St Helens College

St Helens College

Address: Water Street, WA10 1PP Unique reference number (URN): 130488

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, learners are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect providers for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The provider has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not met: The provider has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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Contribution to meeting skills needs Expected standard

Leaders and managers work effectively with a range of stakeholders to identify skills needs and priorities in the region. This enables leaders to plan a broad curriculum that is mapped well to priority areas and develops students’ and apprentices’ skills in a range of industry sectors.

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Contribution to meeting skills needs Expected standard

Leaders have collaborated with Skills College UK and Network Rail to implement the delivery of rail engineering and track maintenance programmes. This meets the skills shortages of the sector and provides a pipeline of trained staff for new rail infrastructure projects.

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Contribution to meeting skills needs Expected standard

Managers work closely with local employers to plan the content of most curriculums. In heavy goods vehicle apprenticeships, additional content on electric and compressed natural gas vehicles are incorporated into the curriculum to ensure that apprentices are fully up to date with new technologies. However, this is not the case in all curriculums. In a few areas, work with employers requires further embedding.

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Contribution to meeting skills needs Expected standard

Students and apprentices mostly develop the knowledge and skills they need for their next steps. Leaders offer highly relevant short upskilling courses in the green energy centre using industry-standard low carbon equipment such as heat pumps. Students and apprentices benefit greatly from learning these highly valuable skills for employment.

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Inclusion Expected standard

The college is a welcoming learning environment in an area where there are high levels of deprivation. Leaders and staff work collaboratively with organisations such as charities and schools to accurately identify and respond to students’ and apprentices’ needs.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Leaders provide equipment for apprentices who are struggling financially. Young people, who are the furthest away from education, access courses in community venues where they build the confidence to progress onto courses at the college.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Staff receive appropriate training to help them support students who are disadvantaged. They provide individualised support, review interventions, monitor progress and make

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Needs attention

adaptations where these are needed. Where possible, they reduce support for students, including those with high needs, to increase their independence. Leaders monitor the progress of these students to ensure that the interventions have the intended impact.

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Needs attention

Leaders ensure those who are disadvantaged can access wider opportunities. Many young students participating in overseas trips are in receipt of bursaries. Adults studying counselling take part in a weekend residential course free of charge so that all students can attend.

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Needs attention

Although improving, students who are care experienced achieve less well than their peers. Leaders have recently employed designated staff to better support these students with transition and college life so that they can access and remain in learning.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Leaders have a broad grasp of key strengths and areas for improvement at the college. They have made some appropriate decisions to improve the quality of provision since the previous inspection. However, managers’ oversight of indicators of risk in-year lack precision. In some cases, managers do not identify quickly enough why students leave their courses early or do not achieve.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Leaders and governors have a shared vision and strategy and are committed to widening participation and equality. Governors have a broadly accurate understanding of the quality of provision and the areas that leaders need to improve.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Leaders ensure that programmes of professional learning and subject updating are well planned. Their staff development strategy combines targeted and tailored approaches to enhance teaching and learning which is having a positive impact on the quality of teaching in most curriculum areas. However, this strategy is not yet having the intended impact across all education programmes for young people. A few part-time teachers and support staff do not benefit from the same opportunities as full-time teachers.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Staff mostly feel valued. Leaders have introduced various initiatives to help teachers to manage their workload. They provide artificial intelligence tools to support teachers to prepare resources and give students timely and efficient feedback.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Leaders monitor the quality of the subcontracted provision carefully. They ensure that it meets the needs of students, many of whom are furthest from education. Students achieve well on subcontracted provision and most progress to positive destinations.

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Achievement Needs attention

Although overall achievement has increased for the past 3 years, too many students leave their courses early or do not achieve on completion. Achievement varies significantly across courses and on some courses is too low. Many students on GCSE English and mathematics courses do not make progress towards achieving a higher grade and often achieve less well than they did at school.

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Achievement Needs attention

On most vocational courses, students typically make reasonable progress. In the main, students develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours they need for their next steps. Students in sport become more confident communicating with others and leading coaching sessions.

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Achievement Needs attention

Students who remain on their courses and achieve mostly progress to positive destinations.

