Gloucestershire County Council
‘ofsted’
The FE sector has had one of its key spokespeople recognised on the 2015 Debrett’s 500 list of the most influential people. Dr Lynne Sedgmore CBE, executive director of the 157 Group, has been named as one of the UK’s most influential people in the 2015 Debrett’s 500 list, which was first published in yesterday’s Sunday […]
News
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 […]
Association of Colleges (AoC) boss Martin Doel (above) has leapt to the defence of his members after a former Ofsted director and civil servant launched a scathing attack on colleges claiming “lots of them are frankly, rubbish”. Richard Brooks (inset, above-right), who was the education watchdog’s director of strategy from September 2009 to August 2013 […]
Lambeth College has retained its grade three Ofsted rating despite inspectors visiting amid long-running industrial action that ended with staff returning to the classroom last week. Principal Mark Silverman was praised in the report, out on Friday, for “resolute and resilient management,” while staff efforts and contingency plans “helped to mitigate some, but not all” […]
The Department for Education (DfE) has not ruled out another college intervention to take on a school from troubled academy chain E-Act (formerly EduTrust Academies Charitable Trust). South Gloucestershire and Stroud College (SGS) has announced it was the new sponsor of Forest Academy, formerly Heywood Community School, Forest of Dean, from March. The school, given […]
The RAF’s apprenticeship scheme has seen it become just the second employer provider to be rated outstanding across the board under Ofsted’s current common inspection framework. The report, released on Thursday, said success rates were “significantly above national rates for all apprenticeship subjects” and that instructors “plan learning activities very well so that apprentices of […]
The government will not be enforcing a recommendation from the Further Education Learning Technology Action Group (Feltag) that 10 per cent of all course content should be delivered online, Skills Minister Nick Boles has revealed. Speaking at the Bett technology trade show on Thursday (January 22), Mr Boles said he was not planning to be […]
Having taken on the challenge of a round-the-world sailing event, Lindsey Noble has dropped anchor for the challenge of turning around the fortunes of Greenwich Community College. Ms Noble, who left City College Southampton in August 2013 after 12 years as principal to take part in the Clipper Yacht Race, has been taken on at […]
Movers and Shakers
One of the most frequent complaints levelled at Ofsted is that it lacks transparency. For example the system for dealing with complaints against inspection results, it has been claimed, is not open to scrutiny. However Marina Gaze, deputy director for FE and skills at the education watchdog, sees things differently. “I’m really sorry people think […]
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