Loughborough College Ofsted Report

Full report

Information about the provider

• Loughborough College is a medium-sized further education college located in the borough of Charnwood in Leicestershire. It shares a large educational campus with Loughborough University and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) College, Loughborough. The core recruitment area includes Loughborough, the surrounding rural area and the northern outskirts of Leicester. The college also recruits learners nationally and internationally, especially in sports. Most of the college activity takes place on the main campus.
• The borough of Charnwood is one of the most deprived local authorities in the county. Many residents in Charnwood and, more broadly, Loughborough and Leicestershire, live in rural areas where transport links are difficult. In Charnwood, 59% of learners achieve five A* to C grades at GCSE including English and mathematics, just below the national average.

What does the provider need to do to improve further?

• Ensure that strategic planning for adult provision considers local needs by:
  • building on existing relationships with the local enterprise partnership (LEP) and local employers to identify local and regional skills gaps
  • focusing adult funding on learners who are disadvantaged and least likely to participate in education and training.
• Improve the quality of provision for adult learners by:
  • ensuring that staff use accurate records of prior attainment and progress to inform planning of teaching, learning and assessment, including actions to help learners who are not making enough progress
  • improving the quality of teaching for adult learners, including those on any distance-learning provision.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Senior leaders have developed a clear strategy for the college. They use this well to establish clear and measurable objectives. Managers of study programmes and apprenticeship provision use these objectives well to guide their own actions. As a result, the quality of teaching, learning and assessment in these areas is improving rapidly.
• Curriculum managers now have a good understanding of the performance of learners and are able to offer appropriate support, which leads to improvements in learners’ progress. This understanding results from revised quality improvement arrangements, which include regular meetings with senior leaders to monitor learners’ progress and a new approach to the observation of teaching and learning.
• Senior leaders’ assessment of the quality of provision is accurate, and the capacity for the college to improve is good. Leaders implement a well-established self-assessment process, with good staff involvement, so that their views inform quality improvement plans. Managers monitor progress and update these plans regularly, using them to underpin improvements in the provision. However, learners and employers are insufficiently involved in self-assessment.
• Managers and staff work effectively with subcontractors to ensure that their programmes are of a good quality. As a result, the achievements of the majority of learners and apprentices in subcontracted provision are as good as those of learners and apprentices in the college-based provision.
• Managers have established new and effective ways of evaluating and improving the work of teachers and assessors. They have good measures in place to support underperforming staff and help them do better. These revised processes have contributed to improvements in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment.
• Leaders and managers make excellent use of their good links with local and national organisations to provide learners with access to high-quality resources, relevant work experience and expert guidance about their next steps in education and employment. Managers and staff have built up a particular expertise in elite sports provision and have established strong partnerships with local universities and national governing bodies of sport. As a result, learners and apprentices in sport are very highly motivated and the very large majority make extremely good progress.
• Leaders and managers have ensured that the college is a welcoming environment with an inclusive and tolerant culture where the college community celebrates the achievements of learners and apprentices. As a result, learners and apprentices develop high levels of confidence and self-esteem.
• Leaders and managers have made substantial improvements in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment on study programmes and apprenticeship provision. Revised quality improvement processes include a new and robust lesson observation process which informs high-quality and well-targeted staff development sessions. For example, recent staff development sessions have focused on helping teachers to challenge the most able learners in their classes. These learners have made better progress as a result. However, teaching, learning and assessment on adult provision have not yet improved in the same way.
• Leaders and managers have planned the college’s curriculum in study programmes and apprenticeships to meet the priorities of the LEP well. A number of courses in each curriculum area contribute to the local enterprise priorities. The college has an international reputation for the calibre of its sports learners and apprentices, and makes a particularly positive contribution towards the LEP’s plan to expand the provision of sports apprenticeships. However, in their strategic planning for adult learning provision – which makes up less than 10% of the whole provision – leaders and managers do not consider local needs as well as they do for other areas of the college.
• Senior leaders do not have easy enough access to data about learners. This prevents them from monitoring some aspects of the learners’ progress and achievements, such as the destinations of adult learners. As a result, leaders are unable to use an analysis of available information to inform curriculum development.

