College Websites

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider do well and what does it need to do better?

Senior leaders and managers have a very clear rationale for their aspirational curriculums. Leaders carefully consider the courses they provide for students, apprentices and those who have high needs. They have a strong sense of community and are passionate to provide life-changing opportunities for young people and adults, many from disadvantaged backgrounds, to achieve their personal and career goals. They work collaboratively with their subcontractors to provide training for students, including for those that are the furthest from employment and education, to prepare them for work, further learning, apprenticeships and their next steps.

Leaders and managers are highly ambitious for their students and apprentices. Staff work closely with universities and employers to plan curriculums to ensure that students and apprentices are well prepared for their next steps after college. For example, managers have worked with the engineering department at a local university to identify what students need to know to prepare for their degree. They have introduced a mathematics for engineers module to prepare students to work with complex mathematical equations and formulas. Leaders offer apprenticeship readiness groups that support students into apprenticeships with employers in the region.

Students and apprentices benefit from high-quality initial and ongoing careers information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) to ensure that they are on the right course and are well prepared for their next steps and progression. They frequently discuss careers pathways with college staff and teachers. Students with high needs access cross-college careers events, fairs and CEIAG. In addition, students with more complex needs benefit from a dedicated special educational needs and/or disabilities career advisor. Students and apprentices are very well informed about their potential next steps and career pathways after college

Students’ and apprentices’ attendance is very high. Leaders and staff track and intervene to improve attendance rates should students fail to meet their very high expectations. They involve employers immediately if they have any concerns about apprentices’ attendance, punctuality or behaviours. Staff routinely recognise and reward the positive professional behaviours and improving attendance they expect to see in successful students and apprentices.

Leaders ensure that teachers are highly qualified and have expert subject knowledge. Teachers benefit from a range of staff development to improve their teaching skills and to maintain their vocational currency. They complete back to industry days, training on sticky knowledge, dual coding, cognitive load and retrieval practice. Where appropriate, teachers who are new to teaching are placed on the early career framework and attend placements at local high schools to support and develop their teaching skills. Staff highly value the ‘great teaching’ development programme introduced by leaders.

Students and apprentices benefit from highly effective teaching. Teachers give a great deal of thought to the order of teaching to help students learn and remember more. A-level mathematicians learn fluency, reasoning and problem-solving to develop their knowledge and reasoning simultaneously. Adult counselling students practise their interpersonal skills and learn about the context within which counselling and the referral process can be used, including the importance of maintaining ethical standards. Students with high needs develop their social skills, such as confidence, resilience and independence as well as developing their communication and employability skills to build their knowledge, skills and behaviours in a meaningful way.

In apprenticeships, staff plan and coordinate on- and off-the-job training very well. They routinely identify opportunities for apprentices to practise their skills at work so that apprentices rapidly hone their new knowledge, skills and behaviours and become valued, skilled members of their teams.

Teachers systematically provide high-quality developmental feedback to students and apprentices that tells them what they have done well and what they need to do to improve their practical and written work. They routinely challenge students and apprentices to expand their answers to include fuller responses to ensure they achieve their aspirational targets. Students and apprentices greatly improve their skills and written work at college.

Teachers use assessment incisively to adapt their teaching and to check the progress that students and apprentices make towards achieving their qualifications. This includes aspects such as attendance, self-organisation, career aspirations, resilience, and effort. Teachers set clear and concise targets for students and apprentices. When students fall behind, they attend booster sessions to help them to catch up quickly and improve their grades. Students and apprentices make or exceed their expected progress.

Students with high needs on academic and vocational programmes achieve at least as well as their peers. However, on the non-accredited foundation learning programmes, teachers do not always recognise and record learner progress and achievement towards their educational health and care plan outcomes. Staff do not routinely monitor or share information of what students could not do, can do now and what they need to do next. Consequently, these students do not routinely make progress at the rate of which they are capable.

Leaders and managers use a range of highly effective quality assurance processes to monitor and improve the quality of education. They assure the quality of the subcontracted provision very effectively. Apprentices who stay on programme achieve their apprenticeship and most pass their final assessments at their first attempt. Where grades are available, the large majority achieve merit and distinctions grades. Leaders recognise that on a few apprenticeships too many apprentices left their programmes early. They have swiftly identified valid reasons and implemented effective interventions to ensure that apprentices remain on their apprenticeships and make strong progress. As a result, retention has significantly improved in the areas that were a concern.

Leaders create a culture of continuous improvement. Staff have manageable workloads. Leaders listen to feedback from staff to reduce workloads and stress. Staff feel appreciated for the contribution they make to the college. They value the well-being days, where they participate in activities, such as yoga, football and silent discos. Staff feel well supported by their managers.

Governors have significant expertise to carry out their roles. They have a wealth of experience across the education sector. Governors have a highly accurate understanding of the college’s strengths and areas of improvement. They receive detailed and accurate reports to provide effective scrutiny and challenge to senior leaders. Governors set clear and precise targets for leaders and managers for sustained improvement.

2014 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Ensure that the much improved teaching and learning in the college result in a continuation of the trend of rapidly improving success rates, most notably for students aged 16 to 18.
• Share more of the good practice of the many outstanding teachers in the college who set high expectations for their students.
• Ensure that attendance and punctuality are consistently good across all areas of the college by continuing to take firm actions to reinforce with students the need to attend lessons regularly and on time as an important part of succeeding at college and developing their employability skills.
• Explore ways in which a number of subject areas can offer external work experience for a period of time during students’ studies at college in order to take advantage of the rapidly improving partnerships with employers and to enhance the many initiatives already in place to bring students into contact with employers through their coursework.

2012 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve further?

• Improve students’ attendance and punctuality by ensuring that staff and students rigorously implement the agreed procedures.
• Raise success rates and students’ progress by strengthening further the focus on improving teaching and learning.
• Review and revise as necessary the varying approaches to teaching functional skills and fully implement planned changes.
• Ensure that assessment procedures, including planning, and the quality of feedback are further improved.
• Make better use of initial assessment to inform teaching and learning to meet the needs of students, particularly those on foundation level courses.
• Continue to improve the management skills of heads of division and team leaders to ensure that consistently high standards are the norm across the college.

2009 Full Inspection Report

Areas for improvement

The college should address:

• success rates on long courses at level 3 and in work-based learning
• quality of provision for Train to Gain
• the development and use of ILT in supporting learning
• the range of curriculum enrichment and work experience in a minority of subjects
• the consistency of effective target setting for students to improve performance.

2007 Re-Inspection Report

Areas for improvement

• Insufficient use of ILT and audio visual equipment to support learning
• Insufficient variety of learning activity in some lessons
• Insufficient support for students on entry level 2 skills for working life courses

2005 Full Inspection Report

What should be improved

• students' retention and pass rates
• teaching and learning o provision for students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities
• the quality of external provision in ESOL
• literacy and numeracy support for students.

2000 Full Inspection Report

n/a