Trafford & Stockport College Group - Good

2022 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Leaders should ensure that employers are routinely involved in the planning of on- and off-the-job training and reviews of their apprentices to support apprentices to make the progress of which they are capable.
• Leaders should identify what apprentices already know and can do at the start of their programme and use this information to ensure they plan a challenging and individualised curriculum.
• Leaders should review the curriculum for learners with high needs on the ‘choices’ programme to ensure it is challenging and prepares them for future learning or work.
• Leaders should ensure that they put appropriate actions in place to ensure learners with low attendance attend college regularly.

Uxbridge College - Good

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Train teachers to use assessment effectively to check learners’ and apprentices’ understanding and adapt their teaching appropriately.
• Improve outcomes for learners on business, information technology and access to higher education courses at the Richmond campus.
• Set targets for learners with high needs that link clearly to their EHC plans.  Increase the proportion of learners with high needs who achieve qualifications in English and mathematics.

Shipley College - Requires Improvement

2023 Full Inspection Report

What does the college need to do to improve further?

• Ensure that all learners on education programmes for young people participate in relevant and high-quality work experience.
• Maintain an accurate oversight of all aspects of the provision and take action, where necessary, to improve the quality of the provision.
• Provide helpful careers information, advice and guidance to learners across all provision types.
• Provide all learners with useful feedback to improve their written English.
• Ensure that staff reinforce learners’ understanding about the risks of radicalisation and extremism to help commit the information to learners’ long-term memory.

Scarborough TEC - Requires Improvement

2023 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve further?

• Ensure that ongoing strategic developments are implemented quickly and effectively, and are fully communicated to staff.
• Ensure that staff receive sufficient support to help them to manage their workloads.
• Ensure that the plans in place for safeguarding reporting and monitoring across the group are swiftly implemented.
• Ensure that all tutors and assessors make effective use of information about learners’ and apprentices’ starting points when planning learning.
• Ensure that all adult learners benefit from effective careers information and guidance to understand how to achieve their long-term career goals.
• Ensure that learners on vocational education programmes for young people benefit from effective and suitable work experience.

Reigate College - Good

2022 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Leaders and managers should ensure that staff review students’ education, health care plans annually and include parents and guardians in this process. Leaders and managers should set these students ambitious and specific targets to ensure they make rapid progress in their learning.
• Leaders, managers and teachers should ensure that students know how to improve their work and make the progress of which they are capable.
• Leaders and managers should ensure that all students benefit from a period of work experience or work-related experience to help prepare them for the world of work and reinforce what they learn at college.

Southend Adult Community College - Good

2023 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Increase the academic rigour of qualifications on study programmes.
• Increase work-related activity for learners on study programmes to enable them to acquire experience of the world of work.
• Ensure that the attendance of young people to their study programmes increases and is high.

Skegness College - Requires Improvement

2023 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve further?

• Ensure that ongoing strategic developments are implemented quickly and effectively, and are fully communicated to staff.
• Ensure that staff receive sufficient support to help them to manage their workloads.
• Ensure that the plans in place for safeguarding reporting and monitoring across the group are swiftly implemented.
• Ensure that all tutors and assessors make effective use of information about learners’ and apprentices’ starting points when planning learning.
• Ensure that all adult learners benefit from effective careers information and guidance to understand how to achieve their long-term career goals.
• Ensure that learners on vocational education programmes for young people benefit from effective and suitable work experience.

Sparsholt College - Good

2014 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve further?

• Ensure students are set specific and measurable targets to enable them to make excellent progress and achieve higher grades, especially adult male students.
• Improve the quality and consistency of feedback on marked written work so that students know what they need to do to improve.
• Provide a broad range of challenging activities in lessons to meet the differing needs and abilities of students and help them to achieve their full potential.
• Ensure teachers’ action plans following lesson observations contain specific and timely interventions to promote rapid improvement in teaching, learning and assessment practice.
• Ensure all students aged 16 to 18 with the appropriate prior attainment have the opportunity to take GCSE English and mathematics in order to improve their employment prospects.
• Ensure all teachers routinely promote diversity in lessons to enable students to understand wider cultural values.