The governance of the provider

• Current governors bring a good range of skills to the board, including expertise from higher education, sports and business. Half the current governing body has been appointed since the previous inspection. The board now provides greater scrutiny and challenge to senior leaders.
• Governors now receive more useful information about the performance of learners and apprentices. Since the previous inspection, governors have established a committee focused on the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. As a result, governors have a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses within the college and are effective in supporting leaders and managers in their drive to improve the quality of provision.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Managers responsible for overseeing the college’s duty for safeguarding young people and vulnerable adults are well trained and effective in carrying out their responsibilities and have created a culture that enables learners to feel safe.
• All staff, learners and apprentices receive mandatory training in safeguarding and the ‘Prevent’ duty, which has been effective in raising learners’ and apprentices’ awareness of how to keep themselves safe.
• Safeguarding officers have good links with specialist external agencies, including the Local Safeguarding Children Board and the police. They use these well to refer learners, gain access to training and share good practice. Managers take swift action to resolve safeguarding incidents. Managers follow safer recruitment practices.
• Safeguarding of learners and apprentices on their many sports engagements and other enrichment activities is effective.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teachers and curriculum managers set consistently high expectations for themselves and for their learners, including apprentices and those learners with high needs. Teaching, learning and assessment challenge learners on study programmes and apprentices of all levels and abilities. As a consequence, the majority of current learners on study programmes and apprentices make very good progress.
• Teachers are highly experienced and knowledgeable in their subjects and they use their skills and enthusiasm to motivate and inspire learners and apprentices to progress and achieve. Teachers in sports, hospitality and catering, and health and social care use their excellent industry and commercial knowledge to help learners and apprentices develop a good range of specialist vocational skills and knowledge that employers value.
• Teachers identify learners’ and apprentices’ support needs promptly, and this leads to thorough and appropriate arrangements for support which meet individual needs well. Teachers work well with learning support assistants to help learners during sessions. Learners and apprentices with high needs receive good, personalised support and, consequently, they make good progress from their starting points.
• Teachers use the available information about learners’ prior academic achievement well to build on previous learning to extend learners’ knowledge and understanding.
• Staff provide good information, and impartial advice and guidance, to learners at the start of their studies. As a result, apprentices and learners on study programmes enrol on courses that match their abilities and aspirations. They receive further helpful advice and guidance during their courses about their next steps.
• Teachers give excellent, detailed feedback when they mark work and learners use this information well to make improvements. For example, learners in A-level law receive very precise and thorough feedback on essays that clearly helps them to improve their grades in subsequent pieces of work.
• In most lessons, teachers check carefully that all learners and apprentices understand topics before moving on. This enables them to give more support to those who need it and ensures that no learners are left behind.
• Staff monitor the progress of apprentices and learners on study programmes very well. As a result, teachers can adapt teaching, learning and assessment to support the timely progress and achievement of their learners.
• The very large majority of apprentices and learners on study programmes work hard and make good progress, because teachers encourage them to work to the best of their ability and to achieve the highest outcomes of which they are capable. For example, learners on A-level subjects frequently redraft and resubmit formative work in order to exceed their target grades.
• Progress tutors take prompt action to ensure that learners do not fall behind with their work. As a consequence, learners who miss sessions – for example, to take part in international competitions – are helped to catch up quickly.
• Teachers incorporate topics on diversity in their lessons well. For example, learners in catering discussed the dietary needs of people from different faith and cultural backgrounds. As a result, learners and apprentices have a good understanding of issues related to diversity in modern Britain.
• As a result of skilful teaching and assessment in mathematics and English, apprentices and learners on study programmes make good progress in these subjects.
• Teaching and learning on adult programmes require improvement. In a minority of lessons for adult learners, particularly on access to higher education courses and in mathematics and English, teachers use a narrow range of activities that fail to inspire or motivate learners. The pace of these lessons is often slow. Consequently, a small minority of learners make insufficient progress.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

