Easton & Otley College Ofsted Report

Full report

Information about the provider

• Easton and Otley College was formed in August 2012 from the merger of Easton College in Norwich and Otley College in Ipswich. Both campuses have large estates, based around working farms. The Easton campus has residential accommodation for about 120 students. The college offers full-time courses in all the land-based subjects and in sport, public services and construction. College-based courses are offered from entry level to level 3. Apprenticeships are offered in all land-based subjects, with a large provision in agriculture, and smaller provision in construction, sport and business administration.
• The college recruits students and apprentices from across East Anglia and operates its own network of coaches for transporting students to and from the college. Pupils aged 11 to 16 in Norfolk and Suffolk make better progress than the national rate and they achieve GCSE grades A* to C in English and mathematics at a slightly higher rate than pupils nationally.

What does the provider need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment for all learners, so that they make good or better progress towards achieving their qualifications by:
  • ensuring that teachers provide learners with timely and constructive feedback on their work, so that they know what it is they need to do to improve
  • ensuring that teachers plan assessments so that learners can manage their workloads effectively and have sufficient time to produce work of a high standard
  • training teachers to plan and teach lessons that enable all of the learners in their class to make the progress of which they are capable by devising activities that the most able find challenging and the least able find helpful and supportive in developing their skills, knowledge and understanding.
• Monitor effectively the progress learners make towards achieving their qualifications, intervening promptly when learners and/or teachers are at risk of underperforming.
• Swiftly improve students’ attendance by setting high expectations of teachers to ensure that they apply more rigour in challenging and supporting students who do not attend.
• Ensure that all apprentices have access to high-quality and timely off-the-job training by:
  • training tutors to plan and implement training sessions that enable apprentices to develop the skills and knowledge they need
  • challenging employers to make sure their apprentices attend their agreed off-the-job training.
• Ensure that students for whom the college receives high needs funding are set specific and challenging targets for personal and academic development, based on the starting points and areas for development in their education, health and care plans.
• Improve learners’ understanding of how to keep themselves safe from the dangers of extremism and radicalisation and how to live in modern Britain by improving teachers’ confidence and expertise to teach these topics.
• Ensure that students on study programmes for whom it would be appropriate complete a meaningful external work experience placement that meets their needs.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• Leaders and managers have been too slow to take decisive action to bring about the required improvements in teaching, learning and assessment. Study programmes requirements have not been implemented in full. Leaders and managers have not ensured that apprentices receive their full apprenticeship entitlement.
• Managers do not monitor effectively students’ and apprentices’ progress and achievement. Senior managers have, until recently, not been clear enough about their expectations. Curriculum managers have not used quality improvement processes and systems well enough to identify accurately students and apprentices at risk of not achieving their full potential.
• Leaders and managers have recently implemented a range of strategies that are starting to bring about improvements in teaching, learning and assessment and, in turn, these are beginning to have positive impact, for example in increasing students’ attendance and the progress they are making towards achieving qualifications. Leaders and governors recognise that the implementation of these strategies has not happened soon enough and have appointed new managers to remedy this.
• Leaders have recently appointed several additional curriculum managers in order to improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. These new managers understand well the actions needed to improve the quality of provision and improve both students’ achievements and progress.
• Leaders’ self-assessment of the quality of provision in 2015/16 resulted in an honest evaluation and the acceptance that outcomes for learners were inadequate. However, their subsequent action planning lacked sufficient incisive actions to bring about rapid improvement. Senior managers did not act swiftly enough to review and revise these actions when progress was too slow. The recently revised improvement plan is now being implemented and managers are monitoring progress more frequently.
• Managers are now taking a more thorough and swift approach to managing staff underperformance, and relevant policies and processes are being applied with a greater urgency. Following their review of the lesson observation process, managers now ensure that the subsequent training that teachers receive following observations of lessons is highly relevant and focuses on learners’ progress.
• Course managers and teachers do not pay sufficient attention to promoting the value of English and mathematics within the provision of study programmes and apprenticeships provision. Senior managers do not hold staff sufficiently to account for the performance of English and mathematics. Students’ attendance at lessons for English and mathematics qualifications is low. Staff are now challenging students more effectively and their attendance has improved in the current term, but remains too low.
• Senior leaders and managers work well with a wide range of partners and stakeholders to promote employment opportunities in agriculture and related industries. Leaders of regional agricultural associations speak highly of their joint activities with the college that benefit the rural trades, learners and employers. The college is a key partner in several projects that provide reskilling opportunities to meet employers’ needs in, for example, sustainable housing, food and farming.
• Leaders support key priorities of the local LEP with growth in food, agriculture and construction by ensuring that courses offered meet these skills needs. New Anglia LEP has made a major investment, as part of the ‘growth deal initiative’, in a learning centre located on the Easton site to provide training to take place to fill skills gaps in construction. The principal is a key and active partner in the New Anglia Colleges Group, who are planning the arrangements and curriculum for supporting LEP priorities for the future, for example in meeting the energy industry agenda.
• Leaders and managers plan the curriculum effectively to support the skills needs of local and regional industry. Their plans take into account relevant information to ensure that the courses offered meet the skills needs of employers and career aspirations of students and apprentices. Managers ensure that students and apprentices have good opportunities to move on to the next level of learning and have options to specialise in specific industry skills areas, predominantly in the land-based sector and allied industries.
• Leaders have not ensured that students and apprentices have a good understanding of how to keep themselves safe from the dangers of extremism. Staff provide training with students and apprentices to raise their awareness of radicalisation and British values, but too many do not have sufficient knowledge and are not able to recall fundamental principles concerning the risks of extremism.

