Barking and Dagenham College Ofsted Report

Inspection report: Barking and Dagenham College, 22−26 April 2013

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 Not all teachers sufficiently integrate understanding of equality and diversity specifically into lessons.

Full report

What does the college need to do to improve further?

 Increase success rates and further improve teaching, learning and assessment across all curriculum areas by ensuring that:

- vocational teachers rigorously identify and improve students’ English and mathematics skills within their subject areas at all times

- teachers know how to use suitable questioning and assessment techniques that develop students’ learning effectively and enable students to improve their thinking skills so that they can develop deeper thinking and study skills

- all teachers can confidently and effectively manage more challenging behaviour of students when such situations arise.

 Within curriculum areas, and specifically in lessons, improve the confidence and skills of teachers to ensure the understanding of equality and diversity.

Inspection judgements

Outcomes for learners

Good

 The proportion of students achieving their qualifications has risen significantly over the last three years and is now high. Success rates on long courses and for apprentices are higher than the national average for similar colleges.

 Students of all abilities develop relevant skills and knowledge. Adult and younger students develop good teamwork, employability and presentation skills, as well as confidence to be more independent and self-reliant.

 The large cohort of young people in public care who attend the college make sound progress. The college monitors their progress carefully, guiding them successfully onto further programmes of study. The great majority of students aged 14 to 16 that attend the college gain their qualifications and progress onto higher-level courses either at the college or their school.

 Internal progression of students from lower to higher-level courses within the college is good. This reflects the well-planned and appropriate curriculum pathways the college has successfully developed, particularly at intermediate level. As a result, success rates at intermediate level have improved greatly. Progression into employment and higher education is good. The proportion of students gaining suitable employment is much higher than might be expected from local economic circumstances.

 Many students develop exceptional personal, social and employability skills that prepare them very well for employment or higher-level studies; they acquire sound financial and literacy skills through their everyday studies and through the college’s Entrepreneurs’ Academy, benefiting greatly from the excellent enrichment programme that includes volunteering in the community.

 These skills are carefully fostered within a supportive college ethos where its values help them to be productive and active citizens. The students who are college ambassadors typify this approach of service to the community, self-reliance and accountability.

 Excellence in innovation and entrepreneurship permeates the college’s work with students and the community. The positive messages and images around the college and its proud pictures of successful students promote ambition. The displays of relevant commercial projects and Inspection report: Barking and Dagenham College, 22−26 April 2013

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outcomes of programmes such as ‘Start up for success’ open their eyes to what they can achieve and what enterprise means for them: motivation; determination; problem solving; creativity; and hard work. From this environment, students gain a real purpose to achieve and succeed.

 The wide range of students with learning difficulties and disabilities achieve good outcomes, gaining suitable confidence and proficiency in life skills, enabling them to become more independent and self-reliant. Students receiving additional learning support, particularly adults, also achieve very well.

 There are no significant gaps in achievement between different groups of students in the college. The college took decisive action to tackle the small difference in achievement between Pakistani, Bangladeshi and African Caribbean males and their White male peers.

 Attendance and retention of students have improved and are good. This is the result of several well-planned strategies that include a breakfast club, home visits and appropriate use of modern information technology.

The quality of teaching, learning and assessment

Good

 Teachers have high expectations of all students and this translates itself into their teaching. This approach is particularly evident in their work with students who have had poor experiences of education but are now participating fully, gaining useful qualifications and learning new skills that lead them into gainful employment and onto further or higher education or training.

 Teaching is good in practical lessons where practice in real working situations, complemented by entrepreneurial activities, enables students to gain new and relevant vocational skills and work-related techniques. For example, students create all the professional, commercial standard displays around the college, demonstrating excellent promotional and graphic design skills.

 Lesson planning is thorough and well thought out. Teachers structure their lessons carefully, making sensible use of their information about students to enable different groups of students to make appropriate progress. Functional skills teachers ensure that students are able to use correct technical vocabulary and gain the appropriate numerical skills. For example, beauty therapy students must calculate quickly the time at which treatment needs to finish within several different situations in a real working environment.

 Vocational teachers plan appropriately to improve students’ English and mathematics skills in the context of their subjects and are largely successful. However, in a minority of lessons they do not correct basic spelling and grammatical errors frequently enough and do not place sufficient emphasis on this.

