Birtenshaw College

Birtenshaw Report following a monitoring visit to a ‘requires improvement’ provider

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Name of lead inspector: Suzanne Wainwright, His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection dates: 18 and 19 January 2023

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Type of provider: Independent specialist college

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Address: Crompton Way Bolton Greater Manchester BL2 2PE Monitoring visit: Birtenshaw, 18 and 19 January 2023

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Context and focus of visit

Birtenshaw 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

Birtenshaw is an independent specialist college. It is part of the Birtenshaw Group, a registered charity and company limited by guarantee that was established in the 1950s to support children with disabilities. The college was set up in 2014 and achieved independent status in 2016. It provides specialist further education for young people aged between 16 and 25. Learners have a variety of learning difficulties and/or disabilities and complex health needs. Learners are grouped into three learning pathways: communication and choice, learning for life, and employability, and they follow individualised programmes. At the time of the monitoring visit, 59 learners attended the college. There were three learners on the communication and choice pathway, 41 learners on the independence pathway, 13 learners on the employment pathway, and two studied a combination of pathways.

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Insufficient progress

Since the previous inspection, leaders have introduced personalised learning programmes for each learner. These have not led to a well-designed and well- sequenced curriculum that helps learners to develop and master sufficiently the knowledge and skills that they need for their next steps. All learners are taught individually with a member of staff. This is beneficial for those with more complex needs. However, this approach is not sufficiently ambitious for the most able learners. They do not benefit from the development of their wider skills, such as learning to work with and tolerate others or how to discuss and debate topics respectfully.

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Insufficient progress

The new recording and monitoring process is cumbersome and focuses too much on the completion of documentation. The ‘learn, practise, practise, practise, assess’ Monitoring visit: Birtenshaw, 18 and 19 January 2023 formula stifles creativity and effective learning. Not all learners learn at this prescribed pace. Where learners do not achieve their intended learning outcome in a ‘practise’ lesson, they do not repeat the learning to ensure that the required knowledge and skills are secure in their long-term memory.

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Insufficient progress

Most learners are taught how to manage and self-regulate their behaviours through attending the college. This supports a few learners to gain opportunities for paid employment, which they often continue when they leave. Others benefit from meaningful work experience placements that meet their interests and aspirations. However, on a few occasions, staff do not enforce routinely industry-standard requirements, such as the wearing of appropriate personal protective equipment or the need to understand data protection law when dealing with personal information.

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Insufficient progress

Learners benefit from therapeutic input and regular physical exercise as part of their curriculum. Consequently, most learners’ health-related outcomes from their education, health and care plans are embedded effectively into their individual learning programmes.

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Insufficient progress

Very few members of staff have formal qualifications in teaching and/or supporting learners with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The majority of staff receive appropriate developmental training on how to successfully teach and support learners with SEND.

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Insufficient progress

The baseline assessments that teachers complete during the first six weeks of learners’ programmes are not rigorous enough. Teachers do not use a broad range of meaningful activities to help them establish learners’ starting points accurately. Assessment activities do not identify what learners already know and can do across a range of settings or circumstances to ascertain their levels of mastery in each knowledge and skills area. Too many baseline assessment documents are incomplete and do not contain pertinent information, such as the date that the assessment took place or whether teachers assess the skill more than once. Very few assessments identify crucial information about whether learners complete each of the tasks independently or with varying levels of support. Consequently, too many targets do not reflect learners’ knowledge, skills and abilities at the start of their programmes and are often insufficiently challenging.

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Insufficient progress

The setting and monitoring of learners’ targets are disjointed and inconsistent between teaching staff. They are mostly tokenistic and rely on ‘ticks’ and date stamps rather than evaluative evidence to demonstrate what learners learn and achieve towards ambitious learning goals. Monitoring visit: Birtenshaw, 18 and 19 January 2023 Learners are not always engaged in appropriate or meaningful tasks that help them to make the progress of which they are capable. Learners who cannot read or write struggle to complete written tasks, such as evaluating a gym session. They are limited to answering closed questions and completing activities such as gluing photographs to evaluation sheets. A few learners are left without an activity to complete while support staff use lesson time to write up the evaluation of their progress. Consequently, learners with more complex needs are often heavily dependent on staff. They miss out on opportunities to develop and practise the

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Insufficient progress

knowledge and skills that they need for greater independence and for their next steps.

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Insufficient progress

Governance is not effective. College governors do not have a sufficient oversight of the quality of education at the college. Through relevant training, governors understand that the responsibility and accountability for the quality of learners’ education lies with them. However, they do not do enough to support college leaders to help them raise standards and to improve the quality of the provision. Too few governors visit the college regularly to gain a first-hand understanding of what learners experience, to help them in their roles as governors.

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Insufficient progress

Governors do not identify relevant quality improvement actions for either themselves or college leaders to hasten improvements to the curriculum. They do not discuss the impact that curricular activities have on learners’ progress and aspirations. For example, governors do not ask whether work experience helps learners to achieve aspirational goals such as paid employment.

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Insufficient progress

Leaders and governors have identified the staffing issues within the college as a risk. In a few instances, the situation currently prohibits new learners from accessing the full provision to which they are entitled. Monitoring visit: Birtenshaw, 18 and 19 January 2023 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.

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Insufficient progress

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