The governance of the provider

• Governors have a good range of skills, knowledge and expertise of the main industries that the college serves through their extensive experience in the farming industry. They have strong links with, for example, the agri-food and mixed arable farming sectors. They use these skills and knowledge very effectively to ensure that the college provides courses that meet the needs of local and regional industries. Governors recognise that they have not acted swiftly enough to stem the decline in students’ and apprentices’ outcomes but they have now taken decisive action to hold senior managers to account for this decline.
• Governors monitor students’ and apprentices’ performance monthly through a series of recently introduced key performance indicators. This level of detail, including data on learners’ progress, attendance and satisfaction, enables them to support and challenge leaders and managers with more confidence and understanding. This action has supported very recent improvements in learners’ progress and achievement, following three years of decline.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. The senior manager responsible for safeguarding ensures that staff are updated termly through a safeguarding newsletter.
• Students and apprentices feel safe in college and in their workplace. They receive good individual support and have a good understanding of potential dangers to their personal safety, how to keep themselves safe and to whom to report any concerns. However, teachers do not always model best practice for students and apprentices in a few lessons, particularly with their inconsistent use of personal protective equipment and displaying their identity cards.
• Managers responsible for recruiting new staff ensure that appropriate checks on their suitability to work with young people are completed; they have received training in safer recruitment practice and are updated through the safeguarding newsletter.
• Managers responsible for safeguarding monitor high-risk issues well, and investigate incidents thoroughly, reporting these appropriately to governors and external agencies, such as the local children’s safeguarding board.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