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Achievement Needs attention

Students typically produce work or gain skills of the expected standard in their vocational areas. However, this is not the case in GCSE mathematics and English.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Leaders’ actions to improve the quality of GCSE English and mathematics have not had the desired impact. Leaders do not have sufficient oversight of the progress that students make in these subjects to enable them to take decisive action.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

The quality of teaching in GCSE English and mathematics is not consistently high and, in some cases, is poor. In too many instances in mathematics, students do not have the knowledge they need to answer the questions set.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Tutors are mostly well qualified and have relevant industry experience. In vocational curriculum areas, they mostly plan and teach well-designed curriculums that help students to remember what they learn and how to apply their knowledge to industry and work contexts. Tutors mostly use effective teaching strategies such as chunking of information and practical demonstrations. They use their industry experience to bring learning to life. Students build their knowledge and skills in readiness for their next steps into industry or subject-related further study.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Tutors mostly use assessment effectively in lessons. They recap frequently so that students pause, reflect and explain their progress. This helps students to understand their own actions and cements learning, helping them to improve. Students mostly know what they have done well and what they need to do to improve their work. They benefit from timely and useful feedback on their assignments, written work and practical skills in their main subject areas. Most teachers provide helpful verbal feedback. However, in English and mathematics, students do not consistently receive sufficient feedback to support them to improve.

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Participation and development Needs attention

Too many students do not attend their lessons in GCSE English and mathematics and a few vocational lessons often enough. Attendance in these subjects remains persistently low. Leaders have introduced a number of strategies to improve attendance which have had a positive impact in some vocational areas. Students on the foundation learning programme are supported well to improve their attendance in readiness for courses at the main college campus.

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Participation and development Needs attention

Students study in safe, inclusive learning environments which are welcoming. They understand the importance of respect for each other and display these values in their interactions with each other and staff. They are respectful and courteous.

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Participation and development Needs attention

Students learn how to keep themselves healthy and safe. They learn how to protect their mental health, maintain healthy relationships and become active citizens in their communities through engagement with a wide range of social action projects and fundraising.

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Participation and development Needs attention

Leaders ensure that students are provided with sufficient careers advice and guidance. Students are mostly well informed about their next steps. They participate in relevant work placements and work-related experiences that help them to engage with the world of work. They practise what they learn in working environments, experiencing work in readiness for their futures.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Leaders have made improvements to their adult learning offer in response to low achievement on some courses. This includes an introduction to access to higher education

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Needs attention

course to help students prepare for the more complex access course. In English for speakers of other languages, they have improved the wraparound support provided to these more vulnerable students so that they are fully supported to attend and achieve.

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Needs attention

Teachers are well qualified and skilled in the subjects they teach. In counselling, teachers are skilled and qualified counsellors who continue to work in private practice.

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Needs attention

Teachers plan teaching so that activities build in complexity as students progress through the course. They use effective strategies such as demonstrations, quizzes and group tasks to develop students’ knowledge and skills. In counselling, tutors use their clinical experience skilfully to guide students to reflect on their experiences on work placements. They encourage students to support their peers and respectfully challenge their practice.

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Needs attention

Teachers typically use questioning skilfully to check for accuracy, confirm meaning and rectify gaps in learner knowledge. In early years, teachers encourage rich discussions amongst learners from different countries to share cultural differences, such as freedom of speech when caring for children. In a few instances, teachers do not effectively check or consolidate learning to identify and rectify students’ misconceptions.

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Needs attention

Teachers provide students with constructive and helpful feedback following the assessment of their work. Students routinely act on the feedback they receive, which helps them to improve the quality of their work over time.

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Achievement Needs attention

Students’ achievement across courses and levels of study varies considerably. Students taking non-accredited courses or tailored learning generally achieve well. However, students on a significant proportion of longer courses, particularly at levels 2 and 3, leave their courses early or do not achieve at the end of the course.

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Achievement Needs attention

Students produce work to an appropriate and sometimes to a high standard. In English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), they maintain accurate notes that they use for future reference. In access to higher education art and design, students produce high-quality ceramics and portfolios.

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Achievement Needs attention

Students mostly make appropriate progress on their courses. Those who achieve mostly progress to positive destinations. Students in ESOL courses typically progress to further learning, including higher education, or move into employment. Students on tailored learning courses mainly progress to accredited qualifications, and successful students in access to higher education progressed to higher education in the last academic year.

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Participation and development Needs attention

Leaders have not introduced an appropriate programme of wider development and opportunities for adult students. Too often, it is left to adults to attend drop-in sessions to access information rather than it being made readily available to them. This means that students do not consistently receive useful advice to help them with their wider needs, such as health and wellbeing.