Scotland’s Rural College

2018 Full Inspection Report

Areas for development

• Despite the fact that the achievement rate for FE FT students continues to be above target and above the sector average, the trend in achievement rates for the past three years is decreasing i.e. from 71.4% in 2015/16 to 70.1% in 2016/17 down to 68.3% in 2017/18.
• In 2017-18, SRUC’s official return for care experienced students indicates relatively low numbers i.e. 7 declared at enrolment with 4 being successful. However internal figures suggest the actual rates are higher and that SRUC experienced a significant increase in the number of FE students declaring that they were care experienced i.e. 46, of which, 24 (52%) successfully achieved their qualifications. Unfortunately, a high proportion of these students withdrew from their programmes, which ultimately affected the success rates for the group, which is 5.2pp below the sector outcome (57.2%) for 2016-17. Reasons for the discrepancy in recording (and potentially the high withdrawal rates) warrants further investigation and follow up action.

Northern School of Art - Outstanding

2025 Full Inspection Report

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

Leaders and managers provide an exceptionally current and relevant curriculum that enables learners to develop specialist knowledge and skills in creative arts. They provide learners with access to highly specialised equipment and resources that enhance their studies. The small adult learning provision offered, which is predominantly an access to higher education (art and design) course, enables learners to focus on developing the skills and knowledge required for higher education and equips them with the skills to work professionally in their chosen field. All learners are well prepared for their next steps into further education, higher education or careers in the creative arts industries. Leaders and managers ensure that learners achieve well. Leaders and managers have continued to improve the achievement rate of learners since the last inspection.

etc.

Northern College - Good

2023 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Improve the arrangements for evaluating how effectively the community learning programme enables students to progress by rapidly implementing plans to gather and make effective use of information about the impact of this programme.
• Fully implement the new arrangements for recording the information, advice and guidance that students receive, so that leaders can be assured that all students are benefiting from the support that they need to progress towards achieving their goals and aspirations.
• Ensure that all students on mathematics courses develop their skills and make good progress.
• Maintain the strong focus on current and planned actions to secure the college’s future viability.

Northumberland College - Outstanding

2024 Full Inspection Report

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

Leaders and governors have a very clear vision to provide high-quality training and education in the north east region. Senior leaders have dedicated time and effort to transform the college group. They have been on a relentless journey to improve all aspects of students’ and apprentices’ experience across all the college campuses. Through inspirational leadership, the culture of the organisation has become one of high aspiration and continuous improvement. Staff strive to achieve their best and are very proud to work for the organisation.

etc.

Henley College - Good

2023 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Leaders and managers should ensure that they improve the attendance of the small number of learners with poor attendance so that they can make the rapid progress of which they are capable.
• Leaders and managers should ensure that the small minority of teachers who do not currently provide a consistently high quality of education improve rapidly.
• Leaders and managers should ensure that all learners benefit from a personal development programme of learning that helps them to develop their wider skills and interests.

Heart of Worcestershire College - Requires Improvement

2023 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Improve the consistency and quality of the teaching that learners and apprentices receive across the college.
• Improve the retention and achievement rates for learners and apprentices.
• Ensure that all learners and apprentices receive high-quality careers and education advice and guidance.
• Improve the effectiveness and consistency of wider stakeholder input into curriculum design and implementation.
• Improve attendance rates for learners and apprentices across all elements of their programmes of study.
• Improve governance and those arrangements that hold leaders to account.
• Increase the rigour of the methods used to quality assure all curriculum areas, including those provided by subcontractors.
• Ensure that all learners and apprentices understand the dangers of radical and extremist behaviours.

Gateshead College - Good

2023 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Ensure that learners with high needs receive high-quality reviews of their progress to help them understand the progress that they are making towards their learning objectives and what they need to do to improve.
• Ensure that all learners with high needs benefit from work placements so that they have an opportunity to put into practice what they are learning at college.
• Ensure that employers attend reviews so that they are clear about the progress that apprentices are making and can support them to develop their skills in the workplace.

Gateway Sixth Form College - Good

2019 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Leaders and managers should work with staff in information technology and health and social care to develop a clear understanding of what students need to know for their next steps, to understand how best to sequence learning, and to develop their teaching skills.
• Leaders and managers should work with staff to help them develop their understanding of how to use feedback most effectively.
• Leaders, managers and staff should work with students to ensure they understand British values and the threats posed by those with radical and extremist views.
• Governors should provide leaders and managers with greater challenge and take a more active role in driving further improvements at the college.

Dundee & Angus College - Satisfactory

2024 Annual Engagement Visit Report

The following areas for improvement were identified and discussed with the senior managers:

• Rates of learner withdrawal from full-time FE and HE programmes have increased in the last four years but remain below the sector norm. The number of learners who withdraw from part-time FE and HE programmes is above the sector average and has been for the previous 4 years.
• Meta skills are mapped well across all curricular areas. However, staff have not yet embedded them consistently in all programmes and are not signposting the development in these skills sufficiently to all learners.
• Some staff do not use My Progress effectively to ensure a consistent learning experiences for all learners.