• The quality of teaching, learning and assessment varies too much across the college and too much is not good. Students and apprentices in most subjects do not benefit from the good practice that exists in subjects such as floristry and veterinary nursing. Teachers pay insufficient attention to planning the timing of students’ and apprentices’ assessments and ensuring that they receive prompt and timely feedback. Consequently, too many students and apprentices are making slow progress.
• Teachers’ feedback to students and apprentices is encouraging and recognises what they have accomplished. However, they do not provide precise guidance on how they can improve their work and this does not enable them to rectify poor work.
• Students in too many lessons receive the same tasks to complete in a given time without adequate consideration by teachers of their prior learning, differing skills and capabilities. Consequently, those completing tasks ahead of others have to wait and they do not make good use of their time. Not enough teachers provide further, more challenging activities to extend the most able students and challenge them to make more rapid progress and excel.
• Teachers and assessors do not check how well students and apprentices have understood information, particularly new concepts and principles in theory lessons. Consequently, students and apprentices cannot articulate clearly what it is they have learned or what they need to improve; too often, they lose interest, fall behind with their work and fail to understand key principles.
• Managers do not ensure that students and apprentices who have already achieved A* to C grades in English and mathematics GCSEs are provided with further opportunities to continue to improve these skills in the context of their courses. Teachers do not pay sufficient attention to using opportunities that arise in the course of teaching to enhance these essential skills. However, the teaching of mathematics and English on discrete courses is more effective, and students receive good help and support in the college’s English and mathematics centres, but their attendance at English and mathematics lessons remains too low.
• Students and apprentices do not make swift enough progress as the targets teachers set for them are, too often, not specific enough and are simply tasks or units to complete. Targets do not focus on developing skills, knowledge or understanding in order to move students and apprentices on to the next level in their learning and ensure that they excel. Too many students do not improve their higher-level thinking skills. Too many students are not aware of their predicted final grade, how they might achieve merit or distinction grades or make more rapid progress.
• Teachers’ promotion of diversity varies too much across the subjects and too much is not good; as a result, too many students and apprentices fail to improve their understanding of the needs of different groups of people in today’s modern Britain. Teachers do not help students and apprentices to understand why equality of opportunity and fair access to goods and services are important by relating these issues to their courses.
• Staff conduct a thorough assessment of students’ prior achievements, abilities and skills at the start of their courses. As a result, staff provide appropriate additional help to those who need it. Students and apprentices receive good support that meets their personal and academic needs from personal development coaches. However, the quality of learning support that students receive in lessons is poor due to teachers’ poor direction and instruction to support staff.
• Teachers and assessors use their practical knowledge and technical and vocational expertise well to enable students and apprentices to develop good practical skills in most subjects. Apprentices’ off-the-job training is not effective in too many instances in helping them develop the knowledge and understanding they need to be able to apply to their job roles and add value in the workplace.
• In the better lessons, which are in the minority, students’ use of mobile devices enhances their learning and they improve their use of information and communication technology (ICT) well. Teachers’ thoughtful use of ICT, such as online quizzes and smartphone apps, motivates students to participate enthusiastically in lessons and helps them check what they have learned well and what they need to do to improve their work.
• Students and apprentices are motivated by, and appreciate, the excellent practical resources, facilities and equipment to support teaching, learning and assessment. However, students and teachers do not use effectively the college’s virtual learning environment to enable them to develop further their knowledge, understanding and skills outside of lessons.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Inadequate

• Students’ attendance at lessons remains low, despite recent improvements in the monitoring of their attendance by staff and more timely interventions when students are absent from college. Teachers do not challenge effectively their students to improve their attendance, particularly the most persistent absentees.
• Too many students for whom it would be appropriate, particularly at level 1, do not have the opportunity to benefit from external work experience. While the majority of students take part in relevant external work experience, managers have not ensured that all students for whom it would be appropriate take up work placements and improve their understanding of the demands of employers. Those students who complete work experience placements benefit positively from developing their practical skills and vocational skills.
• In too many subjects, including agriculture and public services, students’ work is not of a high enough quality or standard for the level of their course. Their work contains spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors which are not highlighted or corrected by teachers. Too many students do not structure their sentences correctly or use paragraphing effectively. As a result, they do not improve their written English skills, which, for the majority of level 3 students, are not of a high enough standard for higher education. Students’ files are poorly organised and do not support them to learn, complete assignment work and revise. However, in floristry, veterinary nursing and on adult courses for arboriculture, students’ and apprentices’ work is of a high standard.
• Students’ and apprentices’ understanding of how to keep themselves safe from the dangers of extremism and radicalisation is weak. They do not have a good understanding of British values and how these apply to them in their daily lives.
• Students’ conduct in lessons and behaviour around the campuses and shared spaces is good. They are respectful of each other, of their teachers and their environment. Students enjoy their lessons, and their rapport with staff encourages them to seek help when they need it.
• Potential students and apprentices receive sound information, advice and guidance from staff. During their courses, they access accurate and impartial careers advice and information. As a consequence, they develop a clear picture of how to achieve their career aspirations.
• Students and apprentices feel safe at college and they know to whom to report any concerns they may have about their own health, safety or well-being. When students report concerns to staff they are supported well to resolve these through a wide range of interventions, including appropriate liaison with external agencies such local child and adolescent mental health services.
• Most apprentices attend their work frequently. They develop very good attitudes to employment, which their employers value. They make positive contributions to their employers’ businesses.
• Students develop their learning further through a broad range of additional activities, such as trips, visits and external speakers. For example, agriculture students develop their teamwork, animal handling and their personal presentation skills by exhibiting college livestock successfully at the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk shows. Students enjoy good enrichment opportunities and they undertake a wide variety of trips and visits and complete work-related projects that help them improve their skills for work, such as teamwork and communications skills. Students studying sports and leisure courses gain additional skills and expertise when working with young people and pupils from schools.

