Horizons College

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

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Name of lead inspector: Tracey Zimmerman, Ofsted Inspector

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Type of provider: Specialist further education college Address: Unit 5, Bincknoll Lane Interface Business Park Royal Wootton Bassett Wiltshire SN4 8QQ Monitoring visit: Horizons College, 7 and 8 December 2022

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Context and focus of visit

Horizons College was inspected in December 2021. 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 resolving the main areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection.

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Context and focus of visit

Horizons College is part of Brunel Education, a private company limited by guarantee. It was registered as an approved provider in 2014. The college has recently moved to new premises in Royal Wootton Bassett. It provides specialist education for young people between 16 and 25 years of age who have a wide range of learning difficulties and/or disabilities. Learners include those who have a high level of need and those for whom employment will be an outcome.

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Reasonable progress

Since the previous inspection, leaders have redesigned the curriculum. They developed and piloted the new curriculum from January 2022 and implemented it fully from September 2022. The new curriculum is designed to recognise what learners should and could be able to do, to prepare them for adulthood. It includes content on employment, skills for independent living, health, community inclusion, English, mathematics and digital skills, and where appropriate, the achievement of relevant qualifications.

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Reasonable progress

Teachers plan effectively the curriculum for each learner, using feedback from parents, carers and the professionals at their previous education establishment. They include the learners’ employment ambitions, personal goals and preferences, such as swimming and relaxing, within the planned curriculum.

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Reasonable progress

Teachers, learning support assistants and therapy staff use learners’ educational health care plan (EHCP) targets very well, along with the results of their assessments, to create appropriate and meaningful termly targets.

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Reasonable progress

Teachers plan learners’ targets carefully to ensure that they are useful both in college and in the wider community. As a result, learners are better prepared for adulthood. For example, improved communication is critical for learners who have profound multiple learning disabilities (PMLD). Teachers build in learning activities, Monitoring visit: Horizons College, 7 and 8 December 2022 such as visiting the college coffee shop, to provide all learners with opportunities to communicate with community members, using assistive technologies.

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Reasonable progress

Teachers work collaboratively with each learners’ support and therapy team to plan and teach effective learning sessions. This includes sharing expertise and agreeing the appropriate teaching, support and therapy strategies, learning activities, and resources required by each learner. As a result, learners take part in learning activities where they develop new and useful knowledge and skills that help them prepare for adulthood. Since the move to the new college building, learners, including those who have PMLD, take part in more and varied enrichment activities, such as cooking in a kitchen and meeting employers through the careers fair.

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Reasonable progress

Overall, at this stage in the term, leaders have identified that most learners are making at least the expected progress in learning the curriculum and achieving their targets. A few learners are not yet making the expected progress because of challenges that are beyond the control of leaders.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders have devised quality assurance processes that ensure that all staff understand their roles and responsibilities. Leaders continuously review the curriculum to ensure that it meets the needs of learners and that their EHCP outcomes can be met.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders have put robust processes and procedures in place to ensure that all new systems and ways of working have a positive impact on learners. For example, work experience officers visit employers to check that placements are meaningful and that the learners gain substantial new skills, knowledge and work behaviours. Leaders check learners work folders to ensure consistency across all learners.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders continuously check new ways of working to ensure uniformity across the provision and have amended procedures if they are not having the desired impact on learning. For example, leaders check all learning plans to ensure that they cover all the EHCP outcomes for learners. They give appropriate feedback to teachers and recheck them to ensure that all learners can make at least the expected progress towards their long-term goals, aspirations and EHCP targets.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders have put in place comprehensive processes to assure themselves of the quality of the education learners receive. Teachers feel well supported by leaders and have been given clear guidance on what is expected of them. Leaders assess teaching and use the findings of their internal processes well to support staff to improve their skills in teaching. Teachers receive valuable feedback on how they Monitoring visit: Horizons College, 7 and 8 December 2022 can improve the learning experiences of their learners. Leaders recheck to see that teachers have made the improvements suggested.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders recognise that it is too early to see the full impact of these new systems and processes.

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Significant progress

Learners benefit from sensitive and very effective teaching around topics such as British values, extremism and radicalisation. Staff constantly revisit these topics during tutorial sessions so as not to overwhelm learners with too much information in one go. Learners are confident about these topics and know how they can get help if they are worried. Within a tutorial session for learners with PMLD, the teacher used the decorating of the Christmas tree well to explore learners’ rights to make their own decisions and reinforced this with both learners and staff.

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Significant progress

Leaders have carefully assessed the risk to each learner based on their knowledge of the individual learners’ vulnerabilities. Leaders regularly review these risks and update the ‘Prevent’ action plan accordingly. Teachers have put key themes in their curriculums to support them to identify and mitigate against the learners’ vulnerabilities, for example learners had EHCP targets around democracy and dictatorship due to the behaviours they displayed. Teachers bought in a guest speaker to discuss what living in a dictatorship was like; this had a powerful impact on learners and stopped the unwanted behaviours immediately.

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Significant progress

A member of the senior leadership team has overall responsibility for ‘Prevent’. They are passionate and keen to keep teachers’ knowledge of the ‘Prevent’ duty current and relevant to both the local area and to the learners. They have built strong partnerships with the local safeguarding hub, the police and the Prevent coordinator. They attend external training frequently and then disseminate this information to all staff, for example the meaning of some graffiti. Teachers then embed this new knowledge into the curriculum so that all learners gain an appropriate understanding of the ‘Prevent’ duty and what it means to them.

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Significant progress

Leaders have ensured that all parents have an appropriate awareness of the ‘Prevent’ duty. They produced a leaflet for parents to ensure that they can support their young person when in the home environment and in the wider community. Parents appreciate all the communication they receive from the college and feel that their young people are being prepared extremely well for adulthood. Monitoring visit: Horizons College, 7 and 8 December 2022 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

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Significant progress

children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Significant progress

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