Durham Sixth Form Centre - Outstanding

2017 Full Inspection Report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Continue to share the outstanding practice which exists in teaching, learning and assessment, particularly in providing challenge for the cohort of students identified by the school as ‘most able’.
• Further develop students’ speaking skills.

Bromley Adult Education College - Good

2019 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve further?

• Improve the small amount of teaching, learning and assessment that is not of a high standard, by ensuring that teachers use a sufficient range of assessment strategies to assess learners’ understanding and their progress over time accurately.
• Ensure that leaders and managers collect and analyse a wider range of information and data, such as learners’ next steps on completion of their programmes, the reasons for the low participation of male learners and the impact of programmes on those that LBB specifically seeks to help.
• Use this information to further strengthen the positive impact BAEC has on the adult learners of Bromley, in particular to:
  • understand how learners’ current programme choices influence the programmes they choose in future
  • understand fully the impact of careers advice and guidance on the lives of adult users
  • inform the planning of the curriculum to continue to make best use of available funding.

Barton Peveril Sixth Form College - Good

2022 Full Inspection Report

No areas for improvement

Access Creative College - Good

2022 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Leaders and managers need to ensure apprentices make swifter progress from their starting points by:
  • establishing and using apprentices’ starting points to plan what they are going to teach
  • ensuring that trainers provide the apprentices with the knowledge they need before setting tasks or assessments for completion.
• Leaders and managers need to ensure that all learners and apprentices improve their numeracy and literacy skills through their vocational programmes.
• Leaders and managers must accelerate improvements in learners’ attendance and narrow the gaps in attendance between sites.

West of England Institute of Technology - Good

2023 Full Inspection Report

What does the college need to do to improve?

• Ensure that the actions taken by leaders to improve the quality of education and training programmes, including those provided by subcontractors, lead to rapid improvements.
• Ensure that all learners and apprentices, including those studying with subcontractors, receive high-quality feedback, and are set challenging targets that enable them to continually improve the standard of their work.
• Ensure that all adult learners and apprentices study a high-quality personal development curriculum.
• Ensure that all learners aged 16 to 18, and learners with high needs, are supported effectively by staff to achieve high grades in their qualifications commensurate with their ability.

Skills & Learning Adult Community Education - Good

2023 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Provide tutors with teaching knowledge and skills training and monitor how well they implement the new learning and its impact on what learners know and can do.
• Ensure that all learners receive developmental feedback.  Provide governors with the information they need to assess the quality of teaching, learning and assessment.
• Ensure that learners aged 16 to 18 receive a broader understanding of the options they have when finishing their programmes.

Newham Learning & Skills - Good

2016 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve further?

• Leaders and managers should ensure that:
  • they enable the sharing of good practice within the service so that assessment more accurately identifies the personal learning goals of all learners
  • tutors set targets that are challenging, specific and measurable so that they can measure learners’ progress accurately
  • tutors provide learners with detailed feedback on their progress and what they need to do next.
• Increase the flexibility and capacity of the data system so that managers can analyse the performance of the service more effectively, especially the progression and destinations of learners, and demonstrate the impact of the service.
• Ensure that tutors are better prepared to meet the education and training needs of the more-able adult learners by providing them with work that helps them make the level of progress they are capable of.

Yorkshire & Humber Institute of Technology - Good

2023 Full Inspection Report

What does York College need to do to improve further?

• Take action to improve the quality of education in GCSE English and ensure that the proportion of learners who achieve a grade 4 or higher improves.
• Ensure that feedback following assessments of learners’ and apprentices’ work makes it clear to them what they need to do to improve their work and make progress.
• Ensure that the attendance of learners continues to improve, particularly where it remains low, such as on a few adult learning courses and on GCSE English and mathematics courses.
• Take swift and effective action to deal with any further incidents of inappropriate behaviour of learners and ensure that all learners behave well and are respectful to their peers.

Wyggeston & Queen Elizabeth I College - Good

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Make sure that teachers in all subject areas plan and organise their curriculums logically, so that students develop substantial new knowledge and skills.
• Ensure that all teachers check carefully students’ knowledge of new topics.
• Ensure that students benefit from links to employers and industry experts, and opportunities such as work experience, where relevant.