 In the large majority of better lessons, teachers use a variety of thought-provoking methods to ensure that students are suitably challenged; they make effective use of the excellent resources available, such as specialist computer software to increase students’ interest and enjoyment of lessons. The range of high-quality final animation and fashion design projects being completed by students are superb examples of students’ creativity and applied knowledge.

 The majority of teachers skilfully manage the behaviour of less well-motivated students and encourage them in lessons to achieve their goals. However, in a minority of cases, where teachers do not have sufficiently high expectations or necessary skills, behaviour of students is poor and they disrupt other students’ learning or miss lessons.

 Teachers use their expertise and previous industrial experience most appropriately in teaching to develop students’ technical skills and nurture their entrepreneurial ambitions. The students benefit from, and enjoy, the well-equipped classrooms and professional working environments such as the state-of-the-art kitchens and beauty salons. Their adherence to safe working practices is good and prepares them well for their next steps. Inspection report: Barking and Dagenham College, 22−26 April 2013

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 Where lessons are less effective, teachers talk for too long without sufficiently involving students, leading to limited learning taking place and sometimes low level disruption. In two curriculum areas frequent changes of teachers have disrupted learning, but college managers have already tackled this.

 Teachers’ assessment of students’ progress and work is good. The majority of students have a clear view of what they need to do to improve and teachers assiduously monitor this through subsequent tracking of their progress. However, in a minority of lessons, teachers do not use question and answer techniques effectively to develop and assess learning and progress.

 Assessment of the needs of students at the start of their programmes to determine their skills and initial starting points is outstanding. This ensures students are on the most appropriate courses. The tracking of all students is sound and managers are quick to identify problems and take suitable remedial action. The regular review of their learning plans and the timely interventions ensure that students complete their courses successfully.

 Care and support for individual students, and in particular those with complex additional needs are outstanding. For example, during the first six weeks teachers assess students in a variety of ways to find out how they can best support them. The college’s ‘opportunity coaches’ are most effective in helping students to stay on course and achieve their qualifications. Within their repertoire of support, they include home visits, personal mentoring and appropriate referral networks which are all highly valued.

 Information, advice and guidance are good. The college has developed good links with local schools and employers and provides clear details on progression routes to students at the start of their courses, enabling them to make informed choices on their next steps.

 The ethos and environment are inclusive and welcoming to all; students’ behaviour is respectful and warm. Persuasive, eye-catching displays encourage learning and appreciation of differences. However, a minority of teachers do not challenge stereotypes frequently enough within their vocational areas, for example relating to gender and disability in the workplace; they do not always take the opportunity to explore in depth some of the cultural or equality aspects that arise naturally during lessons.

Health and social care and early years

Learning programmes for 16-18 Learning programmes for 19+

Good

 Teaching, learning and assessment in health and social care are good, and in early years and childcare are outstanding. This reflects the improvements in students’ overall achievement on nearly all courses. Students’ attendance and punctuality are good due to the high expectations of teachers. Progression onto higher-level courses or into employment is good.

 Teachers motivate and teach students effectively. As a result, they complete tasks and assignments by the agreed deadlines and receive constructive feedback that helps them to improve quickly.

 In the best lessons, students enjoy the stretch and varied range of teaching and learning activities; they make good progress, gaining a sound understanding of the professional language and skills required to work in health and social care and childcare settings. They are prepared very well to understand the issues surrounding young and older people and the vulnerabilities the work involves.

 Teachers plan lessons well and pay particular attention to matching the level of work to the individual needs of students. They use the group profiles with relevant information about each student’s abilities and personal support needs appropriately to teach interesting lessons. These lessons are made lively by the use of good question and answer quizzes, short tests and Inspection report: Barking and Dagenham College, 22−26 April 2013

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assignments that improve understanding of, for example, health and care issues, and encourage students to learn to the best of their ability.

 Assessment is good. Assessments are regular, helpful and provide good stretch and challenge, with teachers providing detailed and helpful feedback to enable students to improve their work and achieve better grades in a timely way. Teachers monitor students’ progress carefully.

 Students develop good employability skills that enhance their opportunities to gain work. These are the result of appropriate, high-quality work placements for those students who are not already employed; for some students their work experience has resulted in successful employment with the employer.

 Information, advice and guidance, and personal support, are good. Support for building confidence is also good. For example, to improve their interview skills and enhance their employment chances, teachers arrange regular ‘speed dating’ events for students with employers from health and social care and childcare who interview students and give them useful tips.