• Learners and apprentices take pride in their achievements and are committed to learning and improving their prospects.
• Teachers and managers actively promote learners’ and apprentices’ participation in national and international competitions in a range of sports and in catering and hairdressing. Many learners and apprentices take part in such competitions, with considerable success. For example, learners in catering have represented the United Kingdom in the international culinary Olympics. As a result, learners develop confidence and networking skills which are useful in their future careers.
• The majority of learners on study programmes participate in the college’s excellent enrichment programme. This provides good opportunities for learners to gain a range of personal, social and employability skills that prepare them well for the next step in their education and training. For example, a recent day of activities with the Royal Marines gave public services learners an insight into the levels of fitness required for careers in the armed forces. The activity day helped them to develop confidence, team-working skills and an understanding of the world of work.
• Learners and apprentices take responsibility for their own learning outside learning sessions. For example, A-level learners extend their subject knowledge by working independently in the local university library. This activity boosts their progress and gives them a greater familiarity with university life.
• Learners receive good-quality, impartial careers advice and guidance. They are able to articulate their next steps in education and training, and most have clear aspirations about their career goals and how to achieve them.
• Managers have successfully developed excellent links with local employers which they use well to enhance the curriculum and provide high-quality work placements for learners on study programmes.
• Learners manage their own behaviour very well and are courteous to others. They respect their peers and are able to communicate well with teachers and customers in the workplace. They respect others’ views and use appropriate language in learning sessions and around college. Apprentices present themselves very professionally when at work or at college, and they contribute well to the college’s good reputation in the community.
• Teachers, supported by progress tutors, promote learners’ personal development well, and provide useful advice and guidance to help them stay safe and show respect to others in the college and in the workplace. As a result, learners demonstrate an appropriate understanding of how to keep themselves safe online, including when using social media.
• Progress tutors promote learners’ understanding of British values during tutorial sessions, where appropriate. A good range of posters and displays in classrooms reinforce these values. As a result, the large majority of learners and apprentices understand their rights and responsibilities in a democratic society. For example, they understand why they should be tolerant and respectful of different cultures and beliefs. Learners in public services were able to discuss current affairs in the context of this understanding.
• Attendance in adult provision, and in English and mathematics for learners on study programmes, is too low. As a result, a minority of learners do not make the progress of which they are capable.

Outcomes for learners Good

• The large majority of current apprentices and learners on study programmes make good progress from their starting points. Staff now focus strongly on improving learners’ progress so that all learners, including the most and least able, fulfil their potential. A high proportion of current learners and apprentices are on course to achieve their target grades.
• The very large majority of learners and apprentices develop good skills as a result of well-planned learning activities and work experience. Many sports learners and apprentices have achieved local, national and international recognition for their skills. For example, 21 athletes from the college took part in the 2016 Olympic Games and won six medals.
• On study programmes and apprenticeships, the very large majority of learners and apprentices complete and achieve their qualifications. The proportion of apprentices who complete their qualifications within agreed timescales is much higher than at other similar providers.
• As a result of well-planned teaching, individual attention and a clear focus on developing English and other employability skills, such as team-working and working to deadlines, the large majority of learners and apprentices produce both practical and written work of a high standard.
• The proportion of learners who have achieved grades A* to C in GCSE mathematics is good. In English GCSE and functional skills tests, achievement rates are in line with those in other colleges. Current learners make better progress than learners in previous years as a result of strong support from staff in curriculum areas.
• Teachers and support assistants are skilled at supporting learners who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, and as a result these learners make as much progress as their peers, with similar achievement rates.
• Leaders, managers and teachers have been effective in reducing the differences in achievement between different groups of learners on study programmes and apprenticeships. For example, there are now no significant gaps in the achievement rates of male and female learners. However, managers do not monitor the progress of different groups of adult learners well enough to know whether there have been similar improvements in adult provision.
• The achievement rates of the relatively small proportion of adult learners on academic programmes are too low. For example, adult learners who join AS- and A-level classes do not progress as well as younger learners, and their achievement rates are below those of adult learners at other providers.

