What does the provider need to do to improve further?
Ensure the continued improvement of teaching, learning and assessment, so that most is outstanding, and little requires improvement. Do this by building on the existing best practice of teachers, especially in outstanding areas of performance, in meeting the needs of all learners in lessons, and paying particular attention to providing sufficient challenge for more able learners. Help teachers to become fully accomplished in the use of information technology, to support learning as well as possible in lessons.
Ensure college-wide improvement in teaching, learning and assessment in foundation English and mathematics, and increase learners’ successful completion of qualifications in these subjects, by providing all teachers with the necessary skills and confidence to help learners improve. In particular, make sure that teachers improve learners’ understanding of the relevance of English and mathematical skills by integrating them into vocational studies, and by emphasising their importance in achieving qualifications, employment and places in higher education. Further ensure that teachers fully exploit naturally occurring opportunities in lessons to reinforce the relevance of English and mathematics, and that they always provide constructive feedback to learners on these aspects of their written work.
Ensure the continued and consistent improvement of learners’ successful completion by rigorous application of existing detailed quality improvement plans, both for level 2 courses for adults and for those AS-level subjects where success rates are low. In particular, build on the college’s best practice, in relation to initial advice and guidance for learners, and to personalised action plans for learners, after their probationary period.
Although the College’s student population has an overall gender balance that is 50:50 male-female, courses in specific subjects such as Hairdressing, Beauty, Construction and Care do not all reflect this balance. Further action is required to address this and make progress towards meeting national targets.
Although attainment rates are very high across all student categories and subjects, well above regional targets and generally at or above 70% across the various groups, there is further potential to improve outcomes to maintain consistently very high attainment rates across all groups and subjects.
The College should monitor the effectiveness and impact of its new approaches for Learning Support and Extended learning support. In line with national policy, the College should monitor the effectiveness and impact of the new British Sign Language Plan.
Although outcomes for students are already very high across diverse groups of students, the College would benefit from drawing on best practice from the wider UK college sector to further enhance outcomes.
Leaders must ensure that all apprentices who require English and mathematics as part of their course receive high-quality teaching to help them develop these skills swiftly and achieve the qualifications within the planned time frame.
Leaders must ensure that teachers identify swiftly the gaps in learners’ and apprentices’ knowledge – including in English and mathematics – and use this information to plan teaching, so that learners catch up and make the progress that they should.
Leaders must ensure that adult learners receive helpful information and guidance about their next steps to ensure that they are able to make informed decisions about their future careers.
Ensure that all learners who have high needs receive the individual support to enable them to flourish.
Leaders must ensure that, where provided, teachers’ written feedback is sufficiently helpful to enable learners to improve their work.
Leaders must ensure that all learners and apprentices have the knowledge to protect themselves from extremist activity in their local communities.
Leaders should ensure that teachers have high expectations of students to attend their lessons punctually. They should establish a consistent approach to rectifying poor punctuality so that students understand what is expected of them in all taught sessions.
Teachers in vocational subjects should plan to improve students’ English and mathematical skills so that they understand how to apply these confidently within the vocational context. Teachers should ensure that students with high needs improve their skills in English and mathematics throughout their programmes.
Managers and teachers should take further action to improve students’ attendance at English and mathematics lessons.
Leaders and managers should ensure that employers in health and social care apprenticeships and in subcontracted provision have a good understanding of the requirements of apprenticeship programmes. They should monitor carefully that apprentices receive their entitlement to off-the-job training.
Managers should ensure that students with high needs, adult students and apprentices receive detailed and helpful feedback on their work, so that they know what they need to do to improve.
Ensure that a higher proportion of learners who have high needs and for whom employment is an appropriate next step progress into paid work when they leave the college.
Improve the attendance of learners where it is too low.
Ensure that assessors help apprentices in health and social care to develop the new knowledge that they need to be successful at work and in their apprenticeship.
Improve assessment in the few areas where it is not good enough so that lecturers have an accurate understanding of the knowledge that learners are missing and can use it to inform future teaching activities.
What does South West College need to do to improve further?
The College needs to:
continue to implement the strategy to enhance the quality of teaching, training and learning and to provide the lecturers, including part-time lecturers, with appropriate professional support to develop further their pedagogic skills.
What does the Southern Regional College need to do to improve further?
The College needs to:
take a more strategic approach to the longer term planning for the curriculum, to ensure that it continues to fully meet the needs of learners, industry and the wider community;
improve the use of technology to support and enhance the quality of teaching, training and learning across the College;
further improve the quality of teaching and learning in the provision for the essential skills; and
address the satisfactory quality of the provision in transportation operations and maintenance (motor vehicle).
