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Inspection Report Recommendations


Dundee & Angus College

2019 Full Inspection Report
Areas for Development
  1. Traditional patterns of gender segregation remain evident across almost half of the College curriculum, resulting in too many subjects showing a 75% or greater gender split (see detail within the Gender Equality Plan).
  2. Although on a par with national average outcomes for all learners, at c.63% the successful outcomes for Care Experienced learners lag behind those of other learner groups within D&A and do not yet reflect D&A aspirational standards (of 75%+).
  1. Despite overall improvement, individual outcomes across the 10 course areas covered by the Scottish Government Retention Project have been inconsistent, with some improving significantly whilst others have worsened. NC Social Science level 5 further withdrawal increased from 21% to 31% in 2017/18 whilst Access to Life Sciences (SWAP) further withdrawals reduced from 40% to 17.4%.
  2. With a day one outcome figure of 51.4% in 2017/18, learner retention and attainment for standalone Highers and full-time Highers programmes lag significantly behind those of other provision.
  1. The maintenance and expansion of formalised articulation agreements has not kept pace with recent curriculum developments and changes in staffing within the College and key HEI partners. This has resulted in a number of agreements becoming dated, with the potential for future impact on articulation with advanced standing for learners on new programmes or those in areas where agreements have lapsed.
  2. Although the development and delivery of Career Management Skills is strong across all curriculum areas, the promotion and signposting of the Career Education Standards 3-18 is not fully evident.
  3. Whilst excellent opportunities are provided in most curriculum areas, the College aspirations for all learners within full-time FE courses to benefit from work experience/work placement opportunities that match fully with the Work Placement Standard for Colleges has not yet been realised.
  1. College accommodation is generally of a high standard, however the accommodation and facilities within the Kingsway campus no longer meet learner or curriculum needs. This is resulting in learning environments that fall below acceptable standards and learning environments that are failing to keep pace with learner expectations or the needs of regional employers. This is having a day-to-day impact in subject areas such as Hair and Beauty, and is a major barrier to the implementation of the Regional STEM strategy and ambitions for Tayside.
  2. Learner feedback highlights that the use of diverse assessment approaches and methods is not consistent across all teams, limiting the value of some assessments as learning opportunities and reducing learner engagement in the assessment process.
  1. At c80% across a wide range of measures, levels of learner satisfaction are consistently high but have remained static for a number of years and are not improving in line with College aspirations.
  1. Whilst good progress has been made in respect of Students’ Association organisation and development, sustaining a single cohesive Students’ Association Executive has proven to be a challenge year-on year, resulting in disproportionate gaps in learner representation on individual campuses and impacting negatively on the overall effectiveness and autonomy of the Association.
  1. Feedback drawn from learning and teaching observations highlights that too many lessons are still delivered in a traditional teacher led format that does not match fully with College aspirations for the adoption of modern learning styles. Although these approaches can often be successful they do not fully engage learners in their learning, or prepare learners well for the next stages of their learning journey.
  2. Class and lead representative feedback on learning and teaching is more limited and less consistent than feedback on other topics, resulting in a restricted learner voice in this area (see 2.3 above).

Durham Sixth Form Centre

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.


East Coast College

2020 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve?
  • Leaders and managers need to improve the teaching skills of assessors. Assessors need to support apprentices’ development and recall of key theoretical concepts. They need to ensure that apprentices can apply new learning to more complex workplace situations.
  • Leaders and managers need to ensure that apprentices benefit from the same high-quality careers advice and guidance as adults and young people.
  • Managers and teachers must improve the English and mathematics skills of young people, including those with high needs. Young people must attend their lessons. They must apply the same purpose to their English and mathematics learning as they do to their other studies.
  • Leaders and managers need to increase the proportion of supported internship and employment opportunities for students with high needs.


East Durham College

2014 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve?
  • Increase further the proportion of lessons where learning is outstanding through the sharing of good practice and continued professional development by:
    • ensuring that all short-term goals are specific and reviewed regularly
    • carrying out the marking of work and the correction of spelling and grammar to a consistently high standard
    • ensuring that all learning activities are informed by initial assessment to stretch and challenge all students
    • further use of information and communication technologies where appropriate to enhance learning
    • maximising opportunities to plan and develop students’ understanding of equality and diversity.
  • Work with partners and employers to increase further the availability of work placements for students on study programmes.
  • Continue to improve the success rates on apprenticeship programmes, particularly for those who achieve within their planned timescales, by ensuring apprentices are fully aware of the progress they are making and how they can improve their practice and understanding.