 The teaching and promotion of English within vocational lessons are very good. This is thoughtfully put into the context of working in the very wide range of health and social care settings and is also linked well to everyday life skills of, for example, how to speak appropriately to different people. However, progress with mathematical skills has been much slower. Students benefit from the separate lessons and qualifications for English and mathematics as they realise their importance in enabling them to gain employment.

 Teachers promote equality and understanding of diversity well in lessons. This is suitably backed up by a good range of up-to-date classroom-based resources that are to be expected in this area. The majority of teachers use the rich diversity of students’ backgrounds and cultural heritage to develop their thinking about respect, integration, prejudice and discrimination.

Engineering and motor vehicle

Learning programmes for 14-16 Learning programmes for 16-18 Apprenticeships

Good

 Teaching, learning and assessment are good and reflect students’ improving and high success rates. The students in college and the apprentices develop sound technical and personal skills and consistently make good progress, gaining valued employability skills.

 Students learn readily from teachers’ effective use of their industrial experience. They relate theory to practice relevantly by citing appropriate examples from industry to illustrate key concepts. Such lessons interest and motivate students who make good progress, as illustrated by students who quickly learned how to adjust steering head bearings in motorcycle maintenance.

 Students’ use of technology to promote their learning is good. They improve their learning by thoughtful use of the college’s virtual learning environment (VLE) and specialist computer software to complete their tasks and assignments. When confronted by new or intricate tasks, such as designing complex circuitry, students make good use of helpful examples provided by their teachers on the VLE.

 Students quickly develop good employability skills. They work enthusiastically on real engineering tasks. For example, in a practical lesson in electrical installation, students interpreted scaled drawings and installed switches, lighting roses and connection blocks for a three-way lighting circuit to a good standard and mirrored what takes place in industry. Inspection report: Barking and Dagenham College, 22−26 April 2013

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 Teachers’ lesson planning, although satisfactory, does not go far enough in meeting the full range of students’ needs that the student profiles identify. The result is that teachers do not always engage all students well enough in lessons and some students do not complete tasks well enough.

 Teachers and assessors promote industry standards effectively to all students, emphasising their importance. In workshops, activities are well chosen and relevant, they provide appropriate stimulus and challenge for the more-able students. For example, students given the challenging task of dismantling an alternator, identifying its components and checking its serviceability completed these tasks to a good standard with limited supervision.

 The development of students’ mathematics skills is good. Teachers embed mathematics well in almost all lessons and prepare appropriate numerical tasks to develop students’ mathematics. In contrast, the integration of English into lessons is not as thorough and grammar and spelling mistakes are not routinely corrected.

 Verbal feedback to students is good and helpful, but written comments do not give enough detail on how to improve. In motor vehicle courses, teachers assess assignments well, their feedback is constructive and enables students to improve the quality of their work and to extend their skills. However, written feedback on electrical assignments is too brief. In work-based learning, the number of on-site reviews and assessments for a group of apprentices has been insufficient and therefore their progress to date has been limited.

 Information, advice and guidance are good. Assessment of students’ starting points is very thorough and ensures that students are on the right programmes and are appropriately supported. Teachers are skilled and knowledgeable in helping students to consider their options for further training or employment and students have a clear understanding of progression routes.

 Health and safety in the classrooms and in the workshops are strong. Students pay good attention to health and safety procedures, feel safe and know how to deal with safety incidents in workshops.

 Students’ understanding of equality and diversity is limited; teachers do not have a good enough understanding of the promotion of equality and support for diversity and are therefore not confident in including this within the lessons.

Building and construction crafts

Learning programmes for 14-16 Learning programmes for 16-18 Apprenticeships

Good

 Teaching, learning and assessment are good in all classroom-based courses and apprenticeships, and reflect recent improving success rates for apprentices and a good proportion of students gaining employment when they complete their courses.

 Practical teaching is good. Students benefit from well-resourced construction facilities and experienced teachers who ensure they make good progress in these lessons. Teachers are well prepared and give clear instructions that set out their high expectations and develop students’ employability skills quickly, such as problem solving and team working.

 In lessons and workshops, students’ behaviour is very positive; their discussions with their peers are constructive and focus purposefully on the practical tasks. The standard of students’ practical work is good. For example, bricklaying students were observed constructing English garden walling that was neat, tidy, plumb, level and jointed to a good finished product. Students Inspection report: Barking and Dagenham College, 22−26 April 2013

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studying plumbing accurately measured, set out and fixed copper piping to a very high standard.

