving pass rates on a few GCE AS-level courses
- developing a comprehensive and systematic approach to improve students’ mathematical skills through the curriculum on all courses
- making better use of value-added data to identify courses where students’ progress is less than good, and by reviewing all aspects of the teaching, learning and assessment in those courses identifying precisely what needs to be improved
- increasing the proportion of students achieving grades A* to C at GCSE level in English and mathematics.
- Ensure quality assurance systems are applied consistently in all subject areas to tackle underperformance and to enable high-quality delivery across all college provision. By doing so ensure that all staff recognise and value the contribution they make to students’ success and effective learning.
What does Bolton Sixth Form College need to do to improve further?
- Improve success rates which are below national rates, particularly those on AS courses and in science, by thoroughly embedding improvement strategies in all areas.
- Further improve the progress students are making, with a focus on those areas currently underperforming, by ensuring that rigorous student monitoring and intervention strategies, such as the attendance strategy, are applied consistently across all subjects.
- Develop a structured support programme, for pre-entry and induction, in order to support students to develop the skills needed to be successful in their programmes, including a strong focus on developing language and literacy skills.
- Further develop business and employer links, including those within subject areas, to help develop students’ understanding of the world of work and the integration of employers’ views into planning and development.
- Ensure that departmental self-assessment leads to critical evaluation of provision and subsequent improvement plans, with sharply focused actions which are rigorously monitored.
Areas for improvement
The college should address:
- consistency of standards on some level 3 vocational courses
- the use of ILT in teaching and learning
- leadership and management of the curriculum at middle management level
- poor quality of some accommodation.
What should be improved
- the effectiveness of teaching and learning for students of different ability
- the provision for additional learning support
- collaboration with industry for vocational courses
- library resources for several areas of learning
- systematic assessment by governors of their own performance
- access to resources for those with restricted mobility in a few areas
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