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15 April 2026

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Classrooms play computer catch-up

Incorporation has brought about many changes in FE, but the sector is still being outstripped by the pace of technological change, fears Bob Harrison My first experience of teaching with computers was in the 1980s at Sheffield’s Stannington College with young mechanics. The classroom had 16 BBC computers and the students enjoyed the ping-pong game […]

College future built on chequered past

A surge of optimism over college buildings in 2007 came to a crashing halt just over a year later when it emerged the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) had over-committed and could not fund contracts already signed. With the expectation of approving just £500m in grants, the proposals facing the LSC for first stage approval […]

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 […]

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 […]

Why all workplaces are sites of learning

“Have you been sent here as a reward . . . or as a punishment?” Lorna Unwin asked more than 100 delegates at a LSIS leadership and management conference in London late last month. Throughout the day, delegates heard how leadership could support excellent learning, and how to lead outstanding learning. Professor Unwin, of the […]

What to do when you want to move up a level

The prospect of making the leap into leadership without any guidance can be daunting for senior staff. “I’d been challenged by my then chief executive, who said “Do you want to be a principal or not?’” says Esme Winch. “And having decided I did, I thought the LSIS senior leadership and management development course would […]

Getting the outside view

Sheila Selwood finds it easy to explain the inspiration for the Learning Board, LSIS’s support for governing bodies.  “We don’t always see ourselves as others see us,” says the director of governance at West Herts College. The support programme developed when West Herts governors approached LSIS after realising that  they wanted more than the internal […]