East Kent College Group

2017 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve?
  • Leaders and managers should continue with their initiatives to improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment to raise standards further, focusing on those areas where achievement rates are not yet high enough. In particular they should ensure that:
    • lecturers set work that is sufficiently challenging to help the most able students make rapid progress and achieve or exceed their expected grades
    • lecturers provide sufficiently detailed feedback so that all students know what progress they are making and what they need to do to improve their work in order to achieve higher grades
    • managers and lecturers support students to be motivated to attend their English and mathematics classes so as to benefit from the good teaching, learning and assessment identified within these sessions and, as a result, improve their skills and achievement of English and mathematics outcomes.


East Norfolk Sixth Form College

2016 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
  • Rapidly improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment in the small minority of subject areas where performance is not yet to a sufficiently high standard by ensuring that:
    • leaders and managers focus on improving the performance of the few teachers who have not yet enabled students to achieve the high grades of which they are capable
    • teachers plan a broad range of activities and tasks that meet the different ability levels of students and challenge them to excel.
  • Ensure that teachers reinforce routinely the use of subject-related mathematics in lessons to enable students to improve their mathematics skills through regular practice.
  • Urgently improve attendance on discrete English and mathematics courses, so that students develop these skills, achieve their qualifications and are better prepared for their next steps.
  • Ensure that the tutorial programme meets the needs of all students and challenges them to improve their personal and social skills effectively.


East Riding College

2017 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
  • Leaders and managers should ensure that they strengthen further their focus on raising standards at the Yorkshire Coast College campus so that all learners enjoy the same high-quality experience.
  • Improve the quality of written feedback that learners receive so that it is consistently helpful in enabling learners to improve the quality of their written work.


East Surrey College

2014 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
  • Review the strategy for English and mathematics so that more students achieve at least a grade higher than their previous level of attainment, and success rates return to their previous high levels.
  • Build on the existing good and outstanding practice in teaching, learning and assessment, so that all teachers plan effectively to meet the needs of all students and apprentices, with a sharper focus on providing stretch and challenge for the most able students.
  • Ensure that all teachers make good use of learning technologies; deploy learning support staff well; use teaching strategies that stimulate and engage all students; and securely embed the development of skills in English and mathematics skills into all lessons.
  • Build on the successful use of the quality improvement plan, to intervene where performance has declined, so that the outcomes in all subjects mirror those of the outstanding provision in the college.
  • Ensure that all teachers can learn from the good practice in the college and have the confidence to promote equality and diversity more effectively in lessons.


East Sussex College

2017 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
  • Ensure that leaders, managers and teachers carry out their plans to improve the skills of level 2 and GCSE mathematics teachers so that they can better prepare students for their examinations and help them develop their skills.
  • Continue to improve students’ attendance, especially of those studying English and mathematics, by taking effective action when students are absent from their lessons.
  • Ensure that leaders and managers continue their work to raise the quality of teaching, learning and assessment by making sure that:
    • teachers and assessors improve the quality of feedback to students and the targets set for apprentices at reviews so that these clearly show students and apprentices how to improve their work and their skills
    • teachers of adult students plan lessons thoroughly to take into account the needs of all students in classes.


Eastleigh College

2018 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
  • Teachers should make sure that learning activities challenge all learners and apprentices, so they can achieve their full potential.
  • Managers must develop sufficient external high-quality work experience opportunities for all study programme learners to make sure that they are able to acquire skills for future employment.
  • Leaders and managers should implement and closely monitor their strategies to improve the number of study programme learners achieving their qualifications.
  • Leaders and managers must make sure that all learners have a good understanding of how to keep themselves safe from local risks posed by radicalisation and extremism.


Easton College

2017 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve?
  • Ensure that all teachers teach theory effectively to enable all learners to grasp fundamental concepts and principles proficiently and make good progress.
  • Continue to improve the quality of English and mathematics provision in order that all learners attend their courses and improve their English and mathematical skills effectively.
  • Ensure that all learners studying A-level courses make good progress against their starting points and excel.
  • Ensure that all staff promote effectively adult learners’ and apprentices’ understanding of British values, radicalisation and potential threats from extremist groups.


Edinburgh College

2019 Full Inspection Report
Areas for Development
  • Additional interventions to be identified that support those with protected characteristics (including carers, LGB, Trans and students with mental health issues), in order to achieve mental wellbeing, improve retention and achieve increasingly successful outcomes for these student cohorts.
  • The ‘inclusive growth’ strategy has proved successful in terms of increasing credit delivery for students with a known disability, BME learners, those with care experience and those resident in the most deprived areas. However, these students do not yet perform as well as their peers across all areas of provision; additional intervention strategies are required.
  • Increase the number of students participating in the Student Satisfaction Surveys to a minimum of 50% across all areas of the provision.
  • 2017/18 saw a significant increase in the number of SIMD10 and Care-Experienced FTFE students both enrolled and achieving a recognised qualification, in line with the inclusion strategy. However, on courses of 160+ hours, the key groups often perform less well than their peers, in terms of the sector average. Whilst the number of care-experienced students enrolled on fulltime FE programmes continues to grow (178 in 2016/7, 245 in 2017/18) and the number of students achieving a recognised qualification following their fulltime HE or FE programme of study rose (71 in 2016/17, 138 in 2017/18) and the percentage of those achieving their HE qualification rose by 8.2% to 64.9%, the same was not the case for those on FE programmes; 41.2% achieved their qualification in 2017/18, which saw a decline from 46.8% in 2016/17. The College provides well-planned support for all care-experienced learners, as outlined in the Corporate Parenting Plan; transitions are supported through the regional Care Hub. Further work is underway to provide mentoring support with MCR Pathways.