Types of provision

16 to 19 study programmes Good

• The college has around 3,000 learners aged 16 to 19 who study academic and vocational qualifications in a wide range of subjects. Approximately two thirds of the learners are on level 3 study programmes and around a quarter study at level 2. Subject areas with the greatest number of learners include mathematics, science, English, sports, media and communication, and engineering.
• Leaders and managers have high expectations and have introduced a range of initiatives that are highly effective in improving the progress of current learners. For example, new systems to track and monitor the progress of individual learners have enabled teachers to provide well-planned individualised support. Lower-ability learners receive the help they need to make good progress, while the most able benefit from challenging activities and resources, such as progress-boosting workshops and access to a university library. As a result, the large majority of current learners make good progress, in line with their potential.
• Staff have increased their focus on individual learners’ needs and goals and, as a result, many more learners now stay on their study programmes, leading to a high level of completion. The large majority of these learners achieve their qualifications.
• Staff provide a comprehensive and ongoing programme of impartial, individualised careers information, advice and guidance. This runs alongside coherent and motivational work experience, with an intensive programme to support the development of all learners’ skills for work. As a result, learners develop good employability skills and have a very clear and well-informed understanding of the choices available to them for their next steps in education and employment. For example, learners on the college’s innovative level 3 course in space engineering work at the National Space Centre one day each week. They can describe a wide range of relevant and realistic future options, including university degrees and higher-level apprenticeships with leading international companies.
• Teachers provide suitable learning activities and detailed feedback that help learners, whatever their abilities, build on their prior attainment and work to their potential. As a result, the large majority of current learners know what they need to do to achieve challenging targets and make good progress over time.
• Learners feel safe in college and they know how to report any concerns, should these arise. Staff ensure that learners receive information in relation to safeguarding during induction, and these messages are reinforced by teachers during learning sessions and by progress tutors during tutorials. As a result, learners have a good understanding of safeguarding, including how to protect themselves from risks associated with radicalisation and extremism.
• Teachers incorporate the teaching of British values very well into their lessons and, as a result, learners have a good understanding of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect for those of different faiths and none. Learners can explain very well how an understanding of, and respect for, people from different backgrounds is essential in life and work in modern Britain. They can also explain clearly how radicalisation and extremism can undermine such values, and can relate this understanding well to current affairs.
• Learners develop their English and mathematical skills well because teachers strongly emphasise the importance of these subjects. For example, teachers are thorough in their correction of errors in learners’ written English and provide comprehensive feedback that learners use well to improve the quality of their writing. Teachers also encourage learners at all levels to extend their vocabulary through frequent reinforcement of subject-specific terms in English and other languages. For example, level 2 catering learners could write accurate menus with the correct spellings of ‘profiteroles’ and ‘choux buns’.
• Learners who take GCSE mathematics do better than those at similar colleges, while those who take GCSE English achieve grades in line with those at other colleges. Current learners who take functional skills qualifications in English and mathematics make good progress. Learners are enthusiastic and well motivated. They take pride in their work, often redrafting formative work until it is at a very high standard. Current learners produce good standards of work.
• Managers are not certain about the destinations of many of their learners. Although historical data, as well as case studies about current learners and conversations with them, indicate that the large majority of learners progress to positive destinations, the recording and tracking of learners’ work experience and destinations are inconsistent. As a result, leaders and managers cannot use data to inform strategic decisions and underpin improvements.

Adult learning programmes Requires improvement

• The college has almost 1,200 adult learners on a range of provision including in health and social care, business, sport, English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), English and mathematics GCSEs and functional skills qualifications, Access courses, A levels and vocational study programmes. Around a quarter of adult learners are studying on online, distance-learning courses.
• A minority of adult learners do not attend their courses regularly and this restricts the progress they make.
• Managers have not yet developed a curriculum that successfully meets the needs of local adults. Managers recognise the need to develop the adult provision to respond to the needs of specific target groups, increase access to learning and tackle local employment priorities.
• Managers do not monitor sufficiently the quality of learners’ experience or their progress towards achievement of qualifications on distance-learning programmes. As a result, it is difficult for managers and teachers to plan support for those learners in need of more help.
• Effective teaching and learning enable the majority of adult learners in vocational and community provision – about one third of the overall adult provision – to develop a good range of skills and produce work of a good standard. This supports their progression to further learning and/or employment. However, adult learners on other courses do not experience consistently good teaching, learning and assessment. As a result, too few learners make the progress of which they are capable.
• The majority of adult learners develop a good range of personal, social and employability skills, such as customer care skills, and are confident about how they can operate more independently, improve their performance in the workplace, and use their newly acquired skills at home and in the wider community.
• Teachers incorporate diversity themes well in teaching and learning. In this way, they develop learners’ understanding of the need for tolerance and respect for diversity in the workplace and wider community.
• Adult learners feel very safe and, as a result of effective and appropriate sessions from staff on the ‘Prevent’ duty, they develop a good understanding of the risks associated with radicalisation and extremism, including online risks.
• Managers have developed links with a good range of partners to help local adult learners gain access to education and participate in appropriate provision. These links include a strong relationship with the local authority, which provides community-based courses for a range of learners.

