CCP Graduate School Ltd

FE&S report CCP Graduate School Ltd Independent learning provider

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Inadequate

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Requires improvement

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This is an inadequate provider

 For too long, the quality of provision has not been good enough.  Leaders and managers do not have the capacity to bring about improvements and have an unrealistic and overly positive view of the quality of provision.  The standards of teaching, learning and assessment are inadequate.  Teachers pay insufficient attention to meeting the academic needs of individual students.  The monitoring and review of student progress by teachers and managers is weak.  The development of students’ mathematics, English and employability skills is poor.  Students’ punctuality and attendance are poor.  Achievement rates have steadily declined over time and the number of students achieving their qualifications is too low. However, students taking mathematics level 2 qualifications consistently achieve well.

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This is an inadequate provider

 Many students at CCP have significant barriers to learning and they benefit from effective pastoral support to help them with their personal lives.  Students feel safe while they are at CCP.

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Information about the provider

 CCP Graduate School Ltd (CCP) is a very small, independent learning provider based in the London Borough of Brent. CCP offers vocational study programmes to young people, many of whom have low prior attainment and often a history of disengagement from formal education. Students attend one of two training centres, in Neasden or, much more recently, in Stratford, east London. All learners are enrolled onto a 16 to 19 study programme; the subjects offered are business administration, customer service, information, communication and technology (ICT), mathematics and English.  The population of Brent is one of the most diverse in England and includes areas with high levels of deprivation. The number of pupils attaining five GCSEs, including mathematics and English, is well above the national rate, but slightly below that of all the outer London boroughs. The number of young people in Brent aged 16 to 18 that are not in education, employment or training is well below that of London as

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What does the provider need to do to improve further?

 The leadership should acquire the educational expertise to oversee the quality of provision and challenge the senior management team to make significant and rapid improvements.  Managers must urgently develop effective quality improvement arrangements that are comprehensive, robust and focus immediately on the significant long-standing weaknesses.  Managers must assess more accurately the standards of teaching, learning and assessment and introduce more effective measures to improve individual tutor performance, in order to ensure that all lessons are at least good and that students benefit from well-planned learning that takes full account of their individual needs and future ambitions.  Managers and staff must plan the curriculum much more effectively to ensure that all students benefit from training that motivates and encourages them to progress on to meaningful and sustained training or employment aligned to their career aspirations.

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What does the provider need to do to improve further?

 Teachers must ensure that the monitoring and recording of students’ progress is based upon the skills developed, and on what students can do and have learned, instead of simply recording the tasks they have completed.  Managers and staff must develop effective strategies to get significantly more students to attend and arrive on time.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

 The management of staff performance is poor. A wide range of recent staff training has had limited impact on improving the standards of teaching, learning and assessment. Since the previous inspection, standards have declined. Managers have an overly positive view of the quality of teacher performance in lessons. The actions raised following teacher observations are not sufficiently comprehensive or challenging and take too little account of the development of learning taking place, or the impact of poor punctuality and attendance.  Quality improvement arrangements are weak. Managers have a clear understanding of a few key areas for improvement. For example, raising achievement rates and improving the teaching and learning of English. However, they have had very limited impact on addressing the recommendations made at the previous inspection to improve further the standards of training. Self-assessment by managers is not

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

sufficiently accurate or critical.  Curriculum management is inadequate. Managers are well advanced in their plans to introduce a wider range of programmes, such as traineeships, that may be more appropriate to future students’ needs. However, the range of vocational training available is too narrow to meet the requirements of all students’ future plans. Insufficient recognition is given to a few students’ prior development of skills. Systems to track students’ progress effectively across all aspects of their programme are not sufficiently well-developed.  Managers and staff have a strong sense of commitment towards welcoming and supporting vulnerable young people, and they offer students good levels of pastoral support. However, they do not plan effectively to motivate and encourage all students to achieve what they are capable of. The resources to support the development of students’ mathematics and English skills are poor, and the use of work

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

experience to extend students’ employment skills is underdeveloped.  The governance of the provider – The chief executive and a small team of managers have oversight of the performance of CCP training. Over four successive inspections the senior management team have not improved the quality of provision adequately. Since the previous inspection, they have been ineffective in their attempts to either improve or maintain the standards of education and training. The capacity of the leadership to sustain future improvement is in doubt.  The arrangements for safeguarding are effective – Safeguarding arrangements meet current legal requirements. All staff are appropriately checked with the Disclosure and Barring Service. Managers and staff work well with a range of local agencies to protect and support vulnerable students. Students value highly the care and dedication they receive from staff and the safe and harmonious learning environments.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

– Managers have taken appropriate steps to promote the ‘Prevent’ duty to staff and meet their duties under counter-terrorism legislation. All staff have a clear understanding of ways to identify and refer those who are at immediate risk of radicalisation or engagement in extremist activity. However, not all students are sufficiently aware of these dangers.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is inadequate

 Many students attending CCP face multiple difficulties. Several have special educational needs and a disrupted education, suffer from illness and have problems with housing. Staff provide good pastoral support to help students overcome these personal difficulties. While students value this pastoral support, the provision to develop students’ technical and work skills and qualifications is inadequate.  The range of students’ skills, abilities and needs across the provision is very wide. Senior management have not put in place effective strategies and actions to help students develop the vocational and English and mathematics skills that they will need to find employment or move into further education.  Tutors do not take sufficient account of the range of students’ needs and abilities while planning learning tasks. For example, the content planned for an administration lesson is far above the students’

