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Ofsted raps performing arts provider for body shaming students

A theatre and dance company has been slammed by Ofsted for body shaming its students.

Learners at the Bodywork Company, based in Cambridge, told inspectors of choosing not to eat after classes for fear they will gain weight following “inappropriate” comments made by some staff in front of their peers.

Students told the watchdog that “looking beautiful” was “more valued by these staff than students’ talents”.

Ofsted’s report, published on Thursday, goes on to claim there are incidents of some staff discouraging students from going to auditions for roles when they may not have “the desired physique”.

The provider told FE Week the issues are “historic” and they have since fired the staff in question.

This was the second time the inspectorate has visited the Bodywork Company in the past seven months following safeguarding concerns. Both reports found ‘insufficient’ safeguarding arrangements. The provider had 78 learners on its books at the time of Ofsted’s visit.

Bodywork Company founder Theresa Kerr said she has been left “devastated” by the report.

“Unfortunately, this is historical,” she told FE Week. “I had to let a teacher go just before lockdown. She had been with us since 2019 and it was pretty apparent she was making some very negative remarks to the students. We also had a singing teacher who we let go. Both went at the beginning of 2020, and it stopped.

“We have had multiple staff training days because of this. Our present faculty are brilliant and completely understand how to treat young people.”

Kerr said the students have carried the inappropriate comments with them and she is “desperately sorry about that. We are now doing the very best we can to ensure all of our students feel good about themselves, never ever mentioning the weight.”

Aside from body shaming, Ofsted reported that governors at the provider had resigned earlier this year because of the “lack of safe recruitment practices”.

Inspectors said that leaders’ ongoing scrutiny of safeguarding arrangements, “although strengthened, is not yet comprehensive”. Their oversight of chaperoning arrangements for visiting and guest tutors, for example, “remains insufficient”.

However, safer recruitment practices “are now established, and employment references followed up appropriately”.

Kerr admitted that her provider had previously failed to carry out the necessary DBS checks when hiring staff, but that this had now been addressed.

Ofsted praised Bodywork Company’s tutors who now “systematically teach students how to stay safe in the performing arts world”. For example, students know how to protect their online identity and manage their social media presence appropriately.

Students demonstrate a “good understanding of safe working practices” and have an “effective understanding of the protected characteristics of others”.

Principals launch ‘Good for ME, Good for FE’ volunteering campaign

A trio of leading college bosses have today launched an initiative to raise £1 million in “social value” through staff volunteering.

The principals of London South East Colleges (LSEC), Loughborough College and East Coast College – Sam Parrett, Jo Maher, and Stuart Rimmer – want the “Good for ME Good for FE” campaign to fill foodbanks and build partnerships with charities and companies.

Principals want to ‘mobilise’ community spirit

Parrett said: “We want to encourage and mobilise this incredible community spirit across our college group and indeed the wider sector.”

Over the next few weeks, the initiative will be rolled out across the three colleges with others being invited to sign up.

The impact of the campaign will be measured through a “social value calculator” developed by LSEC. It will calculate how many volunteering hours have been contributed in monetary terms to social goals such as increasing access to employment and skills, helping the environment and growing businesses.

A target of £1 million has been set. It builds on the work committed to FE Foodbank Friday last year, when 30 colleges, led by LSEC, raised over £47,000 and collected 20,000 food items.

Volunteering benefits student and staff mental health

Rimmer, who is also a wellbeing coach, said research had shown volunteering benefits staff and students through “reduction in stress, preventing feelings of isolation, increasing confidence and providing a deeper sense of purpose and meaning through service”.

All of which he said was “important at a time when individual and community wellbeing is of utmost priority. Lockdown has shown us that people are designed to be in communities.”

Initiative will involve three strands of work

The new initiative will be split into three strands: one, building on the work of FE Foodbank Friday with colleges continuing to collect donations.

A second will involve encouraging volunteering activity inside and outside the college community, while the third will be to develop corporate and charitable partnerships.

Maher said Covid-19 “demonstrated the collective power of further education in going the extra mile to help support communities, and the FE Foodbank Friday campaign was a shining example of this.

“By creating a sustainable initiative centred around volunteering, that achieves more holistic outcomes, we are confident that we can hit the £1 million target and support positive action towards health and wellbeing.”