Outcomes for learners Inadequate

• In the previous three academic years, the proportion of students aged 16 to 19 and adult students who achieved their qualifications, including for English and mathematics, has been low at all levels and has declined each year.
• Due to very recent improvements in managers’ monitoring of students’ progress, current students are making better progress; however, too many are not making the progress of which they are capable and fulfilling their potential.
• The proportion of students who stay to the end of their course has improved in the current academic year, but still requires further improvement. More students are attending lessons and handing in their assignments on time than at the same point in time in the previous year.
• The proportion of apprentices who achieved their qualifications in the previous three years was low. Apprentices are making more rapid progress towards completing their qualifications in the current year.
• Students who retake the English GCSE qualification make good progress in improving their English skills and in 2015/16, around a third improved their grade pass to a C or above. However, a very low proportion of students who retake the mathematics GCSE course achieve a grade C or above.
• A very high proportion of students move on to positive destinations, which include further learning, employment, apprenticeships or higher education. Most students who achieve level 3 qualifications and who apply for degree level courses gain a place to study at university.
• Most apprentices move on to higher levels of apprenticeships or to permanent employment on completion of their course. A majority receive promotions, pay rises or additional responsibilities in their current job role during or on completion of their qualification.
• Most students who leave their course early move on to positive destinations which include employment relevant to their course or further learning at another college or provider.

Types of provision

16 to 19 study programmes Inadequate

• Just under 1,700 students follow study programmes at the college. The majority of these study land-based subjects at level 3, with the smallest proportion studying at level 1 and below. Students are also enrolled on courses in sport, construction and motor vehicle maintenance and repair.
• Students study for qualifications in English and mathematics, where appropriate, and those who have already achieved a grade D pass at English and/or mathematics GCSE have the opportunity to improve their achievement. However, those with grades A* to C do not have sufficient opportunities to improve their English and/or mathematics skills further.
• Students do not make sufficient progress, as too much teaching, learning and assessment is not effective. Too many teachers teach lessons that do not challenge effectively, motivate or inspire students to make good progress and excel. The most able students often find the work too easy and have no further work to do while they wait for others to complete the activities the teacher has set.
• Teachers’ feedback on students’ work is not sufficiently detailed to ensure that they know what it is they need to improve. In a small minority of cases, teachers’ written feedback is illegible. In too many instances, assignment deadlines are too close together, which does not enable students to plan their workloads effectively. Consequently, students often rush their work and do not achieve the grades of which they are capable.
• In the large majority of lessons, teachers do not make the purpose of the lesson clear to students; as a consequence, students do not understand what they can expect to learn or achieve. Teachers do not check what students have learned either frequently or effectively enough and, as a result, neither students nor teachers know fully what skills they have developed.
• Leaders do not fulfil study programme requirements. Managers have not ensured that all students for whom it would be appropriate have access to high-quality and meaningful external work experience placements. Students who complete external work experience, such as in agriculture and animal management, improve their practical skills and skills for work, such as timekeeping, teamwork and safe working practices. However, too many students do not have sufficient time to undertake a work placement before the end of the academic year.
• In a small minority of cases, such as in floristry and a few animal management lessons, teachers develop students’ knowledge and practical skills quickly and thoroughly. They use imaginative activities, such as creative writing tasks about Darwin’s theory of evolution, to improve students’ written English skills, including their application of effective paragraphing, appropriate sentence structure and correct spelling. Floristry teachers are particularly adept at developing students’ understanding of the different cultures their future clients may come from and how they may adapt their designs to reflect their clients’ cultural traditions.
• Teachers do not improve students’ mathematics skills in lessons. In too many instances, students do not develop their mathematics skills beyond the level they started their course with. Too few students are able to problem-solve fluently and improve their mathematical reasoning skills. However, in subjects such as agriculture and horse management, students develop pertinent mathematics skills such as calculating areas and volumes in relation to arable crop production and energy and protein content of feed rations for horses.
• Students have access to good-quality impartial careers guidance from specialist staff and from their teachers. Students use this information well, and the vast majority move on to their planned next step in education or training. However, too many teachers are not sufficiently aware of the careers support and guidance that specialist staff offer and consequently a minority of students do not benefit from this.