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Participation and development Needs attention

Too many adult students do not attend their courses frequently enough. Although managers often know the reasons for non-attendance, they do not support students well enough to prioritise their attendance. Too many courses have attendance below the college’s own target.

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Participation and development Needs attention

Students do not receive consistently high-quality careers advice. Students on access to higher education programmes have relied on their own research and have not benefited from university visits or visiting speakers. However, on courses in English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), students benefit significantly from events held with key stakeholders, including the NHS, to promote job opportunities.

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Participation and development Needs attention

Students benefit from a calm and welcoming learning environment. Students on ESOL courses who experience many barriers to learning, including financial and housing difficulties, appreciate the support provided by the college. This contributes to them feeling very safe.

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Achievement Expected standard

Apprentices develop industry-relevant knowledge and skills throughout their apprenticeship. They produce practical and written work of a high standard. Heavy goods vehicle apprentices safely carry out under-vehicle service inspections and multimeter checks, they use technical terminology well and business administrator apprentices develop professional skills for business, such as writing formal and professional emails to clients.

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Achievement Expected standard

The majority of apprentices achieve their apprenticeship. Achievement rates have improved gradually over the previous three years and just over one third of apprentices achieve merit and distinction grades at their final assessments. However, there remains one third of apprentices who leave their apprenticeship before completing. Those apprentices who complete their apprenticeship are well prepared for employment. Most remain with their employer, and a few become self-employed or move to further learning. The majority of apprentices who complete functional skills English and/or mathematics as part of their apprenticeship pass at their first attempt.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Leaders ensure that apprenticeships are relevant to local, regional and national priorities. They include additional qualifications, so that apprentices gain highly relevant skills.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Teachers plan the curriculum to help apprentices, including those with barriers to their learning or mental ill health, to build their knowledge and skills over time. Plastering apprentices learn the key to professional finish plaster is to prepare background surfaces well, filling holes with bonding plaster and learning to apply scrim before they learn how to skim surfaces with precision.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Teachers use a range of appropriate teaching strategies to teach apprentices. They use demonstration well in practical subjects, such as soldering. Apprentices practise these tasks and receive useful feedback that helps them to improve their work to industry tolerances.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Teachers and assessors are experienced in their subjects. Teachers in heavy goods vehicles apprenticeships use their industry knowledge well to explain diesel fuel system components, such as fuel tanks, filters, injectors and injection timing. Apprentices retain and recall learning about the impact of 2600 bar injector pressure wearing out injector nozzles, which results in the vehicle not passing its emissions test.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Teachers mostly set appropriate assessments, such as workshop observations and end- point assessment mock tests to check and consolidate learning. Apprentices are generally well prepared for their final assessments.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Employers value the contributions that apprentices make to the workplace. They work with assessors to identify appropriate opportunities for apprentices to practise their skills at work. Apprentices evolve into competent, skilled and trusted members of their teams.

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Participation and development Expected standard

Apprentices mostly receive sufficient information about their future career opportunities or potential further learning on completion of their training. Plastering apprentices learn about architectural work and painting and decorating apprentices learn about heritage projects that they could move onto when they complete their apprenticeship. However, in a few other apprenticeships, careers guidance is more limited, and apprentices are often not fully aware of all options available to them.

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Participation and development Expected standard

Teachers set high standards of professional behaviour in readiness for work. Apprentices learn in calm, tidy workshops. They behave well and work collaboratively.

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Participation and development Expected standard

Apprentices understand the importance of treating colleagues and customers with respect and know that workplace banter is not seen as humorous to everyone. They learn about dangers they need to be aware of such as the risks of online gambling and addictions.

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Participation and development Expected standard

Leaders celebrate apprentices’ achievements. They host skills competitions for construction and have had several winners.

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Participation and development Expected standard

Apprentices are generally well motivated and keen to learn. Attendance is high. Apprentices develop their confidence as a result of the training that they receive during their apprenticeship. They become trusted at work, are respectful and take pride in the work they do, demonstrating professional behaviours.

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Participation and development Strong standard

Students receive high-quality careers information to enable them to make decisions for their futures. Teachers invite employers to the college to discuss the skills and behaviours they are looking for when recruiting people. Students who are unsure of their next steps receive valuable careers advice from a trained careers adviser in the college.

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Participation and development Strong standard

Staff provide students with a wide range of valuable opportunities to help them to develop a good understanding of the world of work. Where appropriate, students attend high-quality work experience which enables them to develop further their confidence and learn work- ready behaviours.