Any colleges interested in joining the initiative should contact Andrew.cox@lsec.ac.uk

Bids invited for new £9.5m FE professional development grants

Applications for a £9.5 million government pilot to bolster teacher training in the further education sector have opened today.

The Department for Education has announced a four-week bidding window for the FE Professional Development Grants pilots, which will run in 2021/22.

They will focus on strengthening staff’s skills and confidence in using technology to deliver education, as well as subject-specific development to improve curriculum design and teaching, learning, and assessment.

There will also be “tailored” support for the sector’s new and inexperienced teachers to help career progression and aid retention.

Teacher training pilots ‘will unlock even more potential’

Apprenticeships and skills minister Gillian Keegan says the pilots “will make sure the sector can develop and grow and unlock even more potential”.

Further education colleges and training providers have been invited to “partner up” and submit bids for funding to develop professional development approaches which are evidence-based, allow for peer-to-peer support, and have outcomes sustainable over a long period of time.

Association of Colleges deputy chief executive Kirsti Lord said the core focus on technology, subject-specific development and the retention of new teachers is “timely” owing to the pandemic and the shift to online training.

“Colleges are well used to working together on quality improvement and CPD; this fund will enable those collaborating to provide high quality CPD in a variety of areas and specialisms which it would be challenging to deliver individually.”

Association of Employment and Learning Providers Jane Hickie said she was “confident that a collaborative approach for bids will bring forward some really innovative ideas that will have a positive impact”.

Guidance will be released today

The money forms part of the government’s promise in January’s Skills for Jobs white paper to take spending on the sector workforce to £65 million in 2021/22.

The paper said the government “will encourage more organisations with relevant expertise to provide high-quality and evidence-based training and development for teaching staff in the sector”.

This builds on the work of the WorldSkills Centre of Excellence, run in partnership with awarding organisation NCFE, which sent the trainers of the UK’s ‘Skills Olympics’ competitors to share best practice with college and ITP teachers.

In February, the Department for Education launched a tender worth £3 million to expand the Taking Teaching Further programme and bring as many as 4,000 people into the sector.

A new ‘Teach in Further Education’ digital information platform and a national recruitment campaign were also promised in the white paper.

Providers have until Friday 16 July to apply for the pilots, and providers will be told the outcome of their application after 1 September.

The Department for Education has said guidance, including an application form, will be released today.

Baker’s back: Could schools be sued for limiting careers advice?

The architect of the Baker clause is attempting to use the Skills Bill to strengthen the law, which could lead to schools facing court action.

Former education secretary Kenneth Baker hopes to repeat a move he pulled in 2017, when he got the government to accept the clause as an amendment to the Technical and Further Education Act.

He announced to the House of Lords on Tuesday he is seeking to amend the government’s Skills and Post-16 Education Bill to put the clause on a statutory footing.

The clause mandates schools and colleges to give training providers the opportunity to talk to students of certain ages about technical qualifications and apprenticeships.

Baker Clause ‘largely disregarded’ by schools

Speaking to FE Week, Baker explained the clause currently places “an intention” for schools to offer those opportunities, which can be enforced through ministerial guidance to headteachers. Putting it on a statutory footing would make compliance a “legal duty” on schools.

If they fail to do so, providers or parents could take them to court, said Baker. He is currently having the amendment drafted before it is submitted and voted on at the committee stage of the Bill’s passage through the House of Lords, which is due to start next month.

Baker introduced the clause largely to make schools promote university technical colleges, a programme of which he was architect and which he has overseen as chair of the Baker Dearing Trust, which licenses the UTC name.

But he complained the act has been “largely disregarded” by schools up until now. He said schools have either ignored it, or have invited providers in, only to cancel later, or have arranged the visits for last thing on a Friday afternoon.

“They are desperate not to have to implement it,” he said, adding the government has “done nothing” to improve the situation, even though Baker believes: “This is the most effective way of getting good careers guidance.”

DfE has promised ‘tougher’ action on clause

The Skills for Jobs white paper, published by the Department for Education in January to lay the groundwork for the new bill, set out a new plan to enforce the clause.

This includes a new minimum requirement about who is given access to certain pupils, “tougher formal action” on non-compliance, and making government careers support funding for school conditional on compliance with the clause.

The Department for Education has promised a consultation on the reforms, which is expected to run this summer.

But Baker is unimpressed with the promised changes: “So what? The schools will disregard it still.”