Adult learning programmes Inadequate

• The college provides learning for 385 adult students; 30 of whom study on full-time courses specifically for adults, 174 follow part-time adult courses and 181 are enrolled on vocational courses with students aged 16 to 19. Courses are offered in horticulture, floristry and veterinary nursing. Those students on courses with younger students study subjects across the full range of land-based provision offered at the college.
• The proportion of adult students achieving their qualifications has declined over the past three years and is very low. Too many students make inadequate progress based on their prior learning and experience.
• Teaching, learning and assessment for adult students who study on courses with younger students do not enable them to make sufficient progress and achieve high standards of work. In the majority of theory lessons, teachers’ expectations of what students can achieve are low. Lessons lack pace, activities are dull and teachers plan tasks that too many students find too easy. For example, in a horticulture lesson, the majority of students watched two students watering plants for 20 minutes.
• The quality of teachers’ assessment feedback with students does not help them improve their work or accelerate their progress. Feedback confirms what students have achieved but not how they can improve their work for future assessments or develop the skills needed for the next level. Feedback is often difficult to read due to teachers’ poor handwriting, particularly in dog grooming.
• Adult students do not know how to improve their rate of progress, excel and achieve higher grades in their assignments because teachers do not set them precise, challenging targets. Teachers do not link targets to the potential areas for improvement within assessment feedback and they fail to check if they have been achieved within the planned timescale. For example, a student had half of their assessment tasks still to complete in the final term of the course; their teacher had not reviewed their progress for several months or agreed targets as to how this work could be completed before the end of the course.
• Adult students benefit from very good practical resources across all subject areas which teachers use effectively in construction, motor vehicle and arboriculture to support students in their development of their practical skills. As a result, students develop good practical skills and are able to work to industry standards, which prepares them well for work.
• The quality of teaching, learning and assessment in a very small minority of subjects, such as floristry and arboriculture, is good. Adult students in these subjects develop good practical skills and valuable skills for work, such as time management, problem-solving and teamwork. Teachers use their skills well to challenge students effectively; as a result, students produce work which is above the standards expected. Students have a very clear awareness of the health and safety risks of their vocational subject and employment sector and can talk confidently about how they can keep themselves safe.

Apprenticeships Requires improvement

• A total of 580 apprentices follow programmes at the college. Just over half of these study at intermediate level. About two fifths of apprentices are aged 16 to 18, around a third aged 19 to 24 and the remainder aged over 25. Seven new standards were launched in May 2017 and a further two will be launched in September 2017. College leaders and managers have worked effectively with employers to help develop the new standards.
• Around two thirds of apprentices achieve their qualification and this proportion has not risen for three years. Too few apprentices achieve within their planned timescale. However, managers’ recent actions have ensured that current apprentices are making more rapid progress with their qualifications and skills development.
• Leaders and managers have not ensured that apprentices receive their full apprenticeship entitlement. Too many apprentices were not provided with sufficient off-the-job training to develop their skills and knowledge effectively. Leaders and managers are aware of this and have taken action swiftly to rectify this before the end of the apprentices’ course. In a small minority of cases, employers do not allow apprentices sufficient time to attend off-the-job training activities.
• Tutors’ expectations for what apprentices can achieve in off-the-job training are too low. Too many training sessions do not enable apprentices to develop their knowledge and skills further or relate the skills they have learned in the workplace to relevant knowledge or understanding.
• The majority of apprentices lack a readiness to work in lessons and are not prepared for learning. They do not record information in lessons effectively and tutors do not check what apprentices have learned. Consequently, they do not make rapid progress as they are not able to identify what they need to improve or link this learning to what they do in the workplace. Too many do not attend lessons with basic materials such as pens, paper or previous notes.
• Managers do not have a clear understanding of the progress all apprentices are making. Leaders and managers have now improved their monitoring of progress using a recently implemented software package. While the majority of assessors and apprentices are using this effectively, a minority of assessors do not use the system correctly in order to ensure that their apprentices are making the progress they should.
• The majority of apprentices do not have a good understanding of how to keep themselves safe from the dangers of extremism and radicalisation. Assessors have not done enough to ensure that apprentices understand what it means to live and work in modern Britain.
• Managers have improved the advice and guidance apprentices receive at the start of, and during, their course. The recently appointed apprentice coordinators and enlarged business development team have ensured that more apprentices stay on their course in the current year than previously. Assessors meet frequently with apprentices and provide effective guidance which helps most move on to the next level of apprenticeship or to permanent employment.
• Apprentices make good progress in developing the English and mathematics skills they need for their job roles. Assessors provide effective support to apprentices to enable them to improve these skills. For example, hospitality apprentices are able to convert kilogrammes to pounds confidently and correctly. Agriculture apprentices calculate proficiently the correct volumes of herbicide to mix in a spray tank when treating arable crops.
• In the workplace, the vast majority of apprentices demonstrate a good work ethic. They are articulate, have high levels of professional behaviour, use their initiative and make a positive contribution. Employers value the new ideas apprentices bring to their businesses, with several having suggested changes to improve ways of working that employers have subsequently implemented. For example, an employer adopted fully the changes that an agricultural engineering apprentice suggested to improve the efficiency of how routine maintenance was carried out.
• In the workplace, most apprentices develop good vocational and technical skills. This prepares them well and supports their move to the next level apprenticeship or to permanent employment.
• Apprentices learn to work safely and know how to keep themselves safe, both at work and in training sessions at college. They make valuable contributions to improving the health and safety procedures at work. For example, a landscaping apprentice was given additional responsibilities for reminding colleagues to wear the correct personal protective equipment at work.

