Richard Huish College
2007 Full Inspection Report
Areas for improvement
The college should address:
- success rates in key skills
- enlarging the refectory area
- extending the imaginative use of ILT in lessons.
Inspection Report Recommendations
Richard Taunton Sixth Form College
2019 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
- Managers should take swift action to make sure students’ attendance improves across all subjects.
- Managers should ensure that more students on study programmes develop work-related skills by completing meaningful work experience or work-related activities.
- Leaders and managers should take swift action to make sure all students make the progress of which they are capable and achieve their qualifications.
- Leaders and managers should improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment by:
- ensuring that all teachers plan and deliver interesting and challenging lessons to meet the needs and abilities of all students
- ensuring that students achieve their potential by setting them ambitious targets, closely monitoring their progress and intervening where progress is slow
- ensuring that teachers check learning more frequently and effectively.
Richmond & Hillcroft Adult & Community College
2020 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve?
- Leaders and managers should develop further their staff development programmes so that all tutors develop their pedagogical expertise to the same high level.
- Tutors should ensure that learners, in particular those who will work with people who may be vulnerable, are fully aware of how to keep themselves and others safe from the dangers of extremism and radicalisation.
- Leaders and managers should ensure that they have more precise information about what learners do once they complete their course and use this to consider future curriculum development.
Richmond upon Thames College
2017 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
- Increase the proportion of apprentices, particularly in construction, who achieve their qualifications in the planned time by:
- ensuring that teachers and assessors review more frequently and effectively the progress apprentices make
- ensuring that leaders and managers use the same level of scrutiny for apprenticeships as they do for other provision in the termly management assessment panels, in order to identify quickly apprentices who are not on track to achieve in the planned time and to put actions in place to support them promptly.
- Continue to increase the number of students at level 3 who achieve high grades and make the rapid progress they are capable of by:
- raising further the skills of teachers to enable them to plan and teach lessons that consistently and fully meet the needs of individual students
- making sure that teachers provide lessons of an appropriate pace and level of challenge to help the most able students to make rapid progress and achieve or exceed their target grades.
Riseholme College
2017 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve?
- Teachers and assessors should plan additional activities and offer extra qualifications to their most able learners on study programmes to enable them to achieve high grades; and extend apprentices’ skills beyond the expectations for competence set out in the apprenticeship qualification frameworks.
- Managers should provide training and support to ensure that teachers and assessors are competent and confident enough to teach mathematics from entry level up to GCSE. They should also ensure that there are enough teaching staff in place to cover all taught classes, so that learners benefit from the consistency and continuity that they need to develop their skills in mathematics.
- Managers and teachers should strengthen and widen the range of activities that they use to make learners fully aware of the risks posed by radicalisation and extremism, and increase learners’ level of understanding of these risks while they are at college.
- Managers need to devise a range of measures in the college’s quality improvement plan so they can assess when actions have been successful.
Riverside College
2020 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider do well and what does it need to do better?
Leaders have exceptional links with local employers and regional business groups, including the local enterprise partnership and regional mayoral authorities. They collaborate with them to create a challenging curriculum designed to help learners and apprentices achieve their ambitious career goals.
Rochdale Sixth Form College
2013 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
- Improve the success rates and progress of students in a small minority of subjects.
- Implement fully the existing plans to develop processes and external links with employers and the world of work to enhance students’ learning.
- Promote equality and diversity more explicitly in lessons where naturally occurring opportunities arise.
Rotherham College
2019 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
- Improve the achievement of apprentices by:
- accurately measuring their starting points and using this information to develop their training plans
- improving their induction into the apprenticeship programme so that they can begin to make progress quickly
- continuing to monitor their progress closely and ensuring that staff intervene quickly if apprentices struggle or fall behind
- increasing the proportion of apprentices who achieve mathematics and English qualifications for those who need them.
- Continue to strengthen the quality assurance arrangements across the group so that governors, leaders and managers use accurate information to implement precise improvement actions where performance is not good enough.
- Quicken the pace of improvement in teaching, learning and assessment on study programmes by:
- developing teachers’ skills in questioning and assessing students’ knowledge and understanding in lessons
- ensuring that students complete activities that are matched to their level and ability so that they are challenged to reach their potential and motivated to take pride in their work
- ensuring that mathematics and English teachers provide teaching and learning activities that enable students to make good progress and achieve the qualifications that they need.
