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Blackburn College

2022 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve?
  • Leaders and managers should ensure that the quality of education in the few subject areas that need improving meets the same high standards as other subjects across the college.
  • Leaders and managers should ensure that all students and apprentices understand how to use tutors’ feedback to improve so that they achieve their potential.
  • Leaders and managers should provide targeted support to ensure that students with low attendance attend their college courses regularly.
  • Leaders and managers must ensure that all students and apprentices understand how the risks relating to radicalisation and extremism in the areas where they live and work apply to their daily lives.

2018 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve?
  • Governors and senior leaders must quickly improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment by:
    • taking swift and decisive actions to improve teaching, learning and assessment to enable students to make good progress and achieve their qualifications at the grades of which they are capable
    • ensuring that all teachers consider the starting points of students to plan and provide suitable learning activities that challenge students and apprentices, including the most and least able.
  • Improve attendance rates, particularly in ESOL, English and mathematics and on level 1 courses, so that students attend their classes regularly, stay on programme and achieve their qualifications.
  • Increase the proportion of students who achieve their English and mathematics qualifications.
  • Improve rapidly the quality of courses at level 1, in particular hairdressing and beauty therapy and construction, to ensure that students achieve their qualifications.

2017 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
  • Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment by ensuring that:
    • all teachers plan and use activities that use students’ starting points and prior learning that challenge them so that they achieve their potential
    • all teachers plan and use effective assessment practices so that students know how well they are doing and what they need to do to improve their work
    • all teachers closely monitor the progress of students to ensure that they provide effective support to those at risk of falling behind, set high expectations of what students can achieve and support students to make good or better progress
    • teachers improve the development of students’ mathematics skills in lessons.
  • Rapidly improve students’ attendance and punctuality on study programmes and adult learning programmes.
  • Improve the development of students’ English and mathematics skills so that a greater proportion achieve their qualifications or improve their GCSE grade.
  • Improve students and apprentices understanding of how the dangers of radicalisation and extremism can impact on their everyday lives.
  • Strengthen arrangements for the analysis of management information about the college’s performance, including data on attendance, punctuality, retention, achievement, high grades and students’ in-year progress, to implement challenging actions for improvement and ensure that the quality of provision is consistently high across all subject areas.
  • Ensure that leaders and managers rapidly improve the rigour of self-assessment so that it is accurate, priorities for improvement are clear and the progress in implementing strategies to improve is closely monitored and evaluated.
  • Ensure that leaders, managers and staff capture all students’ and apprentices’ prior employment skills and evaluate the progress they make in developing the skills they need for their chosen careers or personal goals.

2007 Full Inspection Report
Areas for improvement

The college should address:

  • the unsatisfactory accommodation in some areas.

2005 Re-Inspection Report

n/a


2004 Full Inspection Report
What should be improved
  • key skills achievement
  • challenge for more able students
  • the use of ICT in teaching and learning in some curriculum areas
  • individual action planning for students in most curriculum areas
  • the consistency of the application of the quality assurance systems
  • sharing of good practice across the college

1999 Full Inspection Report

n/a

Report Recommendations