Provision for learners with high needs Inadequate

• The college receives high needs funding for a total of 51 students who study at the college. A total of 37 of these study on discrete programmes and the remainder are on study programmes at level 2 or 3. Students on discrete programmes work towards the achievement of college certificates in animal care, horticulture and cooking. A small minority of students on discrete programmes are working towards external qualifications in English and mathematics.
• Students do not make the progress of which they are capable as teachers do not set them learning targets or personal development goals that are sufficiently precise or challenging. Teachers do not use the information in students’ education, health and care (EHC) plans effectively; they use interim targets extracted from EHC plans as final targets and they do not review, amend or update students’ learning or personal development targets during their time at college. Teachers fail to record precisely students’ learning or skills development.
• Teachers do not monitor effectively the progress students make towards the development of personal skills such as communication and behaviour. Teachers’ targets for students are too generic and do not express the development each student needs to make. Consequently, students do not know what it is they have improved and what it is they need to do better.
• On discrete programmes, the majority of teachers do not plan and teach lessons sufficiently well to enable students to make good progress with their learning or personal development. Teachers do not make it clear what the purpose of the lesson is or how it relates to students’ individual learning or development needs. In these lessons, too many students find the activities too easy and consequently, they do not make the progress of which they are capable. For example, in functional skills mathematics lessons, teachers rely too much on students completing past test papers rather than helping them develop mathematics skills.
• Teachers do not plan and teach vocational lessons sufficiently well to ensure that students develop their English and mathematics skills. For example, when using different-sized watering cans in horticulture lessons, students were not requested to check the capacity to improve their understanding of measurements; in animal care lessons, students did not weigh animal feeds or measure the quantity of bedding materials needed, to improve their numeracy skills.
• Most teachers and mentors understand their students’ development needs well and they work effectively together to provide the support which enables students to attend college frequently and develop independent travel skills. Most students develop further their confidence, self-esteem, spoken communication skills, and their teamworking skills.
• Leaders and managers use funding appropriately for students with high needs to provide them with the additional guidance and support they need so that they can attend college and be better prepared for their futures. Managers provide students on discrete programmes with effective mentoring and personal care support. Students use well the technology such as tablet computers with appropriate assistive software, and computer peripherals such as assistive keyboards with enlarged keys which teachers provide for them. Appropriately qualified and experienced mentors and interpreters support students on study programmes well.
• Teachers share information well about students’ progress on discrete programmes with parents and carers. Teachers and mentors use effectively communication books to inform parents about learning and welfare in college and enable parents to provide information about activities that students have been participating in at home. However, teachers are less effective at sharing information about students’ progress on study programmes at levels 2 and 3 with parents and carers.
• Teachers and specialist learning coordinators use their productive links with schools and parents to provide students with an effective transition into college and, as a result, students settle into college successfully.

Provider details

Unique reference number 138670 Type of provider Specialist college Age range of learners Approximate number of all learners over the previous full contract year 16+ 3,981 Principal/CEO David Henley Telephone number 01603 731200 Website www.eastonotley.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+ 461 68 503 228 988 187 0 0 Intermediate Advanced Higher 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 270 215 77 253 1 8 16–19 0 19+ 0 Total 0 Number of traineeships Number of learners aged 14 to 16 Number of learners for which the provider receives high-needs funding None 51 Funding received from: Education and Skills Funding Agency At the time of inspection, the provider contracts with the following main subcontractors:

Inspire Suffolk

Information about this inspection

The inspection team was assisted by the assistant principal, 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

Richard Pemble, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Peter Green Lindsay Pamphilon Keith Boulnois Alastair Mollon Charlie Lewis Graham Cunningham Mary Aslett David Gartland Cathie Prest

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector