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2024 Full Inspection Report

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

Leaders are passionate advocates for their students and apprentices. They understand the power that education and training has to transform lives and reduce social disadvantage. Their ambition to become the best college in the country is founded on the belief that their students and apprentices, staff and local community deserve the best education and training they can provide.

Leaders have made exceptional improvements to the quality of education and training they provide. Students and apprentices benefit from a comprehensive range of academic and technical curriculums that meet their needs and aspirations. Leaders respond very effectively to challenges affecting the specific sectors they work in. For example, they work collaboratively with NHS trusts to provide healthcare apprenticeships. Teachers ensure that the curriculum for students with high needs is comprehensive and enables students to develop the skills they need for adulthood.

Teachers and assessors sequence curriculums very skilfully. Students and apprentices systematically build on their prior learning and develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours they need to be successful. Students on the T Level in early years and education begin their placement at the start of their course so that they can develop their practical skills alongside learning about child development theory. On level 2 electrical installation, teachers work closely with employers and use information on regional skills gaps to plan the curriculum. They develop students’ understanding of core concepts so students can confidently apply principles such as Ohm’s Law in practical situations.

Teachers and assessors have extensive specialist knowledge. They use this effectively to plan and teach highly informative lessons. Teachers and assessors present information clearly and use a range of techniques to clearly explain new ideas. They provide meaningful recaps on prior learning, including using quizzes to check what students and apprentices know and can do. Most teachers thoroughly check students’ learning and understanding. In A-level business, teachers look closely at the work students are completing and ask them to talk through their thinking. They then adapt their questions accordingly and correct any misconceptions.

Most teachers and assessors provide high-quality developmental feedback that identifies what students and apprentices need to do to improve their work. Students and apprentices respond positively to this feedback. ESOL teachers help students to develop their confidence to correct themselves when they make mistakes. Most apprentices are well prepared for their final assessment and know what grades they are aiming to achieve. However, a few carpentry and joinery apprentices are not aware of what their final assessment consists of or the standard of their current work.

Students and apprentices are very well prepared for what they want to do next. The vast majority achieve their qualifications and an increasing number achieve high grades. A-level students make good progress from their starting points and over two-thirds achieve A* to C grades. On vocational courses, just over a third of students achieve distinction grades. The proportion of apprentices who achieve their apprenticeship is high and over half achieve merits and distinctions. Students with high needs and those who are care-experienced achieve exceptionally well. Adult students make substantial progress. They develop the resilience needed to overcome barriers such as balancing education with the demands of their personal lives and work.

Most students and apprentices progress to positive destinations. Almost all A-level students gain places at their university of choice and two-thirds of apprentices progress to a new work role. Almost all students with high needs move to their intended destination, continue their education or move to adult social care.

Leaders, teachers and assessors create calm, purposeful learning environments. They reinforce the high standards of behaviour they expect from students and apprentices using an ABC behavioural model (attend, behave and commit). At Thornton College, staff members skilfully redirect negative behaviours and encourage students to develop self-regulation techniques. Students are provided with a range of strategies they may need to de-escalate their behaviours using sensory equipment such as stress balls or mindfulness techniques.

Leaders promote a culture where students and apprentices are championed to achieve their potential. They provide students and apprentices with a clear line of sight to their next steps and career goals. Tutors provide highly effective impartial careers advice. They support students and apprentices to develop their interests and consider the breadth of roles available in the sectors they wish to work in.

Leaders use impactful quality assurance processes including the observations of lessons, reviewing students’ and apprentices’ work and conducting surveys. Leaders have an excellent understanding of what they need to do to improve. Leaders provide targeted support to bring about sustained improvement.

Teachers are dual professionals and experts in the subject they teach. Leaders support staff to maintain their industry expertise. For example, plumbing teachers visited a hydrogen village to develop their knowledge of hydrogen and biomass fuels. They use this new knowledge to teach students about the effectiveness of hydrogen as an alternative fuel. Teachers entering the profession straight from industry are enrolled on an ‘Off the Tools’ programme to help them swiftly develop their teaching skills.

Governance is highly effective. Governors have extensive experience and expertise in industry, compulsory education, and further and higher education. They use their expertise to scrutinise, challenge and support leaders to continue to bring about improvements. Governors know the college’s strategic priorities and support leaders to provide the best education and training they can for their students and apprentices.

2018 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve further?

• Lecturers should use the information from learners’ and apprentices’ starting points to plan learning that challenges:
  • the most able learners to make the progress of which they are capable
  • apprentices to develop new skills and make rapid progress.
• Leaders and managers should bring about rapid improvements in the quality of the apprenticeship provision by:
  • improving the proportion of apprentices who achieve on health and social care, construction and electrotechnical apprenticeships
  • identifying and narrowing achievement gaps for apprentices, including those on advanced-level programmes, apprentices aged 16 to 23 and those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities
  • increasing the proportion of apprentices studying with the subcontractor, Absolute Training Solutions, who achieve their apprenticeship within the planned time.
• Leaders and managers should improve learners’ and apprentices’ attendance on the courses where the rates are too low.

2015 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teachers’ written feedback ensuring that learners are clear about what they need to do better to improve the standard of their written work. Set clear and challenging targets to ensure that more learners, particularly the most able, achieve high grades.
• Make sure that all learners attend and are punctual; review existing strategies to ensure that they are applied consistently by all teachers and managers across the college.
• Ensure college-wide improvement in teaching, learning and assessment in functional English and mathematics, and increase learners’ successful completion of qualifications in these subjects. In particular, make sure that subject teachers emphasise to learners the importance of gaining qualifications in English and mathematics to secure employment and places in higher education.
• Make certain that all learners achieve their qualification for the minority of subjects where success rates are low.
• Ensure that all learners progress into higher study or employment through improved careers guidance and by teachers more closely focusing on learners’ plans for their future careers.

2010 Full Inspection Report

What does Hugh Baird College need to do to improve further?

• Improve the consistency of high success rates across the college and on all courses. In particular, improve success rates on short course programmes, building on recent improvements.
• Improve the questioning techniques teachers use in some lessons so that they extend the understanding of learners more effectively. To this end continue to develop and embed teaching and learning systems to disseminate good practice.
• Ensure that the additional learning needs of all learners are accounted for in the delivery of their vocational or academic programmes, sharing the best practice developed in special learning difficulties and disabilities, literacy and numeracy provision.
• Empower students to be more involved within college decision-making structures. Ensure the further involvement of students and their representatives so that their views are considered fully in all aspects of the college’s work.

2006 Full Inspection Report

Areas for improvement

The college should address:

• low pass rates on key skills courses
• inconsistency of group tutorials
• ensure the college plays a full role in Sefton 14-19 developments

2003 Full Inspection Report

What should be improved

• sharing of good practice in teaching and learning
• use of ICT in teaching o retention rates for adult students
• planning, teaching and assessment of key skills
• use of value added data to set targets for students and monitor their progress.

2000 Full Inspection Report

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