Ofsted | FE Week

EXCLUSIVE: DfE launches £100k tender to independently review complaints against Ofsted

The Department for Education has this week started the hunt for an organisation to review complaints made against Ofsted, FE Week can reveal. The three year contract is valued at £100,000 and will run from 1 January, 2018 to 31 December, 2020, something Ofsted spokesperson told FE Week is “a routine retendering by the DfE for […]

Special Investigation: Over 1,600 jobs at risk after Learndirect fails bid to overturn Ofsted ‘inadequate’

The country’s largest FE provider has lost a High Court bid to quash an as-yet unpublished ‘inadequate’ Ofsted rating, FE Week can reveal, leaving more than 1,600 of its staff at risk of losing their jobs. Learndirect failed in its judicial review to overturn the damning report on August 4 – the release of which […]

Ofsted watch: Kendal College falls from grade one

This week brought disappointment for Kendal College, which lost its ‘outstanding’ Ofsted grade and dropped down to ‘good’. The small college, which serves around 2,610 learners and is located in the Lake District, was inspected in early June, around five years since Ofsted’s last visit. It secured an ‘outstanding’ result for personal development, behaviour and […]

How we achieved Ofsted outstanding for 14-16

Ofsted recently lauded the Grimsby Institute Group’s outcomes for 14- to 16-year-old learners as ‘outstanding’. Paul Thundercliffe, headteacher of the school they opened in 2015, explains how they approached the challenge As 2012 drew to a close, the DfE announced that from September 2013 colleges rated good or better by Ofsted would be able to […]

Ofsted survey tools used by only 2% of learners

Two Trip Adviser-style tools for rating providers during inspections which cost Ofsted just over £90,000 to develop receive responses from just two per cent of learners on average, FE Week analysis reveals. Learner View was launched in 2012 and cost £65,000 to create. It was designed to draw together the opinions of students about their […]

Ofsted watch: Week of extreme contrasts for providers

A week of extreme contrasts for FE saw the second college in two weeks scoop an ‘outstanding’ rating, while an independent learning provider was branded ‘inadequate’ in its first ever Ofsted visit. Grimsby Institute Group* earned its grade-one report after it asked for its scheduled short inspection to be upgraded into a full one. The […]

Ofsted watch: Two providers rated outstanding and a UTC bounces back

Two providers have been awarded the highest possible grade from Ofsted – and a university technical college has bounced back from inadequate to good in just eight months. As exclusively revealed by FE Week, Dudley College became the first general FE college to be rated outstanding in 14 months this week. In a report published […]

Exclusive: First outstanding Ofsted rating for FE college in 14 months

The first general FE to receive a grade one Ofsted rating in 14 months is Dudley College, FE Week can exclusively reveal. The report was full of glowing endorsements, including outstanding ratings for leadership and management, teaching, learning and assessment, personal development, behaviour and welfare, outcomes for learners, 16 to 19 study programmes, adult learning […]

National provider enters redundancy consultation with staff

Staff at the nation’s largest FE provider are on tenterhooks, as they wait to find out whether they will still have a job at the end of a 30 day consultancy period enforced this week. Learndirect informed employees that they were being placed in the month-long consultancy period via a “script” delivered in a conference […]