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Participation and development Strong standard

Staff support students very well to develop their independence, confidence and resilience. Staff work well with students to develop strategies to cope with frustrations that they experience and emphasise the need to develop resilience to cope with modern day life. Students who struggle with their confidence flourish and learn to speak to others with ease.

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Participation and development Strong standard

Staff provide students with an extensive range of highly valuable volunteering opportunities that help them to understand the importance of contributing to the community, such as visiting care homes to organise activities for residents.

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Participation and development Strong standard

Students access a wide range of enrichment opportunities, such as taking part in heritage projects and displaying their photographs in the Knowsley Art Gallery. In college, they take part in charity fundraising, through activities such as carol singing using sign language.

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Expected standard

Students are very motivated to attend college. Attendance is high. Students value the friendships that they make and the social life they develop in college.

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Achievement Expected standard

Most students achieve their qualifications and make at least their expected progress in developing the knowledge, skills and behaviours they need for employment, further training and adulthood. They develop the confidence and communication skills to speak to unfamiliar people and produce work of an appropriate standard.

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Achievement Expected standard

Most students achieve their qualifications and make expected progress in English and mathematics. However, a few students make slow progress and a very small proportion regress in these subjects.

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Achievement Expected standard

Students are well prepared for their next steps and progress to meaningful destinations in line with their long-term goals. Students on work skills courses progress to other courses in the college such as catering, adult learning or supported internships. A high proportion of students on supported internships progress to paid or voluntary employment.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Students benefit from an appropriate curriculum that enables them to develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours they need to progress successfully into adulthood. Students on work skills courses develop employability skills, complete work experience and develop their independent living skills in readiness for their next steps.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Leaders provide well-planned and tailored teaching that enables students to work towards the outcomes identified in their education, health and care plans. Tutors identify accurate starting points for students and carefully sequence the curriculum to enable students to develop progressively the knowledge and skills they need most.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Tutors are well qualified to teach students with high needs. They complete valuable training in teaching students with special educational needs and/or disabilities to help them to identify strategies to overcome students’ barriers to learning.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Tutors mostly use their expertise well and use effective teaching strategies, such as scaffolding and breaking instructions into small steps. They repeat information and allow students to repeat tasks to enable them to remember what they have learned.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Tutors mostly use a range of assessment methods effectively to check students’ understanding. For example, they ask questions to specific students in a way that each student can understand and respond to. They observe students completing practical tasks individually and in group settings so that they identify how best they work with each other. However, in a few instances in mathematics, tutors do not accurately assess students’ work, which means that students continue to make the same mistakes.

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What it's like to be a learner and/or an apprentice at this provider

Students and apprentices across all campuses mostly value and enjoy their time at college. They appreciate the friendly and inclusive environment where staff support them to do their best. Students and apprentices particularly like and benefit from learning in well-resourced workshops and classrooms for their vocational subjects. However, this is not the case for those students who are taking GCSE English and mathematics. Many of these students experience a poor quality of teaching, do not attend well or are disengaged in these lessons. Many do not make their expected progress or achieve their qualifications.

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What it's like to be a learner and/or an apprentice at this provider

Students and apprentices mostly live in the St Helens and Knowsley areas and benefit from leaders’ understanding of their needs, in these areas of significant disadvantage, alongside local, national and regional skills priorities. Courses on offer at the college generally match these needs well. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds are well supported to achieve. For example, young people who are not in education, employment or training access a suite of pathways to accommodate barriers such as low attendance at school, low or no previous qualifications and lack of confidence to reengage with learning due to poor educational experiences in the past. These courses offer a welcome lifeline for students to reconnect with education.

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What it's like to be a learner and/or an apprentice at this provider

Students and apprentices who have barriers to their learning and/or mental ill health speak highly of the support they receive from staff. They access a wide range of support that is tailored to their specific need. This includes assistive technology for those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and financial and housing support for those who are struggling financially or who are struggling to complete applications, such as those with English as an additional language. This supports students and apprentices well to remain on their courses and achieve their academic and personal goals.

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What it's like to be a learner and/or an apprentice at this provider

Students and apprentices improve their confidence because of their learning. Apprentices become trusted to work independently in their work roles and are proud of their new skills. On the T-level health course, students practise and refine their professional clinical skills by demonstrating empathy and using listening skills in a clinical setting. Students with high needs particularly flourish, developing the confidence they need to speak to unfamiliar people, cook simple meals and complete basic household tasks in preparation for independence. Adult learners studying counselling become active listeners and refine their skills for becoming qualified counsellors.

