What does the provider need to do to improve?
- Increase the oversight of the wider curriculum to identify gaps in what students and apprentices know about health and well-being and to increase participation in the wide range of enrichment opportunities available to them.
- Ensure that the actions to improve the attendance of students enrolled on education programmes for young people are effective.
- Ensure that a greater proportion of students on education programmes for young people benefit from meaningful work placements.
- Improve the approach to the management of subcontractors to ensure that the college values are fully reflected in the implementation of the curriculum at all of these providers.
What does the provider need to do to improve?
- Leaders and managers should ensure that the pace of improvement quickens, particularly in the quality of education that most learners and apprentices experience.
- Leaders and managers should gain a much better understanding of how studying at the college influences the next steps and future careers of learners and apprentices. They should ensure that this information is comprehensive enough to inform the design of courses so that learners are better prepared for their next steps.
- Leaders and managers should ensure that learners who have high needs and who study vocational courses receive the support that they need from both teachers and specialist support workers.
- Leaders and managers should ensure that those responsible for planning apprenticeships take appropriate account of all aspects of apprentices’ development, not just the parts that the college staff directly influence.
- Leaders and managers should ensure that the proportion of learners and apprentices successfully completing their course improves rapidly.
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
- Accelerate the pace of change in tackling weaknesses in order to improve outcomes for students.
- Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment by:
- evaluating the quality of teaching, learning and assessment more realistically, and tackling key areas for improvement
- ensuring that teachers pay close attention to the individual needs of students when planning teaching, learning and assessment, so that students make the progress of which they are capable
- making sure that the targets set for students focus on the skills that they need to develop rather than solely on the completion of tasks
- monitoring closely the progress that students make towards achieving their targets
- identifying and sharing good practice between teachers.
- Improve attendance rapidly, particularly in English and mathematics, by making sure that staff have high expectations for attendance and follow up poor attendance and punctuality promptly.
- Ensure that all teachers enable students to develop their English and mathematical skills within their main programmes.
- Make sure that all students and apprentices are fully aware of how to keep themselves safe from the risks posed by radicalisation and extremism.
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
- Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment by:
- ensuring that teaching and learning consistently challenge and motivate learners to meet their individual learning needs, particularly in weaker areas of the provision including on English and mathematics courses
- setting specific and challenging targets for teaching staff to improve the quality of their teaching and raise the achievement of their learners; monitoring closely the performance of teaching staff and taking action quickly to improve performance when it is not good enough
- ensuring that the development needs of individuals are analysed so that common themes can be identified and training provided to improve practice
- identifying and sharing good practice between teachers.
- Improve the target setting and reviewing of learner progress so learners achieve their qualification by:
- setting challenging targets for learners based on an accurate assessment of their starting points
- monitoring closely the progress that learners make towards achieving their targets, so that learners know what they have already achieved and what they still need to do to achieve their qualifications and improve their grades
- quickly improving their attendance.
- Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment of English and mathematics by:
- urgently reviewing the English and mathematics strategy
- helping learners to develop a positive attitude towards improving their English and mathematical skills, and understanding the importance of these skills for their future study and employment
- setting challenging targets for teaching staff to improve weaker aspects of their practice as identified through lesson observations and data about learners’ progress and achievement
- monitoring closely the performance of teaching staff and taking action quickly to improve performance where necessary.
- Improve the quality assurance arrangements by:
- ensuring that governors, leaders and managers make effective use of data about learners’ progress and achievement to evaluate the quality of provision fully and accurately
- identifying specific and challenging targets for improvement based on a more accurate self-assessment, and monitoring progress towards their achievement closely.
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
- Improve the progress made by students, particularly on advanced level courses, by developing the skills of all teachers to plan more creative and inspiring lessons which involve students more actively and consistently provide appropriate stretch and challenge to students of all abilities.
- More strongly promote the development of students’ and apprentices’ English and mathematical skills; ensuring, for example, that teachers and trainers routinely correct spelling, grammar and punctuation.
- Increase success rates to well above average by further developing and refining the arrangements for tracking and monitoring students’ achievement and progress and supporting them to improve their work. Ensure tracking, monitoring, target-setting and intervention arrangements are adapted carefully to suit the needs of students at different levels and on different types of course.
- Relentlessly implement quality assurance and improvement arrangements to secure consistently high standards across all courses, curriculum areas and constituent colleges.
What does The Sheffield College need to do to improve further?
- Improve success rates particularly at foundation level and in Skills for Life. Narrow the achievement gap for those groups of learners currently underachieving, such as those in certain vulnerable groups and from some minority ethnic groups.
- Increase the proportion of good and outstanding teaching. Provide sufficient stretch and challenge so that learners of all abilities make better progress and achieve more highly.
- Further develop the process for observation of teaching and learning so that it provides an accurate and reliable picture of the quality of teaching and learning. Increase tutorial observations and extend the process to include agency staff, support sessions, induction and initial assessment.
- Increase the work readiness of learners by ensuring that full-time learners have access to appropriate work experience and work placements.
- Further develop the sharing of good practice across the federation to ensure that all learners receive the same high level of learning experience.
- Improve the learner involvement strategy to ensure that it has clear and measurable targets that are based on significant elements of the college’s management of learning.
- Bring together data and information to provide an overview. Draw together the various sources of monitoring data to provide an analysis of in-year progress and bring together the evidence available on the impact that actions have had on progress in lessons and upon learners into a single overview.
Areas for improvement
The college should address:
- the low key skills success rates for 16-18 learners
- the inconsistent links between the observation of the teaching of individual teachers and their professional development
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What should be improved
- the overall quality of teaching and learning
- some unsuitable teaching accommodation
- the implementation of the quality assurance procedures at course level
- students' attendance
- the management of work-based learning.
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