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‘ofsted watch’

Lewisham Southwark College gets two-inadequates-in-a-row first as pace of improvement criticised

Lewisham Southwark College has been given the ignominious honour of becoming the first FE and skills provider to be branded inadequate by Ofsted twice in a row. In a report on an inspection in February, which was released today (pictured above), the college was mauled by the education watchdog over the pace of improvement and a failure to […]

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Ofsted hits back at ‘not fit for purpose’ criticism

Ofsted has defended itself against criticism in an Association of Colleges (AoC) paper that branded the education watchdog as “not fit for purpose” and “driven by political considerations”. The paper, written by FE consultant Mick Fletcher, went on to call for a “slimmed down version” of Ofsted for under-19 FE provision and a new system […]

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Ofsted ‘sea change’ over college finances

Ofsted has undergone a “sea change” in the way it looks at college finances, according to a principal who got two good ratings among his headline fields and yet emerged with an inadequate result overall. Weymouth College, visited by FE Commissioner Dr David Collins over its finances just under a year ago, got grade two […]

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Commissioner visits first two local authority providers

The FE Commissioner has made his first two visits to inspect local authority provision, FE Week can reveal. Dr David Collins visited Lancashire Adult Learning (LAL), run by Lancashire County Council, and Warrington Borough Council last month to review adult learning after grade four Ofsted inspection results. The commissioner’s powers of intervention extend to FE […]

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Ofsted halving number of FE reports per year

Ofsted has announced plans to halve the number of times it publishes official FE statistics to two a year in response to a month-long consultation. The consultation, which opened on August 11 on the education watchdog’s website, received 22 responses — 73 per cent of which agreed with the proposal to reduce the number of […]

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‘Devil in the detail’ warning on Ofsted’s new CIF

Ofsted has been warned that the “devil will be in the detail” when it applies a new common inspection framework (CIF) across FE, early years and schools from September. It was exclusively revealed in FE Week in August that the education watchdog planned for inspections to be “harmonised” under one CIF. And Ofsted said on […]

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Ofsted pushes ahead with unified inspection plan for FE and skills, schools and early years

Ofsted today confirmed it was pushing ahead with “some of the most significant changes to the inspection of education in its history” following a public consultation on bringing all its inspections under one regime. It was revealed in FE Week in August last year that the education watchdog planned for all education inspections to be […]

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‘Colleges that don’t engage with businesses will fail’ Ofsted boss Sir Michael Wilshaw tells MPs

Colleges risk failing their Ofsted inspections if they are not engaging effectively with employers, Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw has warned. During questions from the House of Commons Education Select Committee this morning on the education watchdog’s annual report in December, Sir Michael warned inspectors were going to be “more critical” of poor employer engagement by […]

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Ofsted’s falling standards flag ‘insecure’

Ofsted’s system for flagging up falling standards has been described as offering an “insecure comfort blanket” after two formerly outstanding providers fell straight to inadequate having gone uninspected for a total of more than 12 years. The grade-four-across-the-board results for Four Counties Training Limited (FCT), in West London, and Venture Learning Limited (VL), in Greater […]

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