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What it's like to be a learner and/or an apprentice at this provider

Young students and apprentices mostly learn how to look after their health and wellbeing and how to spot the signs in others when they are struggling. They are supported to become active citizens in their local communities and take part in social action projects to improve the lives of local residents. For example, they make nesting boxes for a hospice and enhancing playground facilities at a local primary school. There is still work to do to provide these opportunities and training for adult students.

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What it's like to be a learner and/or an apprentice at this provider

In many subjects, students and apprentices complete wider opportunities beyond the requirements of their main curriculum. Leaders are proactive in accessing funding to support students and apprentices who are disadvantaged to access these opportunities. Many young people on trips planned to Bali and Thailand are students in receipt of bursaries. Students in animal care visit zoos to see first-hand how animals they may not normally come across are cared for. Automotive apprentices visit the Expo truck show to learn about the latest electrical vehicle technology and travel, and aviation students participate in familiarisation flights to foreign destinations with real passengers. These experiences broaden students’ and apprentices’ educational and social experiences in preparation for future employment and life.

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Next steps

• Leaders should improve their in-year monitoring of indicators of risk across all courses so that they can identify and intervene where quality needs improving to increase the proportion of students who remain on their courses and achieve. • Leaders should broaden their professional updating training so that more part-time teachers and support staff can access it. • Leaders should rapidly improve the quality of teaching in GCSE English and mathematics so that students, including those with high needs, can improve their knowledge and skills and gain these important qualifications in readiness for their next steps. • Leaders should provide further support to 16- to 18-year-old students and adult students to encourage them to attend their classes more often. • Leaders should provide more rigorous initial advice and guidance and continue to strengthen the new plans they have in place for adult learning courses so that more adult

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Next steps

students remain on their courses and achieve. • Leaders should provide a more structured wider development programme for adult students so that more students access information that may be useful to them on topics such as mental and physical health and wellbeing. • Leaders should further strengthen the individualised support provided to students who are care experienced to increase their life chances and ensure that they achieve in line with their peers. • Leaders should continue to forge relationships with employers so that employers can provide valuable input into all curriculums to ensure that they are up to date with industry needs. • Leaders should improve the careers advice and guidance that they provide to apprentices so that all apprentices are aware of the opportunities available to them on completion of their apprenticeship.

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Team inspectors:

Helen Whelan, His Majesty's Inspector Suzanne Horner, His Majesty's Inspector Anita Pyrkotsch-Jones, His Majesty's Inspector Kim Bleasdale, His Majesty's Inspector Alastair Mollon, His Majesty's Inspector Jacquie Brown, His Majesty's Inspector Alison Humphreys, His Majesty's Inspector Ian Frear, His Majesty's Inspector Chloe Rendall, His Majesty's Inspector Mark Keen, His Majesty's Inspector

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About this inspection

Following our renewed inspection framework, all inspections are now led by His Majesty's Inspectors (HMIs) or Ofsted Inspectors (OIs) who have previously served as HMIs.

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About this inspection

Inspection activities: Inspectors spoke with students, parents/carers, leaders, governors, staff, employers and other stakeholders during the inspection.

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About this inspection

St Helens College is a general further education college located in Merseyside. It was formed in 2017 following a merger between St Helens College and Knowsley Community College. The college consists of 5 campuses. In St Helens there are 3 campuses; St Helens campus, STEM Centre and Green Energy Skills Centre. In Knowsley, there are 2 campuses; Knowsley main campus and IAMTech campus.

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About this inspection

At the time of the inspection there were 5,529 students and apprentices in learning, comprising 2,461 16- to 18-year-old students, 2,020 adult students, 923 apprentices and 125 students with high needs. Most students study vocational and technical subjects in a range of subject areas from entry to level 4, including construction, engineering, health, English for speakers of other languages, sport and public services, and the arts. Most apprentices study construction or engineering at levels 2 and 3. The college subcontracts with Merseyside Fire and Rescue who provide The King's Trust Programme.

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About this inspection

Simon Pierce : Principal/CEO The data was used by the inspector(s) during the inspection. More recent data may have been published since the inspection took place.

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other providers can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The provider reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The provider is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The provider needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care.

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Urgent improvement

services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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