Elliott Hudson College

2018 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
  • Provide work experience earlier in the study programme for students who would benefit from it because, for example, they are not planning to progress to university.


Esher College

2008 Full Insepction Report
Areas for improvement

The college should address:

  • low success rates in key skills
  • students’ achievement in a small minority of courses
  • planning to widen participation of students.


Essex Adult & Community Learning Service

2018 Full Insepction Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
  • Leaders and managers should help tutors, assessors and employers to set clear, measurable, skills-based targets for learners and apprentices so that they can gauge and monitor their own progress more effectively.
  • Leaders and managers should work to improve the proportion of learners who progress from non-accredited to accredited learning.
  • Tutors and assessors should be supported to provide clearer and more detailed feedback to learners about how they can improve their work.
  • Leaders and managers should ensure that a greater proportion of learners on accredited courses in functional skills mathematics develop a good range of skills that allow them to achieve their qualifications.


Exeter College

2014 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
  • Raise standards in the small number of underperforming adult courses by ensuring that:
    • learners receive high quality advice and guidance
    • lecturers set and rigorously monitor targets
    • more of the outstanding teaching and learning strategies that are used elsewhere in the college are adopted on these courses.
  • Raise the standards of foundation mathematics across the college by improving the consistency of teaching in mathematics lessons. Ensure that lecturers consistently plan lessons that provide opportunities for learners to apply mathematical skills in all subjects that they study.
  • Improve lecturers’ confidence to develop learners’ understanding of diversity in society and the workplace so that learners are even better prepared for progression into employment and further education.


Falmouth Marine School

2022 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve?
  • Leaders need to improve the quality of teaching in literacy and numeracy lessons so that students make better progress from their starting points, attend in higher numbers and achieve their qualifications.
  • Senior leaders must swiftly implement the new adult learning strategy and engage more hard-to-reach learners, including adults needing to improve their literacy and numeracy skills.
  • Managers must further develop the few teachers who are not yet sufficiently skilled in teaching theory topics to students, so that students understand the link between theory and practice.


Fareham College

2017 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
  • Improve achievement rates in GCSE English and mathematics by making sure that:
    • students with low prior attainment in these subjects receive challenging and realistic targets to help them achieve a good grade
    • teachers receive high-quality training and development so they are better able to plan and deliver sessions that engage, motivate and enthuse students to achieve
    • teachers set challenging targets and provide consistently effective feedback that extend students’ English and mathematics skills.


Farnborough College of Technology

2011 Full Inspection Report
AreasWhat does Farnborough College of Technology need to do to improve further?

Ensure that the awareness of cultural diversity is promoted well in all lessons and in reviews for work-based learners, to prepare learners for their future participation in a multicultural workforce.

Develop further the systematic sharing of outstanding practice in teaching and learning across the college, to ensure that more activities in lessons are planned consistently to provide suitable challenge for the more able learners.


Fashion Retail Academy

2016 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
  • Ensure that all teachers benefit from further staff training and ongoing observation to improve their systematic checking of learners’ understanding and progress in lessons, and to prepare learners more thoroughly for GCSE examinations.


Fife College

2019 Full Inspection Report
Areas for development

Internal systems and infrastructure

  1. Embedding wider career management skills to support the learner is not fully developed and embedded to effectively support positive destinations for the learner (QI 3.2)
  2. College systems do not always have the functionality to respond to external stakeholder requirements for data (QI 3.2)
  3. Accessibility to data and the ability to analyse data is not sufficient at all levels of the college organisational structure to ensure the effective use of data to identify issues and seek improvement (QI 3.2)
  4. Allocation and coordination of work based core skills is not fully effective to ensure improvement of PIs and learner success, particularly in the area of working with others (QI 3.2)

Communication and sharing of good practice

  1. College receipt of the early communication of identification of additional support needs for school leavers is not yet timely to ensure an effective transition for all pupils (QI 3.1)
  2. Celebration and formal recognition of successful learning and achievement is inconsistent across all curriculum areas (QI 3.2)