Non-compliant schools ‘should not be given outstanding’

Ministers have made minimal efforts to enforce the clause, most recently when then-academies minister Lord Agnew wrote to headteachers to remind them of the obligation to promote technical education in February 2020.

The FE and skills sector has been increasingly discussing how the clause ought to be enforced, in the face of mounting evidence it is being ignored.

Research by UCAS found that one-third of students are not told about apprenticeships, and the admissions service has now pledged to become a “digital Baker clause”, providing information and advice to young people on their opportunities.

Oli de Botton, chief executive of the government’s own careers quango, The Careers and Enterprise Company, told the AELP conference last week it was “true historically that there hasn’t been enough access for ITPs or enough information about apprenticeships and technical routes for young people”.

This week, the Commons education select committee grilled Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman on whether non-compliance with the clause ought to be a limiting factor on a school’s inspection grade.

Spielman said it was “unlikely” a provider would be rated ‘outstanding’ if they were found to be non-compliant, contradicting the watchdog’s deputy director for FE Paul Joyce, who said last week it should not be a “determining factor” in a grade.

Baker believes the watchdog should report on career guidance at providers, and “if the school is not actually implementing the clause, and if they’re likely to be ‘outstanding’, they shouldn’t be given ‘outstanding’.

“All Ofsted has to ask the school is ‘what meeting have you arranged for the outside providers, have you arranged one, what date did you do it?’ That’s what they’ve got to ask. And if the school hasn’t done it, they shouldn’t be given ‘outstanding’.”

Schools and colleges shut out from submitting teacher grades after exam board portal crashes

Schools and colleges are shut out from submitting teacher grades, just a day before the deadline, after an exam board’s submission portal crashed today.

OCR realised at lunchtime today that schools and colleges were unable to submit results to its grade submission system.

A spokesperson said “urgent action” is being taken to resolve the problem, but they said it “may take the rest of the day” to resolve.

The deadline for submitting grades is tomorrow (June 18). OCR said it “anticipates that all schools and colleges who would have submitted today will be able to submit tomorrow.”

A spokesperson said: “We would like to apologise to our schools and colleges for the inconvenience this is causing at such a busy time.”

Teachers also complained on Twitter this morning they were unable to access the AQA grades portal. AQA said it had “systems” issues, but tweeted that the portal for submitting grades was not affected.

The systems were up and running by 10am. AQA said the issue was caused by “a problem at an internet service provider that affected systems around the world”.

High-profile college leader to step down

The president of the Association of Colleges is retiring as chief executive of one of England’s largest college groups at the end of the year.

Sally Dicketts has informed the Activate Learning board that she will be stepping down after 18 years at the helm.

She told FE Week that she will being staying on as president of the AoC, a role she has held since August 2020, for another year.

Dicketts has worked in further education for more than 35 years and was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Honours List in July 2013.

She’s also a board member for the Education and Training Foundation, Pearson, and deputy chair of the LEP skills board.

Dicketts said she is retiring as she will turn 66 in July.

She has “no intention” of working as an interim college boss once she retires, but plans to do something part-time.

She has been chief executive of Activate Learning since 2003, bringing together in one group seven FE colleges.

The group is currently rated ‘good’ by Ofsted.

What Pearson found in its survey on the future of exams

Eight of out ten teachers believe high stakes exams should be taken throughout the year, and most want more autonomy over testing, an exam board survey has revealed.

Pearson has published initial findings from its review into the future of qualifications and assessment in the UK.

The awarding body surveyed 5,000 people, including students, parents and around 1,100 teachers. It also polled 104 MPs and interviewed expert panel members, including three former education secretaries.

Pearson said its consultation “did not find evidence of a strong desire” to remove GCSEs or replace our current assessment system with an entirely new one.

It is the first stage in the review, with a final report and recommendations expected by the end of this year.

Here’s are some of the key findings from the survey.

1. Testing should be done ‘throughout the year’

Asked about the frequency of high stakes assessment, 84 per cent of teachers said they should be taken in more than one session throughout the year. More than half – 54 per cent – said they should not be taken at the end of the course.

Opinion was split on whether tests should happen on demand when students are ready, with 56 per cent agreeing and 43 per cent saying they disagreed.

