West Cheshire College

West Cheshire College Re-inspection monitoring visit report

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Name of lead inspector: Steve Hailstone, Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Last day of inspection: 25 February 2016

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Type of provider: General further education college

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Address:

Ellesmere Port Campus Off Sutton Way Ellesmere Port Cheshire CH65 7BF

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Address:

Publication date: 17 March 2016 Inspection number: 10011243 Monitoring visit: West Cheshire College, 25 February 2016

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Context and focus of visit

This is the second re-inspection monitoring visit to West Cheshire College following publication of the inspection report on 11 November 2015, which found the provider to be inadequate overall.

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Context and focus of visit

At the inspection in September 2015, the effectiveness of leadership and management, the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, and outcomes for learners were judged to be inadequate. Personal development, behaviour and welfare were judged to require improvement. Study programmes for learners aged 16 to 19 were judged to be inadequate. Adult learning provision was judged to require improvement. Apprenticeships were judged to be good.

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Context and focus of visit

This second monitoring visit focused on the improvement action plan, monitoring underperforming programmes, the requirements of study programmes, actions taken to ensure that learners make good progress, the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, the quality of English and mathematics provision, and the quality of additional learning support.

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Insufficient progress

Since the last monitoring visit, leaders and managers have revised the post- inspection action plan. Although the majority of actions in the revised plan are clear and specific, the plan is still too long and detailed, and the impact measures still focus too much on improvements to processes rather than the impact of actions on learners’ progress and achievement. Governors and leaders lack a high-level action plan that would enable them to identify the main priorities for action and monitor progress. As a consequence, they do not identify the college’s current priorities for improvement or take sufficiently rapid action to tackle them.

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Insufficient progress

Leaders’ and managers’ reviews of the progress against actions in the plan are insufficiently evaluative. Improving punctuality is one of the areas for improvement, and a specific action in the plan is that all electronic registers should be marked within 10 minutes of the start of each session. The evidence to support that this action is being completed indicates that the policy has been implemented. However, it provides no specific details on, for example, the proportion of registers completed in line with the standard expected, and so does not give managers any early information about the levels of compliance. This means that data indicating that the current level of punctuality is high are unreliable. Monitoring visit: West Cheshire College, 25 February 2016 Managers’ reviews of the progress being made against the actions in the plan are often overoptimistic. For example, the risk rating for actions to improve the quality of

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Insufficient progress

English and mathematics provision is judged by senior managers as medium risk, indicating that reasonable progress has been made. However, this monitoring visit found evidence that insufficient progress has been made since the last visit.

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Insufficient progress

As a result of the weaknesses in setting improvement targets and monitoring progress, governors still do not have a clear understanding of the college’s current performance, or the progress that leaders and managers are making in tackling key weaknesses. Too much data prepared for governors is insufficiently clear; for example, key performance indicators about learners’ recruitment and levels of funding are confusing, and result in uncertainty about precisely what is being measured.

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Insufficient progress

Leaders and managers have finalised the 2014/15 self-assessment report. Too much valuable time has been used in producing a very long and detailed document that is insufficiently evaluative and fails to identify many areas for improvement.

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Insufficient progress

Leaders and managers make insufficient use of data to monitor performance. For example, in January they received a report that indicated that fewer than two thirds of learners were on track to achieve their minimum target grade, but they have not used this information to identify actions to improve the progress that current learners are making.

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Insufficient progress

A new programme area review process provides leaders and managers with regular reviews of progress in improving the quality of provision in all programme areas, including those which have underperformed. However, leaders and managers are not using the information that they receive from these reviews to monitor improvements. One review had been submitted incomplete but this had not been tackled. Another included comments about an unresolved issue relating to learners’ concerns about not being able to progress to a higher-level course, but senior leaders and managers were not aware of these comments or the lack of action by middle managers to resolve the issues.

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Insufficient progress

Programme managers are required to spend too much time completing review documents which are often not accurate and are not used effectively to improve performance. They regularly produce teaching, learning and assessment reviews, but much of the information in these reviews overlaps with that in the programme area reviews. Monitoring visit: West Cheshire College, 25 February 2016

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Insufficient progress

The college is not meeting its requirement to provide work experience or work- related activity for learners on study programmes. A recently introduced process for assessing learners’ readiness to carry out placements has provided leaders and managers with information that the vast majority of learners have the personal skills that they need for work experience. Despite this, too few learners have the opportunity to carry out work placements. At the time of the visit, only 14% of learners were either carrying out or had completed their placements; a similar proportion had placements planned. Almost three quarters of learners do not have any work experience planned for this academic year.

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Insufficient progress

The majority of learners who need to improve their English and mathematics skills are on appropriate courses. However, several learners whose previous GCSE grade was a D are not currently following GCSE courses to help them improve their grade. In at least one vocational area, an insufficient focus on developing learners’ English and mathematics skills has meant that some learners have been unable to meet the entry requirements for a higher-level vocational course, and have instead had to join a course at the same level in a different vocational area that does not meet their intended career choice.

