An FE college has climbed its way out of being ‘inadequate’ while an adult and community learning provider and a private provider boosted their provision upwards to ‘good’ in this week’s Ofsted reports.

City College Coventry was rated ‘requires improvement’ in a report published Wednesday (February 22) following an ‘inadequate’ grade in November 2015.

While the 3,500-learner college still has areas to improve, inspectors said its current interim principal, Dr Elaine McMahon, who joined the college shortly after the previous inspection has been “successful in bringing about improvement across the college”.

However, too few learners on classroom-based programmes are successful in developing “appropriate levels of skill in English and mathematics or achieve their qualifications in these subjects,” the report said.

And while safeguarding at the college was deemed “effective”, inspectors noted that too few learners have a “well-developed understanding of life in modern Britain and how to keep safe from the dangers of radicalisation and extremism”.

Meanwhile, Brighton-based adult and community learning provider Friends Centre rose from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘good’ in a report published on Tuesday (February 21).

Inspectors said that college leaders had “taken very successful action to raise achievement rates” with most learners now achieving their qualification or individual learning goals.

The 1,000-learner provider has also built “excellent partnerships” and ensure that courses “align well” to its city’s needs while providing learners with “good advice, guidance, support and progression routes”.

Another adult and community learning provider, was found to have made “significant” progress in areas including improvement in teaching, learning and assessment including English, maths and English for speakers of other languages courses, in a monitoring visit report published February 20.

It was the third such visit to the provider after it was rated inadequate following an inspection in November 2015.

Gateway sixth form college in Leicester had its first monitoring visit on February 22 since its ‘inadequate’ rating in November 2016.

Senior managers at the sixth form have worked with inspectors to create a post-inspection action plan, based on the improvement actions identified in the previous inspection report.

Bishop Burton College meanwhile retained its ‘good’ rating in a report published February 22.

In order to reach ‘outstanding’, inspectors said teachers should “plan additional activities and offer extra qualifications to their most able learners on study programmes to enable them to achieve high grades”.

They also need to extend apprentices’ skills “beyond the expectations for competence set out in the apprenticeship qualification frameworks”.

It was bad news for Jancett Childcare & Jace Training Ltd who slumped from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’.

Leaders at the 620-learner private training provider, which has five training centres in London, Surrey and Kent, have not “followed up sufficiently the majority of the recommendations from the previous inspection”, inspectors said.

They found too few apprentices completing their qualifications “within the time planned”, and the achievements of learners on 16 to 19 study programmes, including English and mathematics, are “low”.

Anderson Stockley Accredited Training Ltd however went in the opposite direction and achieved a ‘good’ grade this week following a ‘requires improvement’ rating in March 2015.

Inspectors said the quality of teaching, learning and assessment and outcomes for apprentices have improved since its last inspection, and a “more rigorous” approach to observations of teaching, learning and assessment has “been introduced that is linked clearly to continuous professional development and effective action planning to ensure improvement”.

Also holding on to a grade two this week following a short inspection were independent training provider Outsource Vocational Learning Limited Intec and St Brendan’s Sixth Form College.

No employer provider or other FE and skills provider inspection reports were published this week.

 

GFE Colleges Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
City College Coventry 24/01/2017 22/02/2017 3 4
Bishop Burton College 17/01/2017 22/02/2017 2 2

 

Sixth Form Colleges Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Gateway Sixth Form College 11/01/2017 22/02/2017 M M

 

Independent Learning Providers Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
JANCETT CHILDCARE & JACE TRAINING LIMITED 17/01/2017 21/02/2017 3 2
Anderson Stockley Accredited Training Ltd 24/01/2017 22/02/2017 2 3

 

Adult and Community Learning Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Friends Centre 23/01/2017 21/02/2017 2 3
Wakefield Metropolitan District Council 25/01/2017 20/02/2017 M M

 

Short inspections (remains grade 2) Inspected Published
St Brendan’s Sixth Form College 17/02/2017 21/02/2017
Outsource Vocational Learning Limited 24/01/2017 21/02/2017

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