Setting

Date of visit: 17 January 2008

Hereward College is a general further education college located in Coventry. It offers inclusive provision with specialist facilities for learners with a wide range of learning difficulties and disabilities. The college is a charity by exemption led by a board of governors. It is committed to becoming a centre of excellence for inclusive provision as reflected in its newly revised vision and mission statement. Its key priority is to enable learners to achieve academic and vocational qualifications, and to develop the necessary independence skills to support a successful transition to adulthood and, where possible, employment. Learners attend the college on a full-time and part-time basis and can undertake a wide range of vocational and academic courses ranging from entry level to level 3. There are 120 residential and 323 day learners of which 190 have significant disabilities and/or learning difficulties and approximately 50 have Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

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Date of visit: 17 January 2008

Approximately 13% come from black ethnic heritage. The majority of learners are funded by the Learning Skills Council. The college was last inspected in March 2007 and was awarded grade 3 (satisfactory) for its overall effectiveness.

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progress

Overall success rates continue to be above national averages in 2006/07 and show an overall improvement in retention and success rates of 2 percentage points compared to 2005/06. The college is now effectively identifying success rates across curriculum areas by age, gender, ethnicity and disability. Underperformance on particular courses is identified clearly and curriculum department heads are required to provide reasons for any decline and to plan and implement actions to remedy this. However, underperformance on particular courses is not yet identified sufficiently within department self assessment reports and not yet included within the college’s overall quality improvement plan. For example, low retention rates which impact on overall success rates on entry level courses are not identified as an area for improvement. The college recognises that further work needs to be done in the analysis of differences in success rates of males compared to female

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learners. There are plans to compare success rates of groups with different types of learning difficulties and disabilities to enable a more thorough analysis of possible reasons for underperformance of any particular group of learners.

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progress

The process involved in the development and use of Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) to inform learning is now being implemented effectively. Staff have received effective training and support and are becoming more confident in the setting of targets for achievement based on thorough initial assessment processes. Targets contained within ILPs inform lesson planning well and staff are more confident in using the electronic data base to record and track learner progress. Learner progress is now reviewed regularly and ILPs updated.

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All staff have received a briefing document which provides detailed guidance on basic policies and procedures in relation to safeguarding. In addition, staff have participated in sessions and are required to complete on-line training by the end of February 2008.

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The college is in the process of developing an improved lesson observation process which focuses more clearly on learning and how this can be improved within lessons. The recently formed college observation team is comprised of curriculum heads and team leaders. Arrangements to moderate their judgments and to ensure their evaluations of teaching and learning are accurate are underway. There are plans to involve external observers to help with moderation and to join the college observation team in the next round of lesson observations.

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The college has undertaken extensive redecoration and refurbishment of the teaching accommodation and learners now have access to better sports facilities, and have a dedicated space available for curriculum areas such as performing arts. Building work is underway to improve facilities further. The college is in the process of redesigning and refurbishing accommodation now available to them with the closure of the adjacent general further education college. There have been a few improvements made to the residences and there are ambitious plans to improve these further with building work planned to commence in 2009. Some residential accommodation is of a good quality, and best use is made of what is available to enhance the learners’ experience and independence.

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The 2006/07 self assessment report (SAR) clearly identifies strengths and areas for improvement based on evidence which is now more robust. It links clearly with the quality improvement plan which contains appropriate actions and success criteria to ensure outcomes of actions are reviewed regularly. The process has improved to include all staff through departments’ own self assessment of provision. The college recognises that this is in need of further development to ensure all areas for improvement are identified accurately within departments’ self assessment reports and included , where appropriate, within the in the overall college SAR. The college also identifies strengths and areas for improvement in relation to Every Child Matters (ECM). However, the self assessment of ECM is mostly descriptive and insufficiently focused on learner outcomes .

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information quoted is reproduced verbatim without adaptation, and the source and date of publication are stated. Inspection reports are available on the Ofsted website (www.ofsted.gov.uk).

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