What does the provider need to do to improve?
- Leaders should ensure that teachers across study programmes and apprenticeships assess learners’ starting points to identify prior knowledge. They should use this information to plan a curriculum that more effectively meets learners’ individual needs.
- Leaders should continue to improve the quality of apprenticeship programmes so that it is as good as other provision types. Notably, they should ensure that teachers plan regular, good-quality reviews of apprentices’ progress jointly with their line manager. Apprentices should have access to careers information to help them identify their next steps. Apprentices should also receive high-quality teaching of knowledge of English and mathematics skills earlier in the course, so that they can complete their studies within expected timescales.
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
- Rapidly improve attendance and punctuality in those subjects where too many learners miss learning, particularly in mathematics and English lessons, so that they are able to achieve their qualifications and improve their chances of progression at work or in further studies.
- Identify those subject areas where target-setting is particularly good. Managers should make use of existing arrangements to ensure that this good practice is shared and adopted across all subjects so that all learners understand clearly how to improve their work and make the progress of which they are capable.
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
- Increase the amount of good and outstanding teaching and learning, through: greater use of specialist subject knowledge by lesson observers; more joint and peer lesson observations; and, better use of action plans to develop teachers’ skills once teachers have been observed. Teachers should focus more on learners’ individual needs in lessons, and ensure that they do not dominate lessons by talking too much.
- Improve success rates for apprentices, and improve the number completing their qualification within the planned timescale, by: monitoring learners’ progress more effectively; and, ensuring that staff with relevant subject expertise manage the work-based curriculum. Ensure that attendance and punctuality are consistently good across all areas of the college by improving teaching and learning, so that learners are more motivated to attend lessons. Strengthen the role of teachers in setting clear expectations for learners as part of the college’s overall policy on attendance and punctuality.
- Revise the way in which the college carries out self-assessment of its curriculum areas, to ensure that a more rigorous and detailed evaluation takes place of the strengths and weaknesses in teaching and learning and their impact on learners’ outcomes. Ensure that the self-assessment process uses more self-critical curriculum evaluations to establish an accurate overall view of the college’s performance.
Areas for improvement
The college should address:
- the further improvement of success rates on apprenticeships and Train to Gain
- expanding the range of teaching and learning techniques
- the further improvement of learners’ attendance.
Areas for improvement
- insufficient self-assessment of construction work-based learning
- poor supervision of safety practice in the workplace
What should be improved
- retention and pass rates on some long courses o student punctuality and attendance o overcrowding in some classrooms o proportion of teaching and learning that is good or better
- effective use of information and learning technology (ILT) in lessons
- effectiveness of quality assurance arrangements in some areas
- use of targets for individual students in literacy, numeracy and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL)
- teaching standards of staff supplied by third-party providers
- aspects of work-based learning, particularly in construction.
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