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is inadequate

understanding. In other lessons, tutors’ expectations of the students are too low, especially of the more able ones. Tutors do not challenge students sufficiently or enable them to make the progress of which they are capable.  The assessment of learning in lessons is not effective. Tutors’ use of questions to check learning is poor, and they often give students insufficient time to think and respond to questions. Although staff carry out progress reviews, they focus too much on the completion of qualifications. Many reviews lack an evaluation of the quality of learning, the progress that students make and how they can improve further.  Most students struggle with producing written course work to a good standard and yet vocational teachers do not focus sufficiently on the development of their written English. Teachers give too little feedback on students’ spelling, grammar and punctuation. This is especially problematic where students

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is inadequate

are working at level 3 and where their use of English language is a barrier to their achievement and progression. In addition, the level of the students’ handwritten work in several examples was significantly below that in electronically produced vocational assignments. Inspectors saw only one vocational lesson in which the teacher paid sufficient attention to the use of English; and none where mathematics was applied to the vocational context.  Students have access to discrete English and mathematics lessons, but the provision is too limited to be effective. A few staff mark students’ work incorrectly. Development targets are too general to help students improve. For example, ‘improve on maths grades to pass’ and ‘read more books’. English language tasks in discrete provision lack vocationally meaningful context.  Poor curriculum planning, resources and support hold back students who have not yet achieved a grade C

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is inadequate

or above in English and mathematics. Too many of these students only make use of functional skills resources when preparing to take the GCSE examination.  Most teachers have appropriate subject knowledge which they use to help students develop their vocational skills. However, not all are sufficiently skilled at teaching and assessment. The quality of the accommodation and resources is adequate. However, the classroom size and equipment in one of the two centres is insufficient to cope with the numbers of students enrolled.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare are inadequate

 Students’ punctuality and attendance are poor, and senior managers’ strategies to improve these have not been effective. Lessons start up to an hour late because of poor attendance by students. The few students who are on time are left to wait for lessons to start. Lateness and absence hinder the progress of students significantly.  The standards of vocational work and progress in lessons are too low. For example, too many students duplicate tasks that they have already successfully completed in previous lessons. While students’ completion of vocational units is adequate, the achievement of English and mathematics qualifications is low. The development of students’ English and mathematics skills is hindered by poor feedback on what they have done well and what they need to do to improve.  When enrolling students onto programmes, staff do not take sufficient account of what students have achieved before they arrive at CCP. In the worst case this results in units previously completed by a

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare are inadequate

student being repeated. Strategies to advise and support students with dyslexia or specific learning styles are ineffective.  Students feel safe and know whom to contact if they have any concerns. They treat each other with respect and those who have experienced bullying elsewhere report increased well-being at CCP. Students have a good awareness of e-safety and know how to stay safe online.  Students’ awareness of ‘Prevent’ is too variable. A minority have a good understanding of the dangers related to radicalisation and extremism. However, not enough students have developed a sufficiently good understanding of the concepts of British values or how to protect themselves against extremism and radicalisation.  CCP arranges work experience for its students, and appropriate processes and safeguards are in place to make sure that students are safe. Students who are less confident benefit from in-house placements

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare are inadequate

before they go out on a work experience with an employer. However, too few students currently on- programme have gone out on work placement, and there are no opportunities to experience working with more than one employer.

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Outcomes for students are inadequate

 Too few students achieve the qualifications they need to progress successfully. Overall achievement rates, including mathematics, English and vocational courses, have steadily declined over the past three years and are low. In 2014/15, less than half of 16- to 18-year-olds achieved the qualifications they were entered for. However, for the few students aged 19+, achievement rates are high.  Previously, the majority of students left their course early; too many of those that remained on- programme nearly to the end of their course failed to achieve any qualification or accreditation for vocational units. The number of students remaining on-programme in the current year is positive. However, the recording of student progress is weak and it is too early to judge whether achievement rates will improve. The standard of students’ work is poor.  Achievement rates in 2014/15 vary considerably by course, level, age and subject. For example, female

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Outcomes for students are inadequate

students achieved significantly less well than their male peers. The number of students achieving mathematics and English qualifications is low. For example, of the 12 students aged 16 to 18 years of age enrolled on the level 1 mathematics course, only two passed, compared to two thirds of students successfully achieving level 2.  CCP’s data states that, even though student achievement rates are low, considerably more students than those passing their qualifications progress into further training or employment. However, it was not possible to confirm this from student records or CCP staff.

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Provider details

Type of provider Independent learning provider

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full contract year

Principal/CEO Mr D Pathirana Website address www.ccpgraduateschool.uk

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Intermediate Advanced Higher

16-18 19+ 16-18 19+ 16-18 19+ 0 0 0 0 0 0 Number of traineeships 16-19 19+ Total 0 0 0 Number of students aged 14–16 N/A

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Intermediate Advanced Higher

Funding received from Education Funding Agency (EFA)

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Inspection team

Richard Beaumont, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Philida Schellekens Ofsted Inspector Maggie Fobister Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

The above team was assisted by the director of training, as nominee. Inspectors took account of the provider’s most recent self-assessment report and development plans, and previous inspection reports. Inspectors used group and individual interviews and online questionnaires to gather the views of students; these views are reflected within the report. They observed learning sessions, assessments and progress reviews. The inspection took into account all relevant provision at the provider. guidance ‘Raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234 , or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for students 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 telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team,

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Inspection team

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

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Inspection team

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk Learner View is a website where learners can tell Ofsted what they think about their college or provider. They can also see what other learners think about them too.

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Inspection team

To find out more go to www.learnerview.ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

Employer View is a new website where employers can tell Ofsted what they think about their employees’ college or provider. They can also see what other employers think about them too.

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Inspection team

To find out more go to www.employerview.ofsted.gov.uk .

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