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Insufficient progress

Leaders and managers have identified actions to improve the quality of careers guidance. However, the evaluation of progress in improving guidance takes insufficient account of its impact on learners’ progression at the end of their programme.

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Insufficient progress

Leaders and managers have made progress in ensuring that teachers set aspirational target grades for learners, and most learners are now aware of their target grades.

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Insufficient progress

Too many teachers are still not monitoring learners’ progress well enough. The targets that they set for learners are not always sufficiently specific, and reviews of progress are not frequent enough to ensure that learners make good progress. The summary reports that programme managers receive about learners’ progress do not provide them with sufficient information to identify learners who are at risk of not achieving. Managers recognise that further improvement is needed and are currently carrying out more training on using the system effectively.

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Insufficient progress

The progress that learners are making towards their targets is too slow. Only around one half of learners are on target to achieve their minimum target grade and only one third are on track to achieve their aspirational target grade. Monitoring visit: West Cheshire College, 25 February 2016 Attendance has improved since the last monitoring visit, and learners are clearer about the expectation that they attend lessons regularly. The expectations on attendance are not implemented consistently: for example, some subject areas allow learners to book routine dental appointments on days when they should be in college. The attendance of too many learners is sporadic, and the overall attendance rate is still too low, particularly on English and mathematics courses. Managers record absences more rigorously but do not always take sufficient action to improve attendance. Learners whose progress record indicates that they have a high level of

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Insufficient progress

absence are not always identified as being at high risk of withdrawing or falling behind with their work, and therefore intervention is not always rapid enough.

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Insufficient progress

One of the actions in the post-inspection action plan is for managers to be more visible around the college. However, at the beginning of the day, learners who arrive late for their lessons are not challenged as they arrive at the college.

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Reasonable progress

Recent actions that leaders and managers have taken to tackle weaknesses in the teaching, learning and assessment have resulted in improvements. Staff have benefited from relevant professional development activities to improve their practice. For example, they have visited another college to develop their skills in using innovative and motivating ‘starter’ activities to introduce their lessons.

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Reasonable progress

Teachers are more rigorous in ensuring that learners come to lessons prepared to work and that they behave appropriately in lessons. Inspectors saw a few examples of inappropriate behaviour in lessons, such as learners listening to music through earphones, but these were isolated rather than endemic and, in most cases, were challenged by teachers. In most lessons, learners show interest in their work and participate fully in activities.

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Reasonable progress

The learning environment at the Ellesmere Port campus remains inappropriate. The design and layout of teaching spaces means that learning is often disrupted by noise from other parts of the building. Leaders and managers have not taken action to improve the environment quickly, for example by introducing partitioning in open areas where this is practical.

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Insufficient progress

The quality of English and mathematics provision remains weak. Actions that managers have taken to improve the provision have had little impact so far. Most activities provide insufficient challenge to learners, and the pace of lessons is often too slow. As a result, learners often lose interest and make insufficient progress in improving their skills. Monitoring visit: West Cheshire College, 25 February 2016 Teachers do not plan lessons well enough to meet the individual needs of the learners in their groups who often have a wide range of abilities. All learners carry out the same activities, regardless of their prior knowledge and skills, and for some the work is too difficult while for others it is too easy.

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Insufficient progress

Teachers take insufficient account of the content of learners’ vocational programmes when planning English and mathematics lessons. They make insufficient use of examples that are relevant to learners’ vocational studies. As a result, too often learners do not see the relevance the English and mathematical skills they are learning have to their chosen vocation.

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Insufficient progress

The timetabling of courses is not helpful in ensuring that learners remain motivated. Some mathematics lessons are over three hours long. Learners who already have at least a grade C in English or mathematics and who want to improve their grade further are placed in lessons with learners who have not yet achieved a grade C; teachers do not ensure that the work is sufficiently challenging to help these learners to improve quickly.

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Insufficient progress

Leaders and managers have acted quickly to increase the volume of additional learning support by recruiting new learning support assistants who work in lessons alongside learners who need extra help. Learners with more complex additional needs benefit from good individual support that helps them to make progress.

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Insufficient progress

The new team of learning support assistants has received insufficiently clear guidance on their role in supporting learners who need extra help. They do not work with teachers to plan alternative activities to support their learners, and their role in lessons is often passive, involving waiting for the teacher to finish explaining an activity and then checking if the learner has understood. The new team has spent insufficient time working together to plan how they might best meet the needs of the learners they work with, and to share good practice.

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Insufficient progress

The measures identified by leaders and managers for evaluating the effectiveness of additional learning support focus predominantly on the level of support provided. They take insufficient account of the impact of support in improving learners’ progress and achievement. Monitoring visit: West Cheshire College, 25 February 2016 achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please

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Insufficient progress

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