Apprenticeships Outstanding

• The college has 1,866 apprentices, of whom more than three quarters are following advanced apprenticeships and about a fifth intermediate apprenticeships. Almost two thirds of apprentices are aged 16 to 18 and a third are aged 19 or over. Close to half of all apprenticeships are advanced apprenticeships in sporting excellence (AASE), designed to support top athletes and sportspeople to succeed in elite sports and to develop supplementary careers.
• Apprenticeships are well managed so that they meet the principles and requirements of apprenticeship frameworks. They are planned very well to meet local, regional and national priorities.
• Employers are fully engaged in the development of apprentices from recruitment to achievement. Employers have high expectations. They work routinely with assessors on progress reviews that identify clear learning targets to support the progress of each apprentice. This process prepares apprentices very well for the workplace and gives them an excellent understanding of good practice in relevant industries.
• Employers work well with college staff to coordinate on- and off-the-job training. Apprentices appreciate the clear structure that results from this coordination, which enables them to make progress within specified timescales.
• Apprentices know what is expected of them at work and they contribute very well to their employers’ businesses. Employers value this highly. For example, in engineering, employers and apprentices work together to select a project for a year-long study. These studies are real, working projects that are implemented within, and bring benefits to, the business.
• Staff have excellent experience of the sectors in which they are working, and they use this to prepare apprentices very well for the demands of the workplace. For example, coaches within the AASE provision have extensive experience of sports and elite skills development, and so are able to support their apprentices very well in the development of skills that enable participation in major international sports competitions.
• Assessors provide apprentices with high-quality, prompt feedback. Apprentices use this well to improve their work rapidly. They have a very clear understanding of assessment, particularly of how individual assignments and examinations impact on their overall qualification grades and support their progress at work. Consequently, they are able to take responsibility for their own progress and complete their apprenticeship qualifications in good time.
• Many apprentices complete additional qualifications, such as customer service qualifications and A levels, alongside their apprenticeships. This helps to broaden apprentices’ skills and to offer more career options. For example, some apprentices, who did not become elite athletes at the end of their apprenticeships, achieved good grades in A levels, which enabled them to progress to university to study medicine.
• Apprentices develop good skills for independence and adult life as a result of the demands of their courses. For example, in AASE, the female rugby apprentices are in residence at college and have strongly developed their independent living skills, including cleaning, using a washing machine, dealing with conflict, working as a team and making positive social choices such as cooking healthy meals on a rota for themselves and their team members.
• Apprentices are impeccably behaved, confident and very well prepared to be effective employees and citizens. The vast majority understand very well how to conduct themselves professionally. This includes a strong understanding of issues connected with equal opportunities. For example, apprentices in engineering understand well the need for professionalism in a male-dominated environment and they view the presence of women in the workplace positively.
• Apprentices know how to stay safe. They understand the dangers of radicalisation and extremism and what to do if an incident should occur. For example, in sport, apprentices have a good understanding of the impact of terrorism on sports events. They understand risks involved in travelling to sporting events in different parts of the world and they know how to minimise these risks. Apprentices also know how to keep themselves safe from dangers to their welfare, such as child sexual exploitation.
• Apprentices based in primary schools understand fully their role and how to behave professionally with children.
• Apprentices make excellent life choices because of effective guidance. For example, nutritionists support apprentices on the AASE programme to make healthy meals to ensure that when they move away from home their diet supports their sports performance. This attention to health has a positive impact on both their studies and their performance. Apprentices who are over 18 have healthy attitudes to alcohol consumption, because they do not want to compromise their sports performance.
• Attendance and punctuality are very good. Apprentices understand fully the importance of good attendance and punctuality in the workplace. As a result, they make rapid progress and achieve to the best of their ability.
• In sport, strategic planning is very strong both in terms of influencing and meeting local and national agendas. For example, leaders and managers have responded quickly to the recent independent review, ‘Duty of care in sport (April 2017)’,1 which outlines the need to prioritise the safety and welfare of young people in sport. Leaders and managers in sport have also taken a part in shaping the new apprenticeship standards.
• The proportion of apprentices successfully completing their programmes within the planned time frame is very high.

Provision for learners with high needs Good

• The college currently receives funding from three local authorities for a total of 22 learners with high needs. Of these, around two thirds are aged 16 to 18 and a third are adult learners. Seven learners are studying on specially designed foundation level programmes and the remaining learners are on a range of courses where they learn alongside their peers who do not require high-needs funding.
• Teachers plan learning well to meet the individual needs of learners, enabling them

1 Grey-Thompson, Baroness Tanni, ‘Duty of care in sport’, independent report to government. London, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2017, www.gov.uk/government/publications/duty-of-care-in-sport-review

all to make good progress. Staff collaborate well with a wide range of partners, including parents and carers, previous schools and medical services, to ensure that learners are very quickly provided with appropriate and comprehensive support.

