Skinners’ Academies Trust
‘ofsted’
Graham Taylor explains why he was less than impressed with the recent qualification and achievement report. Let’s move on from my last article on apprenticeships — the consensus feedback to that was ‘kick the reforms into the long grass’ as we believe we can meet Dave’s target without the unnecessary, complicated and costly wiring […]
Opinion
Last weekend saw more than 1,800 athletes from 137 different colleges travel to Tyne and Wear for the 38th AoC Sport National Championships. The pinnacle event in the sporting calendar for AoC Sport member colleges inspired many passionate and high quality performances at first-rate venues, as FE Week reporter and football and golf fanatic Billy […]
News
On the third Monday of every month Dr Sue, Holex director of policy and external relations, answers your questions, backed by the experience of almost a decade as principal of Canterbury College, in addition to time served in senior civil service posts at central government departments covering education and skills. Question 1: As part of […]
A college in Cornwall has become the first to be rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted since the introduction of the Common Inspection Framework (CIF) in September. The education watchdog’s report on Truro and Penwith College (TPC), published today, was full of praise for the college, rating it grade one ‘outstanding’ overall. Ofsted returned the highest possible […]
The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has said it will improve its tool for viewing qualification achievement rates (QAR) following complaints from providers — but is unable to say when. The twice-delayed QARs were finally made available on April 5 via new interactive dashboards on the SFA’s online hub. However, the dashboards did not include the […]
A leading expert in learning difficulties and disabilities has branded the FE sector a “postcode lottery” for young people with high needs, after an Ofsted report found the provision they receive “was often not of a high enough standard”. In an expert piece for FE Week, Kathryn Rudd (pictured), principal of National Star College and […]
Ofsted recently published a thematic report on how FE is preparing young people with high needs for adult life. It highlighted a worrying lack of progress with supporting them on to the right training courses, says Kathryn Rudd. The question mark at the start of the title for the Ofsted thematic report — where it […]
Carole Kitching reflects on her management team’s drive to improve its finances. Lewisham Southwark College reported an operating deficit of £6.7m at the end of 2014/15, as identified [by FE Week in edition 168] from the published college accounts. This figure has long been in the public domain as it was the key driver in […]
John Hyde looks ahead to how apprenticeships will be inspected after the levy is launched. Introducing the Digital Apprenticeship Service (DAS) to levy-paying employers from 2017 and subsequently to every apprentice employer from 2019 onward, will substantially increase the number of training providers. The new DAS requires employers to select a training provider on-line directly […]
