Increase the proportion of students and adult learners who remain on their courses and achieve their qualifications, particularly at the highest grades.
Improve the quality of education in the few areas that are underperforming.
Improve the monitoring of students’ and adult learners’ progress and achievement, taking swift action to prevent underperformance.
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
Improve outcomes for learners in underperforming subject areas, by:
monitoring closely the impact of actions taken so far this academic year to improve learners’ progress
identifying accurately any further improvements needed
taking action quickly to ensure that a very high proportion of current and future learners make the progress of which they are capable.
Enhance the skills of teachers who do not provide sufficient challenge to the most-able learners by providing relevant training and development and by encouraging teachers to share good practice.
Develop the independent learning skills of all learners, by:
encouraging learners, particularly those who are less confident, to be more proactive in their learning during lessons, and developing their confidence to articulate their thoughts and ideas and to generate discussion without always being prompted to do so by their teachers
ensuring that all learners have sufficiently well-developed skills to extend their learning outside the classroom and beyond the specific requirements of their qualifications.
What does Ashton Sixth Form College need to do to improve further?
Embed and accelerate year-on-year improvement in success rates so that variability and inconsistency are tackled in all courses. Ensure the sharp and precise use of data to evaluate students’ progress and enable swift and effective action for improvement.
Increase the proportion of higher grades in advanced-level subjects by providing greater challenge and improving the analytical and evaluative skills of students. To embed this further, ensure the effective organisation of student files by regular checks to enable them to be used for reflection and revision.
Increase the rigour of the lesson observation system so that the college has an accurate view of the quality of teaching. Evaluate the effectiveness of strategies to improve the quality of teaching and learning.
Improve quality assurance systems so that actions to tackle areas of underperformance are sufficiently swift and effective in driving consistent and sustainable improvement in all areas.