• Teachers and support workers provide good learning support which enables all learners to participate fully in their lessons and make good progress towards their learning goals. The majority of learners receive one-to-one support, such as help with taking notes and with communication.
• Specialist staff, who have knowledge and experience in a wide range of learning difficulties and disabilities, work well together to coordinate learners’ individual programmes and support good progress.
• Learners make good use of a range of adaptive and learning technologies which support learning well. Learners with complex communication needs use high- specification technology to communicate well with their teachers and peers. Learners use laptops with specialist software to record their learning and complete assessments. Note-takers scan notes and wider learning resources so that learners can maintain comprehensive records of their learning.
• Staff collaborate well with the neighbouring RNIB college. This ensures that learners with visual impairments can access high-specification technology which enables them to make faster progress.
• The majority of learners in provision which has not been specifically designed for learners with high needs benefit from external work experience, which supports well the development of work-related skills. Staff and supportive employers prepare learners well for this activity. The majority of learners on specially designed provision undertake well-planned work experience within the college, which helps to develop their skills for independence and employability.
• Learners receive timely progression advice which enables them to make appropriate decisions about their next steps in education and employment. As a result, the large majority of learners have positive destinations. Learners have a clear understanding of the options available and they look forward to the progression they expect to make. A-level learners make very well-considered decisions regarding their future options, which include supported internships and higher education. One such learner, an international elite athlete, described in detail his forthcoming university course.
• Learners grow in confidence and develop their independent learning skills. Support staff are skilled at planned withdrawal of support over a period of time so that learners develop independent learning skills and are more able to plan and take control of their own learning, developing their readiness for further learning and employment. For example, staff gave ongoing one-to-one support to an A-level learner in mathematics and English, while scaling down the amount of one-to-one support offered in the learner’s A-level classes. This process built the learner’s confidence and ability to manage his own learning and prepared him well for university life.
• Learners make good progress in developing their English and mathematical skills as a result of carefully tailored support. Learners enjoy developing these skills and understand why they are important to many aspects of life. They achieve qualifications well and progress to higher levels of study in these subjects.
• Learners feel very safe and are aware of how to report any concerns they might have. Teachers and support staff explain well the particular risks learners may encounter, including those related to radicalisation and extremism. As a result, learners understand how to keep themselves safe, including online.
• Learners with high needs complete their courses and achieve their qualifications at rates higher than the college average.
• In a small minority of lessons in specially designed provision, teachers do not always complete assessments of learners’ progress in a timely manner, and so learners do not have a prompt understanding of how to improve. In this provision, teachers do not always pay sufficient attention to spelling mistakes, which inhibits learners’ ability to improve the quality of their written English. In the few non-accredited courses, the assessment criteria are not sufficiently precise to enable accurate assessment of learners’ progress.

Provider details

Unique reference number 130748 Type of provider General further education college Age range of learners Approximate number of all learners over the previous full contract year 16+ 8,800 Principal/CEO Colin Butler (interim principal) Telephone number 01509 618 375 Website www.loucoll.ac.uk

Provider information at the time of the inspection

Main course or learning programme level Level 1 or below Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 or above Total number of learners (excluding apprenticeships) Number of apprentices by apprenticeship level and age 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 235 36 608 399 2,009 539 3 202 Intermediate Advanced Higher 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 169 232 1,004 424 1 36 16–19 - 19+ - Total - Number of traineeships Number of learners aged 14 to 16 Number of learners for which the provider receives high-needs funding - 22 Funding received from: Education and Skills Funding Agency At the time of inspection, the provider contracts with the following main subcontractors:

England Hockey UK Athletics Ltd All England Netball Association Ltd The Addict Dance Company Ltd Leicester Academy of Music, Technology and Arts Ltd Total Training Company (UK) Ltd

Information about this inspection

The inspection team was assisted by the vice-principal for quality, curriculum and learner experience, as nominee. Inspectors took account of the provider’s most recent self-assessment report and development plans, and the previous inspection report. Inspectors used group and individual interviews, telephone calls and online questionnaires to gather the views of learners and employers; these views are reflected within the report. They observed learning sessions, assessments and progress reviews. The inspection took into account all relevant provision at the provider.

Inspection team

Rebecca Clare, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Russ Henry Her Majesty’s Inspector William Baidoe-Ansah Her Majesty’s Inspector Sylvia Farrier Jaswant Mann Allan Shaw Julie Gibson Kanwaljit Dhillon Jai Sharda Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector