What does the provider need to do to improve further?
- Plan tasks and activities for students to complete in lessons and independently that take account of their different abilities and ensure the most able acquire and practise the knowledge and skills needed to produce higher standards of work.
- Use the data on students’ prior achievement more carefully to set clear and aspirational targets that help motivate students to achieve their full potential.
- Share existing good practice in teaching, learning and assessment between teachers and assessors to increase the proportion of outstanding teaching. Support teachers to develop teaching and learning strategies so that more students achieve their full potential and make excellent progress. Ensure managers monitor the effectiveness of teaching, learning and assessment strategies that teachers use to help students achieve their targets.
- Extend the range of work-related activities and external work-experience opportunities so that more students develop employability skills.
- Strengthen the arrangements to monitor attendance and provide support and challenge to students so that they attend more regularly and realise their full potential.
- Monitor the rigour of subject-level self-assessment so that areas for improvement are identified accurately and link clearly to the college quality improvement plan.
- Sustain the improvement in success rates and improve the provision where it is not yet good by continuing to rigorously monitor performance and intervene where necessary
What does Wilberforce College need to do to improve further?
- Improve success rates and ensure that all students achieve their potential within expected timescales.
- Ensure that all students receive appropriate advice and guidance and are enrolled on the most appropriate course; that their starting points are assessed prior to enrolment and prompt support given; that induction assesses early progress and identifies any further support needs.
- Work with teaching staff to:
- raise the expectations and self-reliance of students
- ensure that teachers make consistently good use of students’ prior attainment information so that learning activities are planned to meet individual needs, enabling all students to reach their potential
- improve the development and monitoring of students’ English, mathematics and functional skills
- ensure that feedback to students and action planning for improvement give students sufficiently detailed guidance on what they need to do to improve and on the progress they are making.
- Accelerate the improvement of teaching, learning and assessment by ensuring that:
- observers focus consistently well on the impact of teachers’ activities on students’ learning and progress
- clear and precise action plans for individual teachers are produced to enable continuing professional development to be tailored very closely to their needs
- best practice continues to be shared across the college.
- Increase the rigour of quality assurance by ensuring:
- a close focus on the whole student experience
- that the root causes of any underperformance are researched thoroughly and that identified strengths are built upon leading to more consistent outcomes for students
- indicators of success are identified precisely and clear, realistic and aspirational targets are set
- the impact of actions taken to improve are monitored and evaluated frequently and systematically and that quality improvement plans are revised promptly if required.
What does Wilberforce College need to do to improve further?
- Improve success rates in intermediate GCSE mathematics and English, by ensuring that teaching and learning are personalised to meet the needs of all students. Evaluate the reasons why attendance rates are lower on these courses and take action to improve them.
- Improve the proportion of teaching that is outstanding by ensuring that departmental managers and teachers have more opportunities to identify and share areas of best practice.
- Enhance the rigour and impact of the quality improvement system by ensuring that middle managers take a consistent approach to self-assessment and action planning. Ensure action plans are monitored to check that the desired improvements are taking place during the year. In some departments, a wider range of evidence should be used to judge the quality of provision.
Areas for improvement
The college should address:
- the proportion of high grade passes in GCSE English
- some aspects of quality assurance
- the insufficient monitoring of individual action plans following lesson observations.
What should be improved
- uninspiring teaching in a number of areas
- facilities for students between lessons
- rigour of the teaching observation system
- self-assessment in some areas
- sharing of good practice within and between curriculum areas.
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