Royal National College for the Blind
2017 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
- Ensure that all health and safety risk-assessment documentation is up to date, by ensuring that actions taken to control risks are clearly and accurately recorded, are timebound and are reviewed regularly to ensure that risks have been effectively tackled.
- In order to improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment continuously, make sure that:
- teachers provide all students with learning targets that are specifically linked to the development of their written communication and numerical skills, so that, as well as achieving their qualifications, they develop further the skills they need to live independently
- teachers provide all students with detailed written feedback (or equivalent depending on individual need) so that they know what to do to improve their writing skills and the quality of their work
- managers provide feedback to teachers on the quality of their teaching that focuses explicitly on the progress, skills development and standard of work achieved by students in lessons and over time
- managers make use of the findings from the observation of lessons when reviewing the quality and outcomes of teachers’ work, and identify how teachers can improve the quality of their teaching.
Runshaw College
2008 Full Inspection Report
Areas for improvement
- There are no significant areas for improvement
Ruskin College
2012 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
- Raise success rates for the foundation English, certificate to higher education (HE) and the range of lifelong learning courses by ensuring that staff monitor students’ progress in a more coordinated, effective way, and that academic and support staff liaise more closely and share information about students where appropriate.
- Further improve the quality of teaching and learning by better planning to meet individual learning needs, particularly for group sessions, through more focused questioning and a wider range of learning activities.
- Simplify the college’s strategic planning and monitoring procedures by ensuring appropriate staff are fully aware of their personal role in achieving and routinely reporting on specified actions.
- Make the observation of teaching and learning a more effective part of the performance management of teachers by ensuring that lesson observations take place as intended, that areas for improvement are described in detail and action points reviewed promptly, and that rigorous, transparent and consistent performance management procedures underpin the entire scheme.
Saint Brendan's Sixth Form College
2012 Full Inspection Report
What does the college need to do to improve further?
- Improve the proportion of students who achieve high grades at A level through a range of teaching strategies. These should include: using more appropriate extension activities to meet the needs of able students; making more effective use of assessment to promote high achievement and sharing the insights of teachers in subjects where students do achieve a high proportion of grades A*to B.
- Review the use of information and learning technology (ILT) in lessons. Use existing expertise to promote more innovative and imaginative use of new technology throughout the college, where appropriate.
- Review the curriculum offered to students. Specifically, evaluate the number of subjects and examinations taken by most second-year students in order to ensure that this is not having a negative effect on students’ achievement of high grades at A level.
- Improve data management. Ensure that the college complies fully with all the funding agency rules for the accurate return of student data so that all stakeholders are absolutely clear about the performance of the college.
- Strengthen self-assessment and quality assurance procedures through ensuring that an agreed set of relevant data is used throughout the college to judge the effectiveness of provision. Use the analysis of these data to make clear judgements and formulate action plans, with precise and carefully monitored targets, designed to improve provision further.
Saint Charles Catholic Sixth Form College
2020 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve?
- Leaders should focus on developing a stronger and more focused rationale for the curriculum offer so that it meets students’ needs and those of local stakeholders.
- Teachers need to improve assessment so that they identify gaps in students’ knowledge and understanding and take action to reduce these.
- Teachers need to ensure that curriculum planning, sequencing and teaching in all A-level subjects are adapted towards two-year linear courses.
- Leaders and teachers need to set higher expectations in relation to students’ punctuality to lessons.
Saint David's Catholic Sixth Form College
2019 Full Inspection Report
Recommendations
- Establish effective arrangements for obtaining information about new learners’ additional learning needs from key partners
- Ensure that all relevant learners have appropriate progression pathways to help them improve on their prior GCSE grades in English and mathematics
- Help all learners to develop their understanding of the Welsh language and the culture of Wales
- Make sure that learner punctuality issues are monitored and addressed effectively
Saint Dominic's Sixth Form College
2008 Full Inspection Report
Areas for improvement
The college should address:
- the strengthening of the Skills for Life provision
- the further improvement of the proportion of high grades for GCSE mathematics.
Saint Francis Xavier Sixth Form College
2018 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
- Continue to increase the proportion of students at level 3 who achieve or exceed the grades expected of them relative to their prior attainment by:
- raising further the skills of all teachers to enable them to plan and teach lessons that consistently and fully meet the needs of individual students
- making sure that all teachers provide learning at a level of challenge to help the most able students to make rapid progress.
- Leaders should improve the overall achievement rates of students on A-level courses, by ensuring that the number of students who remain on their course and take their examinations in this academic year remains high.
Saint Helens College
2020 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve?