Pearson said most of its expert panel members “cautiously welcomed” the idea of a return to some form of continuous assessment, but were “mindful of the reasons why continuous assessment was removed from general qualifications following the 2012 reforms”.

The government began to phase out modular GCSEs from 2012. New linear exams require pupils to sit all the tests at the end of the course.

2. Teachers want ‘more responsibility’

Seventy-eight per cent of teachers surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that they should be given “more responsibility and autonomy” over student summative assessment.

Pearson said teachers generally felt all assessment types were effective, but with a “strong preference” for more regular assessment through the year, marked by them.

Asked about the effectiveness of different assessment approaches at “validating the acquisition of knowledge and skills” in 14 to 19 year olds, 61 per cent said end of term or year tests marked by a teacher were “very effective”.

Only 32 per cent of teachers said final high stakes exams were “very” effective.

3. Subjects ‘restricted’ by funding and accountability

A majority of teachers surveyed – 65 per cent – said they felt the choice of qualifications on offer at their school or college was “restricted by funding and accountability pressures”, while 22 per cent disagreed.

Asked to what extent high-stakes assessments should be used to judge schools or colleges on their performance, 77 per cent said “some extent”, 17 per cent said “no extent”, while 5 per cent thought it should be a “great extent”.

4. Teachers favour ‘option of both’ paper and computer tests

Respondents were asked which format they would prefer formative and summative assessments to take.

More than four in ten teachers said they would prefer the “option of both” computer and pen and paper tests for formative and summative assessments, depending on the subject. Thirty-six per cent said they preferred pen and paper for summative assessments, while 32 per cent preferred that option for formative assessments.

When key stage 4 and 5 pupils were asked the same question, 40 per cent said they would prefer to use pen and paper and 27 per cent would prefer to use a computer for summative tests, while 26 per cent favoured having an option of both.

Nearly all teachers – 95 per cent – believed they needed more regular technology training for teaching and assessment to increase their confidence.

5. Address the binary split of academic and vocational pathways

In the open responses to the consultation, 16 to 19 education was characterised as having divergent vocational and academic pathways “pushing” young people into making decisions they “may not be ready for, and in some cases regretted with hindsight”.

Pearson said some members of the its expert panel saw this as “inhibiting the realisation of a broad and balanced curriculum for all”.

DfE scraps ‘ludicrous’ bootcamp research and launches leak investigation

The Department for Education has been forced into an embarrassing U-turn by dropping “secret” plans to ban thousands of eligible jobless people from taking part in skills bootcamps.

The DfE has also launched an investigation into how the plans, laid out in a document sent to 18 providers and over 100 of their partners (see photo), were leaked to the media.

Announced by the prime minister Boris Johnson in September 2020, bootcamps are typically three-month courses at level 3 and above and form part of a number of new flagship adult education policies.

As reported by FE Week, the bootcamp providers were refusing to sign contracts after finding out the DfE would be paying research consultants to randomly reject half of all eligible applicants.

In a randomised control trial (RCT), rarely used in the education sector, the Institute for Employment Studies would take at least four weeks to “randomly select candidates for you from your qualifying candidates list and inform you of who is receiving [bootcamp] training and who is in the control group”.

The DfE “delivery requirement” presentation, sent to winners of the £18 million bid, also spelt out that they must “not offer bootcamp training to any candidates in the control group for at least a year after they have been assigned to the control group, even if they ask/get referred again”.

But with the “secret” RCT plan now revealed in FE Week the DfE is now telling providers they will scrap the RCT plan completely.

And after repeating their plea for providers to not speak to the media the civil servant revealed an investigation had been launched into how FE Week was leaked the RCT plans.

Several providers approached FE Week with similar ethical concerns about the DfE researchers spending weeks to randomly separate the unemployed applicants into this “treatment group” and a “control group”.

The DfE refused to comment on, or defend, the ethics of the research approach.

Education secretary to open Festival of Education 2021: how to watch

Education secretary Gavin Williamson will open the Festival of Education today, kickstarting the two-week long virtual event.

The festival will include some of the best-known names in the education sector alongside thought-provoking debate sessions. New ‘Friday Fest’ days will also feature invaluable CPD opportunities for all education professionals. (See the full schedule here).

Thanks to the support of Wellington College – the home of the festival – and partners, the whole event is free this year. FE Week and FE Week are media partners.

Williamson will provide the opening festival keynote at 3pm. You can watch the speech here: