What does the provider need to do to improve further?
- Ensure that more learners make swift progress in improving their skills and achieving their qualifications in English and mathematics, by:
- focusing managers’ and teachers’ actions more effectively on improving the support provided for functional skills
- ensuring that all learners attend their classes in English and mathematics regularly and punctually
- continuing to make improvements to the teaching, learning and assessment of GCSEs and functional skills.
- Make sure that teachers set, monitor and review precise and ambitious targets for learners and apprentices that enable them to make rapid progress, particularly for the most able.
- Reduce the variability in achievement between different groups of apprentices, by monitoring the performance of these apprentices carefully, identifying reasons for non-achievement and taking prompt action to address these.
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
- Improve English and mathematics provision further by ensuring that:
- teachers provide stimulating tasks and activities that challenge their learners and apprentices to accelerate their learning and make good progress
- all teachers mark controlled assessments on GCSE English courses accurately
- teachers who have yet to up-skill their expertise in English and mathematics take up relevant training promptly
- all assessors set challenging targets with apprentices to extend their English and mathematical skills.
- Rectify swiftly all the identified weaknesses in apprenticeship provision.
- Improve the impact of self-assessment at subject level by:
- focusing on the identified strengths and weaknesses in teaching, learning and assessment and plan specific, timely actions to strengthen all teachers’ practice
- focusing on the impact of teaching, learning and assessment on outcomes for learners and apprentices
- comparing performance against published national rates and averages.
What does Harlow College need to do to improve further?
- Ensure that the setting of daily learning targets takes full account of individual learning needs and ability levels so that the targets are sufficiently challenging, specific, precise and individual enough to enable all learners to make good or better progress and achieve to their full potential.
- Ensure managers and governors regularly overview safeguarding and health and safety arrangements. Monitor the rigour of checks on contracted non-teaching staff. Ensure that contracted non-teaching staff receive basic safeguarding awareness training.
- Develop the performance management of staff further through full implementation of the revised appraisal scheme. Ensure the link between lesson observation findings and appraisal is strong and productive in supporting rapid improvement in the quality of teaching and learning.
- Ensure teaching in theory lessons enables learners to actively contribute and participate by using a wider range of teaching techniques that are motivating and engaging and that enhance learners’ enjoyment.
- Extend the promotion of equality and diversity themes in the curriculum beyond where they may naturally occur in subjects. Share the existing best practice in a few areas across subjects to encourage teachers to maximise all promotion opportunities.
- Strengthen the collection and evaluation of data in a small minority of areas, including the impact of the college’s work on development of learners’ wider outcomes and participation in enrichment activities.
Areas for improvement
The college should address:
- low success rates on level 3 courses for learners aged 16-18
- low and declining progress made by learners aged 16-18 on GCE provision, compared with their prior attainment
- low proportion of high grades achieved by learners on GCE provision
- low proportion of good or better teaching and learning
- insufficient integration of the Every Child Matters themes
- insufficient planning to promote equality and diversity
- insufficient training on child protection issues
- inconsistent curriculum management.
Areas for improvement
The college should address:
- Further develop strategies to raise the standard of theory teaching and learning
- Insufficient sharing of good practice across areas
- Further improve the achievement of frameworks within time scales
What should be improved
- the quality of teaching so that there are no dull and uninspiring lessons
- the identification and dissemination of good teaching practice
- the learning environment in some teaching areas
- access to, and use of, information learning technology (ILT)
- achievement in key skills
- the proportion of completed apprenticeship frameworks in work-based learning.
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