FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Colleges ‘still’ need to get in-line online

When Dick Moore (pictured) left Sheffield College to join a dotcom start-up company in the US he had the bright idea of putting his daughter through the GCSE English online course delivered by his old college. “She got a GCSE A grade after one year of study,” he says. “And the crazy thing was that […]

Inspecting the inspectors

Ofsted is just the most recent of the bodies tasked with inspecting further education — but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best says David Sherlock The English FE sector bears the imprint of its local authority past, when our national provision was unplanned and very uneven in quality — but although it remains unplanned, […]

The same old inspection story?

It could have been yesterday with the chief inspector for colleges telling a small gathering: “From here on, satisfactory will be taken to mean unsatisfactory.” The chief inspector in question was Terry Melia and it was the mid-90s. He was telling principals they had been getting off lightly in inspection reports since incorporation and it […]

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A new focus for governors in a new era

On the first day, conference chair Professor Bill Lucas and Exeter College principal Richard Atkins talked about the sector’s renewed focus on teaching and learning. Delegates also heard more about the new Ofsted common inspection framework from senior inspector Beverley Barlow. They also took part in interactive and workshop sessions. The major theme of the […]