Planning and monitoring

  1. The success rates of the students from SIMD10 remained static at 60%, however there was a decrease of 12.9% for FTHE. PTHE showed a 15.3% increase. Successful outcome for FTHE SIMD10 students and Care Experienced students is significantly poorer than non FTHE SIMD10 students (QI 3.2)
  2. Successful outcome for Care Experienced students is significantly poorer than non-Care Experienced (QI 3.2)
  3. Opportunities for the promotion of equality and diversity in lessons are not always utilised as a learning opportunity to broaden learner knowledge and understanding (QI 3.1)
  4. Gender Imbalance in STEM related programmes showed an improvement from last session with 57% male and 43% female to 55% male to 45% female (QI 3.1)
  5. There is a need to address staff development covering the review of statistical PI data for professional services teams to ensure shared ownership and understanding of their impact on the learner experience (QI 3.2)
  6. Withdrawal rates on many courses continues to be an issue for 8 of the 16 Education Scotland subject groups delivered at FE level and 6 of the 14 Education Scotland subject groups delivered at HE level (QI 3.2.
  7. Successful completion on courses shows FTHE as the only high-level category with a decline in performance, a greater focus is needed on sectors and courses affecting this along with Education Scotland subject group and course level review to ensure an improvement towards and above sector average. Student Outcome and retention on FTFE and PTFE programmes showed an improvement from the previous session. The smallest improvement was FTFE 1.7% for Completed Successfully and the highest improvement was 5.7% for PTFE Completed Successfully, however the performance is still below Sector Average for all PI measures. FTHE PI data shows a slight decline in retention (down 1.4%) and Completed Successfully (down 1.3%) increasing the gap from Sector Average. PTHE showed significant improvement in retention (up 5.1%) and Completed Successfully (up 8.6%) with this PI now only 1.9% below sector average and the highest in the past 3 years (QI 3.2)
  8. Students who would benefit from the use of assistive technology are not always identified early, promotion of awareness and access to is not always communicated effectively (QI 3.1)
  9. A focus is required on curriculum design and qualification aims to address the partial success on FTHE and FTFE courses to improve performance to above sector average (QI 3.1)
  10. Closer partnership work is required to ensure more detailed and consistent advice is provided to school pupils at transition stages in order to improve outcomes for senior phase pupils on college programmes (QI 3.1)


Fircroft College of Adult Education

2014 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
  • Ensure that more teaching is outstanding by reviewing the observation of teaching and learning process so that it covers all aspects of the learners’ experience. Implement a programme of developmental observation to help teachers improve further their classroom practice.
  • Ensure learners’ individual learning needs are fully met by setting learning aims on short courses that are individual and specific to each learner. Provide sufficient stretch and challenge for the more able learners on the access programme.
  • Identify the reasons for the relatively weaker performance for access learners aged 19 to 25 and take effective actions to help them achieve as well as more mature learners.
  • Provide written feedback to learners on short courses within timescales that help them to learn from the assessment of their work and improve their performance.


Forth Valley College

2019 Full Inspection Report
Areas for Development
  • Whilst the College’s wide range of support services and arrangements are very effective in supporting students and meeting their needs, the College has recognised that these could be further enhanced by being more “joined up”. The College is developing a centralised Student Support System within its MIS, so that information about dialogues and interventions with individual students will be held centrally and available to all staff supporting the individual. This will also enable more accurate evaluation of the impact of College services and interventions.
  • The College is planning a review of the way in which it provides pastoral support to full-time students, to ensure that the available resources are being utilised to provide maximum impact on student success.


Franklin Sixth Form College

2018 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
  • Accelerate the progress that students make when they study A levels in biology, physics, psychology and English literature.
  • Further improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment by ensuring that teachers provide feedback to A-level students and adult students that helps them to understand how to improve their responses to questions that they may face in examinations and in their written assignments.
  • Improve attendance on adult learning courses by ensuring that all staff set high expectations for attendance and follow up non-attendance rigorously.
  • Further develop strategies to develop the skills that students need to be successful in adult life by:
    • carefully targeting work-related activities that students on 16 to 19 study programmes participate in, based on their starting points, to enable them to develop their skills and behaviours to their full potential
    • ensuring that adult students who study only vocational courses develop the English and mathematical skills that they need to secure employment or take on extra responsibilities in the workplace.


Furness College

2019 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
  • Ensure that leaders and managers monitor closely the progress that learners make throughout the year to make sure that they are challenged to reach their full potential and achieve high grades.
  • Improve teaching, learning and assessment by ensuring that teachers and tutors:
    • plan lessons effectively to ensure that the most able learners and apprentices achieve routinely the high grades of which they are capable
    • provide effective feedback to learners and apprentices that identifies accurately spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors in their work to prevent them from repeating the same mistakes in future
    • implement a curriculum for learners who have high needs that meets and fulfils their needs and aspirations and focuses on the achievement of the outcomes of their education, health and care (EHC) plans.

Report Recommendations