Skinners’ Academies Trust
‘ofsted’
A thorough improvement plan at City of Bristol College was put in place last year when Ofsted inspectors said it was no longer good, but inadequate. It started paying off inspection-wise this month with the grade shift up to ‘requires improvement’. Cliff Shaw explains what’s been going on to achieve the feat in 17 months. […]
Opinion
FE commissioner Dr David Collins criticised leadership styles at two colleges and said staff morale was being hit, his newly-released findings have shown. Dr Collins was appointed last year to investigate colleges issued with notices of financial concern, inadequate Ofsted ratings or which failed to meet standards set by the government. But summaries of Dr […]
News
Two colleges branded inadequate by Ofsted last year have both emerged badly in the latest of three monitoring visits each from the education watchdog. Lesoco, in South London, and Stockport College have shown weaknesses during previous monitoring inspections and both were again making “insufficient progress” in key areas, said inspectors who visited last month. A […]
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has today published summary reports of FE Commissioner Dr David Collins’s visits to colleges. Dr Collins’s interventions are triggered either by a grade four Ofsted rating, a notice of financial concern from the Skills Funding Agency or Education Funding Agency, or failure to meet national minimum standards of […]
Lesoco has brought in the former chair of the 157 Group to take over as interim consultant principal following the departure of Maxine Room. Ioan Morgan, who will officially be employed by the Association of Colleges’ (AoC) recruitment arm AoC Create, will take up the role at the college on Monday (June 9). Mr Morgan […]
Movers and Shakers
FE Commissioner Dr David Collins has criticised small classes, big staffing spends and a skills shortage on governing boards in a letter to the sector. Dr Collins, who has so far visited at least 10 colleges since his appointment last year, has written to governors, chief executives and colleges to update them on his progress. […]
A report on family learning last year from Niace called for a huge expansion in family education programmes to improve child and adult numeracy, literacy and other key skills. Carol Taylor assesses the report’s impact eight months on. The first few years of life are vital for everyone’s future attainment and achievement. We cannot rely […]
Ofsted is to ditch graded lesson observations in an FE and skills in a pilot following a University College Union (UCU) report that raised “serious questions about the fitness for purpose” of the practice. The education watchdog will, from September, be trying out inspections in the sector with no grading of teaching in individual sessions. […]
A London college is to launch its own pilot Career College after failing to make the cut for the first round of the new Lord Baker-inspired 14 to 19 institutions. When the former Conservative Education Secretary proposed Career Colleges in October, general FE colleges in Oldham, Oxford, Lambeth and Bromley were said to have expressed […]
