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Heart of Worcestershire College

2018 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
  • Ensure that learners on level 3 programmes:
    • routinely receive insightful and informative feedback from teachers so that they understand clearly how to improve their work, accelerate their learning and achieve high grades
    • have precise targets to guide their development and progress.
  • Improve learners’ attendance at lessons so that it is good in all curriculum areas and across the college by following up methodically on non-attendance, rigorously applying the college’s existing attendance strategy and evolving a zero-tolerance culture towards unauthorised absences.
  • Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment in functional skills English and mathematics at level 2 and in GCSE mathematics by:
    • developing the skills of teachers to ensure that they support learners to develop and apply their English and mathematics skills well in their vocational and academic work
    • ensuring that teachers of English and mathematics use the findings of regular assessment to identify learners’ skills gaps and ensure that these learners are supported well to quickly gain the required techniques and approaches essential for good progress in their learning
    • ensuring that managers provide training and development to support improvement in the teaching of mathematics and English essential skills.

2016 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
  • Ensure that managers and staff implement the English and mathematics strategy fully and consistently across the college. Encourage teachers to help learners understand the importance of developing English and mathematical skills for their future prospects. Enable teachers to use a wider range of strategies and
  • Ensure that teachers use all available information about learners’ prior attainment, skills and knowledge to plan learning that enables them all, especially the most able, to make good or better progress in lessons.
  • Ensure that all teachers set the highest expectations for learners’ attendance at, and punctuality to, lessons. Tighten up the procedures for recording, monitoring and improving attendance at lessons, particularly in English and mathematics.
  • Improve teaching, learning and assessment by ensuring that managers who observe teaching and learning focus clearly on the impact of teaching on learning, and on the progress that learners make in class.
  • Ensure that managers, teachers and assessors make full use of the new tracking system for apprentices to monitor their progress frequently, and to identify quickly when they are falling behind. Ensure that assessors intervene swiftly with relevant support so that apprentices achieve their framework within the expected timescales.
  • Ensure that teachers set challenging targets for all learners; make sure that targets are more precise and timed for classroom-based learners, and, for apprentices, that targets build skills beyond those simply needed for the completion of tasks.

2013 Full Inspection Report
What does the college need to do to improve further?
  • Increase success rates by:
    • setting accurate and challenging targets for all learners that will enable them to achieve in line with or above their potential - ensuring that teaching challenges the more able learners sufficiently
    • reviewing learners’ progress towards their targets more frequently and systematically
    • significantly increasing learners’ attendance in lessons
    • identifying and implementing actions to reduce gaps in achievement among different groups of learners.
  • Enable all learners to extend their skills and knowledge beyond what they need to achieve their qualifications.
  • Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment by:
    • extending the range of activities in lessons to ensure that learners are fully engaged in their learning and are highly motivated
    • setting all learners appropriately challenging tasks in their lessons
    • improving the effective use of information and learning technology including the virtual learning environment
    • increasing the emphasis on the successful development of English and mathematics skills on all courses.
  • Enhance the quality of self-assessment by:
    • accurately evaluating the college’s strengths and areas for improvement
    • identifying specific actions to improve outcomes for learners and the quality of teaching, learning and assessment
    • increasing the accuracy of the evaluation of actions taken to improve provision.
  • Improve the management of curriculum areas so that they all reach the high standards already present in the best areas by closer monitoring of the implementation of actions to improve quality.

2010 Full Inspection Report
What does North East Worcestershire College need to do to improve further?
  • Embed the strategies for ensuring that learners on Train to Gain courses complete their qualifications within the time allowed. Ensure managers and assessors monitor the progress of these learners closely and regularly.
  • Raise teachers’ expectations of all learners to ensure that they are challenged to reach their full potential and develop their independent learning skills. Develop teachers’ skills in using questions and other teaching strategies to challenge learners, extend their knowledge and skills as well as make them think for themselves.
  • Embed the effective promotion of equality and diversity in lessons and at work based learning reviews through the sharing of good practice, further staff development and increasing the focus on this during lesson observations.
  • Increase the proportion of good and outstanding lessons by ensuring that self-assessment of teaching and learning is comprehensive and rigorous, and effective action plans are in place to address identified areas for improvement, for both staff and subject areas.
  • Develop a broader programme of cross-college enrichment that ensures that learners have the opportunity to broaden their horizons outside their chosen subject area.
  • Set a challenging target to improve attendance further and place high emphasis on tackling pockets of lower attendance robustly.
  • Ensure that individual tutorials include challenging targets and occur frequently to ensure that all learners fulfil their full potential. Make sure that group tutorials cover mandatory items related to health, well-being, personal and social development.
  • Improve the identification of strengths and areas for improvement in subject areas by using accurate and comprehensive data, increasing the rigour of the lesson observation scheme and by ensuring that evaluation is fully robust and self-critical.
  • Ensure that risk assessments are detailed and their display is prominent across the college.

2006 Full Inspection Report
Areas for improvement

The college should address:

  • success rates in work-based learning
  • the achievement of key skills qualifications
  • lateness in some classes.

2002 Full Inspection Report
What should be improved
  • retention rates on adult provision
  • less effective teaching and learning including the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in some courses
  • consistent promotion of key skills across all provision
  • monitoring of equal opportunities in the workplace
  • monitoring achievement in work-based learning and other programmes that enrol all year.

Report Recommendations