Morley College London

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 4234 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Dr Andrew Gower Principal and chief executive Morley College 61 Westminster Bridge Road Waterloo London SE1 7HT

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Short inspection of Morley College

Following the short inspection on 20 and 21 April 2016, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the service was judged to be good in January 2011.

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Short inspection of Morley College

Your students continue to receive good-quality education and training. Across the extensive range of provision, staff support them very well in the college’s inclusive and safe environments. Students work productively, make good progress on their courses, and often achieve well. They are very much at the heart of the college’s work and their views, which you collect efficiently, influence managers’ decisions significantly.

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Short inspection of Morley College

Since the previous inspection, and especially over the last two years, governors, leaders and senior managers have reviewed their own effectiveness skilfully. They have ensured that their work has the maximum impact on putting the college in the best possible position to benefit current and future students, and the communities which it serves. Coincident with your appointment, just one year ago, a restructure of the college management team took place. These clearer and more effective management arrangements are now providing better capacity, and stimulus, for change and improvement.

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Short inspection of Morley College

Governors play a key role in working with you and senior managers as you ensure that the college is best placed in its pursuit of becoming ‘outstanding’ and to respond to current and future opportunities and challenges. As part of this, the college’s ‘Strategic Plan 2016–2020’, with its three key strategic goals, objectives, and associated key performance indicators, is an excellent document, charting the way forward and how to measure the extent of progress. In this work, you have retained the uniqueness of the college very skilfully, with its powerful historical appeal to students, as you carefully develop new opportunities for students.

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Short inspection of Morley College

At the previous inspection, inspectors identified significant strengths in the college’s leadership and management, including the achievement of good outcomes for students, the good quality of provision, and leaders’ and managers’ good capacity to make and sustain improvement. The college’s range of provision was outstanding, and highly responsive, and its partnerships were also outstanding. Areas for further improvement were to: raise attainment, especially in externally accredited provision, through more rigorous assessment, target setting and monitoring of students’ progress; continue to improve the quality of teaching and learning overall; and develop the rigour of assessment further for non-accredited learning.

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Short inspection of Morley College

Governors, leaders and managers, and their hard-working staff, have made significant progress in successfully addressing each of the areas for improvement. Outcomes for students on non-accredited courses remain high. They have improved overall for the relatively small proportion of externally accredited courses, including English for speakers of other languages, but are not consistently high.

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Short inspection of Morley College

The quality of teaching, learning and assessment continues to improve, and is now good, having been satisfactory at the previous inspection. More rigorous quality improvement work, especially through your reliable scheme for the observation of lessons, has secured a greater consistency of good-quality teaching and learning. The proportion that is better than good is increasing well, but your key drive is towards increasing that proportion further. Much productive work has been done to improve tutors’ skills in target setting for students and to improve the overall rigour of assessment of learning, especially for students on non-accredited courses, but you identify this aspect correctly as one requiring further improvement. Better use of information and learning technology by tutors is now evident in many lessons.

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Short inspection of Morley College

The safeguarding of your students has the highest priority in the work of the college. Since the previous inspection, governors, leaders and managers have ensured that the college’s good arrangements for safeguarding continue to be implemented rigorously, with no current or recent safeguarding cases in relation to the college’s responsibilities. They review arrangements systematically and amend them to respond to changes in statute and regulation. As part of the secure and up- to-date safeguarding policy and procedures framework, all staff, including the very many hourly paid tutors, are trained well in safeguarding. You use risk assessment well to identify the extent and level of training needed for each member of staff, based upon their individual roles. Tutors and other staff in the many dispersed community venues are as thoroughly trained as those at the main college campus. Managers also use risk assessment well to ensure that, where necessary, they check

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Short inspection of Morley College

staff appropriately prior to, and during, employment. Tutors introduce students effectively to safeguarding as part of their induction, with particularly good use of impactful and helpful college videos. Reinforcement of safeguarding is evident in lessons. Your response to the ‘Prevent’ duty has been very skilful, in the context of an adult community college, as part of the excellent wider support for students. All key policies and procedures are in place and training is integrated well with the overall training for safeguarding. Liaison with key local and regional ‘Prevent’ duty agencies is good. The college makes a significant contribution to the safety and welfare of its students within their local communities and has excellent working arrangements with local and regional safeguarding agencies. Governors are very well informed about safeguarding and the ‘Prevent’ duty and fulfil their responsibilities effectively.

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Inspection findings

 The leadership and management of the college continue to be good. Governors, leaders and managers have ensured that the quality of provision for students is good, while working well to address the areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection. Outcomes for students remain good overall.  Students continue to benefit from good teaching, learning and assessment, which promote the good progress which most of them make on their courses. Leaders and managers have continued to improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment since the previous inspection, but are well aware that aspects of target setting and progress assessment still require improvement.  The college has good capacity to make and sustain improvements. Leaders and managers are more effective within the new, simplified, and clearer management arrangements. Senior and middle managers understand their curriculum areas better, know their staff and students better and have a more

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Inspection findings

positive impact on students’ experiences in college.  Governors’ expectations of themselves and of managers are high. Since the previous inspection, they have strengthened their role in strategic and business planning, improving the college’s capacity to respond to the current and future educational and financial challenges for community learning. They have also improved further their scrutiny of the college’s performance and have led the college’s work to introduce demanding and objective measures for success.  Leaders and managers work effectively to address areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection and through the college’s very accurate self-assessment of its strengths and weaknesses. The college’s own scheme for the observation of teaching and learning is rigorous. It influences the content of the college’s well-conceived staff development programme appropriately. Good developments are in hand to extend the range of observations to include more

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Inspection findings

developmental and peer appraisal.  Students enjoy their learning and often meet their own learning goals, valuing the social interaction their courses bring. Many attend for health and well-being reasons and to reduce their feelings of isolation. They often progress to other, more demanding, courses, including to some at other colleges or higher education institutions, or to employment, although the college does not yet have a complete picture of students’ progression after leaving Morley.

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Next steps for the provider

In pursuit of the college’s ‘journey to outstanding’, governors, leaders and managers should ensure that:

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Next steps for the provider

 the quality of teaching, learning and assessment continues to improve, in all subjects and areas of provision, paying particular attention to the promotion of consistently good student target setting and progress assessment, by all tutors  students’ success in assessments for externally accredited courses is consistently high  the already productive work to measure and analyse students’ progression when they leave the college continues apace.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, inspectors were assisted by the deputy principal, as nominee. We met with you, your senior managers, tutors, students and governors. Inspectors observed teaching, learning and assessment, and reviewed students’ written work. We reviewed key policies and documents, including those relating to self- assessment, performance and safeguarding. We also considered the views of students and employers.

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