What does the provider need to do to improve further?
- Sustain and continue the strategies that have led to the improvements made in teaching and learning over the last three years so as to eradicate the remaining small proportion of weaker teaching. Ensure that:
- all students are questioned more skilfully so that they are stretched and challenged in their learning
- on all courses, students are given work that is sufficiently demanding both in lessons and for independent study.
- Increase students’ attainment and progress in a small minority of subjects where these are still low. Ensure that maximum use of value added data is made to identify all courses where students are underperforming, and then:
- review all aspects of teaching, learning and assessment on those courses to identify what is needed to improve
- continue to increase the proportion of higher grades so that they exceed the national average.
- Improve attendance on intermediate courses through the continued and accelerated use of present strategies.
- Ensure that all managers have clarity and sharpness in understanding the root causes of underperformance so that improvement strategies have universal impact across all courses on the quality and improvement of teaching and learning and students’ outcomes.
What does the college need to do to improve further?
- Raise success rates and improve learners’ rates of progress on underperforming courses by strengthening further the identification and sharing of good practice in teaching, learning and assessment. Ensure all teachers pay close attention to how individuals learn most effectively, and that they use this information to plan activities to stretch and challenge all learners. Ensure all teachers understand the importance of individual progress measures as well as course success rates.
- Raise the profile of English and mathematics across the whole college and place a much stronger emphasis on the development of learners’ English and mathematical competencies. As a matter of priority, increase the proportion of learners who gain A* to C grades in GCSE English and mathematics.
- Draw together more effectively the different strands of quality assurance and strengthen the effectiveness of weaker aspects. In particular, ensure that the appraisal system holds individual staff to account for the performance of learners on their courses and that they set challenging targets for learners’ progress.
- Develop further the system for monitoring the quality of teaching and learning to ensure that targeted staff development leads to sustained improvements in the quality of lessons delivered.
What does John Leggott College need to do to improve further?
- Reverse the declining trends in success rates by improving the analysis and evaluation of data on students’ attainment and progress in comparison to the national averages for sixth form colleges. Identify the underlying causes of low success rates and use this information to set ambitious targets and actions for improvement. Monitor progress regularly, focusing on subjects that have underperformed for several years.
- Improve the rigour of lesson observations so that satisfactory teaching is identified. Provide clear guidance to teachers on the aspects of their lessons that they need to improve. Develop and implement systematic arrangements for identifying the best teachers so that their practice can be celebrated and used to improve the quality and consistency of the learning experience for all students.
- Review and evaluate the changes to enrolment advice and guidance that have been implemented this year to ensure that current and future students have the ability to succeed in the options they choose. Ensure that students at risk of not meeting their target grades are provided with the academic support they need through the provision of well-planned additional sessions.
- Provide teachers and tutors with training on how to set precise learning targets for students that will raise their aspirations and expectations of achieving higher grades. Ensure that teachers and tutors monitor students’ progress regularly so that they make good or better progress in all subjects.
- Develop and embed a self-critical self-assessment process that raises expectations and levels of accountability at all levels of the college. Ensure that managers and teaching teams work together to identify what needs to be done, and by whom, to secure rapid and sustainable improvement.
- Improve the quality of provision in science and mathematics, and in humanities and social sciences by responding promptly to the recommendations in the subject area reports.
Areas for improvement
The college should address:
- low success rates, high grade passes and value added on some AS and A level courses
- the variable success rates on some level 2 courses
- the quality of delivery of group tutorials for advanced level students
- the effectiveness of arrangements for monitoring and evaluating aspects of the college’s work.
What should be improved
- pass and retention rates on GCSE programmes
- overcrowded classrooms
- co-ordination of college information systems (CIS)
- monitoring of equal opportunities.
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