Ensure that all teachers on adult English and mathematics courses plan a sufficiently demanding curriculum that challenges learners to achieve high grades in their qualifications.
Ensure that the curriculum for apprentices, particularly those in engineering and health and social care, develops their knowledge, skills and behaviours quickly.
Ensure that adult learners on English and mathematics courses and apprentices in engineering attend their courses regularly.
Ensure that learners and apprentices develop a good understanding of radicalisation and extremism and how it applies to them.
Improve the quality of education for apprentices by:
identifying the starting points of apprentices more accurately, so that skills trainers can plan and teach programmes that enable apprentices to develop substantial new knowledge, skills and behaviours
developing more effective links with employers so that they are fully involved in the planning of on-the-job training
ensuring that managers provide more rigorous scrutiny of the progress that apprentices make in the development of their knowledge, skills and behaviours
providing all apprentices with the opportunity to receive careers advice.
Ensure that all teachers and learning support assistants have secure knowledge in the subjects they teach and in which they provide support.
Increase the attendance of learners at English and mathematics lessons.
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.
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
Leaders and managers need to rapidly improve the proportion of learners who pass their qualifications by ensuring that:
significantly more learners achieve the high-grade passes that their prior attainment suggests they are capable of, rather than just passing their qualifications
teachers and managers closely monitor the progress of learners and intervene appropriately when learners fail to meet their deadlines
managers support teachers to improve their teaching practice quickly so that more learners stay at college and enjoy their learning
learners of all ages attend their classes.
Improve the monitoring of learners’ next steps to better understand the impact courses have on the lives and future careers of learners.
Provide good-quality careers advice for learners so that they can make informed and timely choices about their next steps.
Ensure that learners with high needs develop their independent living skills to enable them to participate fully in college life and their community.
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
Improve further the quality of teaching, learning and assessment to ensure that teachers inspire and motivate learners to achieve their very best, enabling a higher proportion of them to achieve their qualifications, particularly younger learners at levels 1 and 2.
Ensure that teachers help learners to develop their skills in English and mathematics by providing them with strategies to improve the specific skills in which they are not yet proficient.
Improve further learners’ attendance and punctuality at lessons by setting high expectations for attendance, intervening swiftly when learners do not attend and supporting learners to attend most of their lessons.
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
Ensure that more learners make swift progress in improving their skills and achieving their qualifications in English and mathematics, by:
focusing managers’ and teachers’ actions more effectively on improving the support provided for functional skills
ensuring that all learners attend their classes in English and mathematics regularly and punctually
continuing to make improvements to the teaching, learning and assessment of GCSEs and functional skills.
Make sure that teachers set, monitor and review precise and ambitious targets for learners and apprentices that enable them to make rapid progress, particularly for the most able.
Reduce the variability in achievement between different groups of apprentices, by monitoring the performance of these apprentices carefully, identifying reasons for non-achievement and taking prompt action to address these.
Strengthen teachers’ regular use of a wide range of assessment techniques in lessons. Ensure that teachers use these to check frequently on students’ learning and progress and reshape their lessons appropriately to accelerate the pace, increase the level of challenge and deepen understanding where appropriate.
Promote students’ development of English and mathematics by reinforcing correct use of language, technical vocabulary spelling, reading, writing and use of mathematical skills in subject-based lessons. Ensure that teachers correct spelling and grammar consistently in written work.
Sharpen the effectiveness of students’ short-term targets in individual learning plans to help them accelerate the progress they make.
Make full use of opportunities to develop students’ learning about cultural differences.
Ensure the management of apprenticeships is more effective by monitoring their progress rigorously, strengthening the link between training and assessment and ensuring employers and learners understand the programme fully
Continue the sustained improvements that have already been made to the success rates for functional skills English and mathematics qualifications.
Analyse data in greater depth to identify where learners should be achieving better grades and intervene swiftly to improve performance.
Increase the thoroughness of progress monitoring for learners to ensure that targets are challenging and that learners know what they need to do to succeed and are supported to achieve their full potential.
Ensure that all managers identify and are familiar with key headline data and targets relevant to the provision that they manage.
Provide more support to enable teachers to challenge poor behaviour or inappropriate use of language. Ensure that the diversity within the community is celebrated more routinely and consistently well in teaching sessions.
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
Leaders and managers should use data more effectively to analyse the progress, performance and achievement of all students so that they can quickly identify any areas of concern and take rapid action to bring about improvements.
