What does the provider need to do to improve?
- Through staff training, the work of advanced practitioners, and the better sharing of good practice, ensure that a higher proportion of lessons are more interesting, and include a proper emphasis on improving students’ skills in the use of English during lessons and in their written work.
- Develop teachers’ understanding of how to challenge the more able students to achieve high grades and exceed the grades expected of them, for example through additional activities during lessons, and setting targets in tutorials related to the achievement of high grades.
- Provide more work experience across a wider range of vocational subjects and ensure all students adhere to professional standards of conduct to prepare them for future work.
- Identify more clearly the college-wide areas of under performance, and draft improvement plans so that actions at all levels are specific, with clear success measures that relate to student performance.
- Monitor the performance of different groups of students more closely throughout the year, in order to implement actions more quickly to ensure that all students perform at an equally high level.
What does Aylesbury College need to do to improve further?
- Raise attainment by ensuring that teachers probe learners’ understanding more deeply and by giving learners more time to explain their ideas.
- Improve the quality of learning in mathematics by ensuring that teachers always check learning and do not move on too fast when some learners are still unsure.
- Engage and interest the learners, especially in mathematics, by building on best practice in providing relevant and engaging learning materials on the virtual learning environment.
- Raise attainments of learners by a more rigorous focus on learning outcomes in the judgements emerging from the lesson observation scheme.
What does Aylesbury College need to do to improve further?
- Support teachers to develop stimulating and challenging lessons and consistently good teaching across the college, so that all students are able to achieve their full potential. Ensure that the lesson observation scheme focuses more explicitly on how teaching makes an impact on students’ learning and progress in lessons.
- Improve the quality and consistency of learning targets and progress monitoring for students across the college, ensuring that these are sufficiently clear and precise to help students know how to improve and achieve higher grades.
- Share best practice in teaching and learning, progress tracking and in rigorous, critical self-assessment across the college to accelerate progress in those areas where students’ outcomes remain below average.
- Raise standards in science and mathematics by ensuring that teachers plan appropriately challenging activities, provide sufficiently detailed feedback and monitor progress closely to ensure that all students meet their full potential.
- Improve the quality of students’ work in art and design courses through ensuring students develop good observational drawing skills and first-hand research, and know how to develop their ideas and imagery in response to thematic projects.
Areas for improvement
- Low success rates on most full-time courses in 2006/07
- Poor provision of information and learning technology, and industry related software, in travel and tourism
- Insufficient industry specific courses in sport, and travel and tourism
- Insufficient challenge in lessons.
Areas for improvement
The college should address:
- low retention rates for learners aged 16 to 18 at levels 2 and 3
- the need to measure learners’ progress from their level of attainment on entry
- unreliable data and its use to measure and improve performance
- low key skills achievements
- lack of challenge for more able learners
- unsatisfactory initial assessment for adults
- poor management and monitoring of the tutorial process.
What should be improved
- retention rates on many courses
- pass rates on many advanced subsidiary-level (AS-level) and general certificate of education advanced-level (GCE A-level) courses, some vocational qualifications, key skills qualifications and short courses
- quality of teaching and learning in many curriculum areas
- monitoring and reviews of students' progress
- support for newly appointed teachers
- implementation of quality assurance procedures
- effectiveness of staff appraisal and assessment of teaching quality
- course reviews and identification of actions for improvement
- monitoring the implementation and the effectiveness of action plans
- rigour of self-assessment
- curriculum management in some areas
- lines of accountability for managers at all levels.
What should be improved
- low pass rates on many courses and low completion of modern apprentice frameworks
- consistent application of many of the recently introduced policies, procedures and operational systems across the college including students' attendance and punctuality
- quality of teaching and learning in some curriculum areas
- implementation of key skills across all provision
- target setting.
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