- Governors should establish a stable leadership team that creates an aspirational culture and ambitious curriculum where students and apprentices thrive and achieve.
- Design programmes for students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities well so that they are prepared effectively for adulthood.
- Ensure that teachers plan a curriculum that challenges students to achieve high grades in their qualifications.
- Ensure that the curriculum for apprentices, particularly those on engineering and construction frameworks, develops their knowledge, skills and behaviours quickly.
- Improve careers information, advice and guidance so that these are clear, accurate and meaningful so that students and apprentices understand the range of options available to them to meet their aspirations.
- Ensure that students attend their courses regularly.
Saint John Rigby Sixth Form College
2017 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
- Improve high grades in the few A-level subjects where students do not always achieve the high grades expected of them.
- Ensure that the most able students are challenged through insightful questioning to explain their reasoning and thereby deepen their thinking skills.
Saint Vincent Sixth Form College
2018 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
- Managers should make sure that students’ attendance improves in all courses and in tutorials. Teachers should make sure that students understand the importance of attending all lessons regularly and punctually.
- Teachers should set aspirational targets for students earlier in their programmes of study so that all students are clear about what they need to improve and have the time to make such improvements.
- Leaders and managers should implement their well-considered strategies to improve the proportion of students achieving their qualifications and closely monitor the impact of their actions.
Salford City College
2010 Full Inspection Report
What does Salford City College need to do to improve further?
- Improve success rates on AS-level and Skills for Life courses. Ensure that success rates in all subject areas are consistently high. Improve the progress students make on the minority of advanced-level courses where value-added scores are low.
- Improve support and progress review arrangements on employer-responsive provision by the better structuring of literacy and numeracy support, the inclusion of wider welfare issues and better target setting for learners.
- Continue to improve the quality of teaching and learning through sharing good practice and moderating the observations of teaching and learning. Extend the observations of employer-responsive provision to include all aspects of learning.
- Tackle the variability and underdevelopment of quality assurance arrangements in a few areas, including employer-responsive provision, so that they are consistent across the college.
Salisbury Sixth Form College
2017 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
- Provide effective professional development and support to managers and teachers to identify and implement improvements to raise the standard of teaching further, and enable all learners to achieve their full potential.
- Provide more opportunities for learners to develop work-related skills through work experience and greater contact with local employers.
Sandwell Adult & Family Learning Service
2018 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
- Improve the minority of teaching and learning which are not yet good by:
- ensuring that all teachers adapt their learning activities to meet the needs of learners; in particular those with learning difficulties and disabilities, those who speak English as an additional language, and the most able learners
- identifying existing good practice, and sharing this knowledge, skill and understanding with teachers so that there is improved consistency, and more learners progress well.
- Improve the management information systems, so that managers receive timely information about the attendance, retention and progress of current learners to enable them to take prompt action to identify and rectify underperformance by groups of learners.
- Further improve the outcomes of learners on mathematics functional skills level 1 courses by continuing the current management strategy of recruiting, training and closely managing the performance of teaching staff in this area.
- Broaden and extend learners’ understanding of the dangers of radicalisation and extremism by:
- improving the confidence and knowledge of teachers so that they are able to discuss with learners the different aspects of radicalisation and extremism
- ensuring that learners have more opportunities to express their understanding of the different forms of extremism as it affects their local community.
Sandwell College
2014 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
- Continue to raise the standards of classroom practice so that more students benefit from outstanding teaching and learning that challenges and stretches all of them.
- Identify the reasons for the relatively weaker performance on long courses for students and apprentices aged 16 to 18 and take effective actions to help them improve further.
- Implement actions to ensure that teachers’ written feedback on students’ marked work is more detailed and constructive, to help students understand how they can improve further.
- Develop further links with external partners to support more students on study programmes to improve their employability skills through the provision of work placements or work experience.
Scarborough Sixth Form College
2019 Full Inspection Report
What does the provider need to do to improve?
- Improve the quality of information that governors receive so that governors are able to hold leaders and managers fully to account for addressing weaknesses in the provision and improving the quality of education further.
- Improve the recording of actions taken following safeguarding incidents to remove the risk that actions may not be fully implemented. Improve the recording of safeguarding training for staff to avoid the risk that some staff may not receive mandatory training.
- Ensure that all learners who do not plan to go to university receive advice and guidance about all the opportunities available to them when they leave college.
- Increase the proportion of learners in business, health and social care, and sport who produce high-quality work at the first attempt.
Scarborough TEC
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.
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.