Leaders should take steps to close the gaps in the achievements of different groups of students who do not follow study programmes at level 3. In particular, they should ensure that:
students on study programmes at levels 1 and 2 and adults who have a recognised learning difficulty and/or disability receive the support that they need so that they achieve as well as their peers
the proportion of male students who achieve improves.
Governors and leaders should take effective action to resolve the remaining differences in the quality of provision and the outcomes for students at the two campuses by ensuring that good practice is shared effectively and areas of underperformance are dealt with swiftly. In particular, they should ensure that the proportion of students who remain on their courses at the Stockton campus continues to improve.
Leaders and managers should ensure that the starting points for all apprentices are accurately assessed and are used to inform learning plans that challenge apprentices and support them to make the progress of which they are capable.
Leaders and managers should identify apprentices’ English and mathematics skill levels promptly at the start of their apprenticeship and provide relevant training to support their continued development.
Leaders and managers should continue to refine the monitoring of apprentices’ progress to ensure that all apprentices make good progress towards completing their apprenticeship by the expected completion date.
Leaders should ensure that learners in receipt of high-needs funding are able to participate in a broader range of work experience activities, to enable them to gain a wider understanding of opportunities available to them in the world of work.
Leaders, managers, and governors must improve the oversight of safeguarding by:
ensuring that designated safeguarding leads and officers undertake training to enable them to record and monitor incidents accurately
improving the training for staff to ensure they all use the central system to report and raise concerns consistently.
Leaders and managers should ensure that all teachers and assessors accurately assess learners’ starting points and use this information to inform their teaching Leaders and managers should ensure that teachers and assessors provide sufficient feedback to enable learners to achieve to the level of which they are capable
Leaders and managers should ensure that attendance in a few subjects, including English and mathematics, improves.
Leaders must rapidly improve the curriculum and support for all learners with high needs and ensure that staff use effective strategies and interventions so that learners achieve their potential.
Governors must focus their support and challenge to better hold leaders to account so that they ensure improvements to the quality of education for learners and apprentices.
Leaders must ensure that all learners and apprentices are supported to retain what they have been taught about understanding the signs of and risks associated with radicalisation and extremism.
Leaders must ensure that they identify and respond effectively to the skills needs of stakeholders, developing the curriculum offer and providing appropriate high-quality education and training where required.
Ensure that staff communicate effectively with employers throughout the apprenticeship programme so that they know the progress that apprentices are making and can support them to achieve within the planned timescales.
Make sure that the quality of teaching in mathematics is of a consistently high standard so that the proportion of learners achieving their qualifications improves.
Improve learners and apprentices’ attendance in English and mathematics lessons in line with college expectations.
Increase the contribution employers make to the planning, development and teaching of the curriculum, in particular in electrical installation and childcare programmes, so that the taught curriculum meets the specific needs of these sectors.
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
Improve the effectiveness of lesson observations by ensuring that that they include clear judgements on learning and assessment, and that they lead to effective action for improvement.
Make more effective use of the results of initial assessment to plan lessons that meet all learners’ needs.
Improve the use of learning technology including interactive whiteboards, to enliven lessons, involve learners more fully in their learning, and promote learning through a wider range of audio and visual resources.
Make better use of the self-assessment process and report by identifying strengths and areas for improvement in more detail, and ensuring that the report leads to a more ambitious action plan that drives quality improvement, particularly in teaching, learning and assessment.
Improve arrangements to ensure the security of staff and safety of learners, especially younger learners and vulnerable adults, by carrying out a thorough assessment of risks and taking all reasonable steps to minimise these risks, particularly in the café and reception area.
What does the provider need to do to improve further?
Implement fully, actions to ensure that teachers promote good or better progress for all learners within and outside lessons by ensuring teachers:
have consistently high expectations of all learners to encourage them to achieve their full potential
focus specifically on skills development rather than the completion of tasks, providing feedback of a consistently high quality to learners on the standard of their work, so that they know more precisely what they need to do to improve their performance
measure learners’ progress more frequently and thoroughly, and use challenging targets to help learners achieve their potential.
Reinforce clearly the expectations of vocational teachers in developing English skills across all subjects and support them to become confident and expert in these. Improve further learners’ English and mathematical skills through skilful use of vocational examples in learning and improve the teaching and learning of English by the specialist team.
Develop further the offer and increase the uptake of work experience so that all learners on vocational courses have a real experience of work.
Improve the way in which managers use the full range of data available to them to self-assess more accurately the relationship between outcomes data and the quality of teaching and learning.
