City College Nottingham

City College Nottingham Report following a monitoring visit to a ‘requires improvement’ provider

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Type of provider: Independent specialist college

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Address:

Carlton Road Nottingham NG3 2NR Monitoring visit: City College Nottingham, 12 December 2018

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Context and focus of visit

City College Nottingham was inspected in November 2017. At that time, inspectors judged the overall effectiveness of the provision to require improvement.

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Context and focus of visit

The focus of this monitoring visit was to evaluate the progress that leaders and managers have made in addressing the main areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection.

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Context and focus of visit

City College Nottingham was established in 1993 and operates from venues in Nottingham, Derby, Leicester and Stoke-on-Trent. It provides 16 to 19 study programmes and apprenticeships through subcontracting arrangements with a number of colleges. In addition, it holds direct contracts for the provision of adult learning programmes. City College Nottingham offers a range of programmes that include childcare, health and social care, construction, electrical installation, information and communication technology (ICT), beauty therapy, fashion and textiles, professional cookery, business studies and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL). In January 2018, the college became a provider of intermediate and advanced apprenticeships.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders and managers have implemented appropriate arrangements to evaluate the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. They make good use of suitably rigorous internal audit processes to identify and address successfully areas for improvement. An adequate number of trained observers now evaluate the quality of taught sessions through direct observation. The outcomes of the process usually lead to suitably detailed and monitored action plans that improve standards. Tutors are subject to effective performance monitoring and review where managers identify weak performance. Managers have started to improve the sharing of good practice. For example, they are beginning the use of peer observation so that tutors can experience professional practice of a high standard. However, this and the comprehensive use of direct observation to improve teaching, learning and assessment are relatively new. Consequently, it is too soon to judge their

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Reasonable progress

effectiveness in raising the quality of taught sessions for all learners.

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Reasonable progress

The self-assessment process uses a suitable range and variety of stakeholders’ views and data to inform judgement formulation. The brief allied report makes adequate reference to the experience of learners. However, it gives too little attention to an assessment of learners’ personal and social development. Managers regularly review Monitoring visit: City College Nottingham, 12 December 2018 the associated quality improvement plan and have made adequate progress in achieving stated actions. They have yet to set and exploit enough measurable targets to aid fully the plan’s implementation. The college’s management information systems do not capture the progression to higher level courses and destinations of all learners who achieve. This limits managers’ ability to evaluate and improve current quality assurance procedures.

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Reasonable progress

Since the previous inspection, leaders and managers have improved attendance monitoring arrangements. All staff have received useful training to ensure that they have a good awareness of how to deal with learners who do not attend regularly. Learners who fail to attend planned sessions receive rapid follow-up by the college. This includes a relevant escalation process for further action where learners’ attendance is deemed unacceptable.

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Reasonable progress

Tutors and managers know their learners well. They have a good appreciation of the barriers to learners’ participation and the causes of individuals’ erratic session attendance patterns. Welfare staff work closely with tutors to successfully re-engage individuals back into learning. Learners’ attendance has generally improved since the previous inspection, although managers acknowledge it is not consistently high enough across the provision.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders and managers have appropriately prioritised improvements to careers information, advice and guidance processes and procedures that benefit all learners. Since the previous inspection, the ability of staff to provide effective help has improved. Sufficient staff are now professionally qualified and competent to support learners to make informed choices about their futures. Learners receive suitably independent help at the beginning and throughout their time on programme. Recording of the outcomes of guidance sessions is usually adequate. However, in a minority of cases action plans do not include sufficient detail. This limits how well learners can plan and accomplish agreed actions within agreed timescales.

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Reasonable progress

Managers are aware of the widely recognised external benchmarks for the development of effective careers information, advice and guidance. They appreciate fully their importance in improving the quality of learners’ support. The benchmarks, and other quality indicators, are not yet part of formal review processes to improve the standard of service learners receive. Managers acknowledge that not enough study programme learners take part in work-related activities to inform their awareness of available career options. Monitoring visit: City College Nottingham, 12 December 2018

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Reasonable progress

Tutors plan classroom sessions to ensure that the large majority of learners develop a secure knowledge and understanding of topics. Most tutors check learners’ understanding routinely through effective questioning and assessment methods such as presentations and case studies. As a result, learners become confident in their knowledge and skills. They are prepared well for future tests and examinations. In a few cases, tutors do not check sufficiently whether learners have grasped key concepts or terminology.

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Reasonable progress

Learners usually participate in well-planned activities that challenge them to develop at a suitably rapid pace. This is particularly the case where learners need to develop practical skills. For example, learners studying beauty programmes quickly become adept at mastering massage techniques and treatments including tapotement, wringing, hot stones and Indian head massage. Brickwork learners develop good trowel skills. They make rapid progress in applying their learning to build complex architectural brickwork designs.

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Reasonable progress

In a few cases, tutors do not ensure that learning activities link sufficiently well to the programme’s planned aims. This distracts learners from developing fundamental knowledge on which they can build further. For example, learners undertake quizzes that occupy significant amounts of time but are not clearly related to the programme’s goals.

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Reasonable progress

Learners receive an appropriate assessment of their English and mathematics skills’ development needs before beginning their programme. Tutors usually make effective use of this information to plan activities that close the gaps that learners have in these skills. Tutors generally develop learners’ English and mathematics skills further, so they apply them to a range of scenarios. For example, business studies learners use their newly acquired skills to accurately calculate business and finance costings.

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Reasonable progress

Tutors provide learners with appropriate feedback that helps them improve their work. Learners effectively use this feedback and, where set, the targets they receive highlight the skills and knowledge they need to succeed further. However, a small minority of tutors do not give enough feedback to help more able learners achieve their full potential. This is particularly the case in sessions where tutors spend a significant amount of time supporting least able learners.

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Reasonable progress

Most teaching resources are adequate to support learning. However, ICT learners’ development is hindered as they do not have routine access to the most current features of relevant operating systems and software. Additionally, a minority of learners do not have ready access to books and other resources held in the learning resource centre. Monitoring visit: City College Nottingham, 12 December 2018

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Reasonable progress

Tutors have undertaken relevant training to raise their awareness of fundamental British values and their ‘Prevent’ agenda duty. Most tutors effectively plan activities to develop learners’ understanding of how to protect themselves and stay safe. Learners generally have an adequate or better understanding of these topics. This contributes to the collaborative and respectful culture in which learning takes place. For example, in one lesson learners presented information about their cultural heritage provoking questions about lifestyle and customs from their peers. Learners talked freely about the benefit of the rule of law, democracy and freedom of speech. This contributed effectively to increasing learners’ awareness of different groups who live in Britain. In another session, business studies learners explored the process of radicalisation leading to extremist behaviour in a wide variety of settings. Learners

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Reasonable progress

skilfully linked the theme to whether businesses should actively promote the ‘Prevent’ duty as part of corporate social responsibility. This successfully deepened their understanding of both topics. Monitoring visit: City College Nottingham, 12 December 2018 the guidance ‘Raising concerns and making a complaint about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-about-ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . Learner View 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. To find out more go to www.learnerview.ofsted.gov.uk .

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Employer View Employer View is a 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. To find out more go to www.employerview.ofsted.gov.uk .

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regulates and inspects to 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 children looked after, 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

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

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T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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