 Theory teaching, however, is not always as effective as practical sessions; at times, too many students are not involved actively enough. In these lessons, teachers talk for too long with insufficient focus given to checking, consolidating and extending learning effectively, so that not all students benefit in the same way as they do in practical lessons. In contrast, in teaching construction drawing, teachers ensure that students develop high levels of drawing skills, particularly with students on lower-level courses.

 Feedback to students within their written work is constructive and informative, helping them to make good progress. However, for a minority of apprentices and a few students on lower-level courses, spellings are not routinely corrected. Assessment is rigorous and timely for all students and apprentices, although those done in the workplace are not always as effective as they might be: too frequently, apprentices do not have suitable opportunities to undertake assessment in the workplace at the right time even though outcomes are good.

 Assessment to identify students’ needs at the start of their courses is thorough and identifies accurately any students who have additional support needs. Teachers and support tutors ensure support is relevant to the vocational skills being developed in both theory and practical lessons and this helps to keep students focused and on track with their studies. Assessors in the workplace provide good pastoral guidance to apprentices.

 Targets set within individual learning plans are appropriate and regularly reviewed; they helpfully inform students of what they need to do to improve and achieve. The college process for target setting is enhanced by effective ‘opportunities coaches’ who work closely with students at risk of not completing their studies successfully to motivate them and enable them to achieve their goals. Target setting for apprentices is not as thorough; their targets are often too general and not used effectively to stretch and challenge them to reach their full potential.

 Attention to health and safety is rigorous. Teachers lead by example. Students and apprentices are aware of both their own safety and that of their peers. Students ensure their work areas are safe and use appropriate personal protective equipment at all times without being prompted by teachers. Guest speakers from large national companies regularly visit to update students on the importance of good health and safety practice, leading to a higher awareness of health and safety. The promotion of equality and support for diversity is good.

Visual arts

Learning programmes for 16-18 Learning programmes for 19+

Good

 Teaching, learning and assessment are good. This has led to improved success rates which are now above national averages. Progression into higher education and employment in the cultural and creative industries is good. Attendance is good.

 Teachers use their skills, experience and contacts effectively in providing appropriate professional practice assignments which incorporate a wide variety of creative disciplines. They bring in high quality, high profile visiting speakers, as well as former students, to inspire current students to reach their full potential.

 Students therefore research and experiment innovatively, investigating a range of media and ideas that enhance their skills. For example, one final three-dimensional assignment brief creatively and imaginatively included an updated version of the Arachne myth, exploring fear, change and emotion very imaginatively and realistically for a modern audience. Inspection report: Barking and Dagenham College, 22−26 April 2013

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 Teachers produce up-to-date, stretching and commercially relevant assignment briefs and projects to provide students with excellent realistic work experiences which prepare them well for progression to further study and employment. For example, one student’s design was accepted for the new high profile college enterprise zone. Students benefit greatly from the entrepreneurial curriculum and supportive college approach in involving local businesses and the borough in design briefs for community-based initiatives.

 The standard of students’ work is good. In all areas it fully meets awarding body requirements, and in some cases far exceeds expectations. Fashion shows, displays and exhibitions in public and college spaces are used intelligently and thoughtfully to promote and celebrate students’ good work. Students talk with confidence about their work, using appropriate specialist language and terminology across a range of disciplines.

 Accommodation and specialist resources are good, and in many cases of industry standard. This enables students to produce work in two and three dimensions of a sufficiently professional standard to be presented to external clients. Students, with the guidance of teachers, capitalise in opportune ways on these facilities and develop their own enterprise skills and ideas.

 Students feel safe and employ safe working practices, particularly in specialist workshop areas where they have been trained well to use equipment and machinery with appropriate attention to health and safety.

 Teachers prepare students well to understand the demands and industry expectations through good, timely information, advice and guidance. This is continued throughout their courses, linked to informative and insightful assessments to enable students to make informed decisions in preparation for their next steps. This includes presentation of a portfolio of work and good additional help and professional, specialist tips.

 Embedding of functional skills into the curriculum and assignment briefs are very effective in mathematics. Measurement, scaling and calculations for pattern cutting within garment making, cutting plans and costing in three-dimensional assignments help students develop a good understanding and use of functional skills within specialist technical exercises.

 The promotion and exploration of equality and diversity are effectively integrated into assignment topics, such as ‘Me Myself I’ where students reflect on cultural and background influences in their countries of origin. Depiction of women in art, sexuality and consideration of disability in ‘Beauty and the Beast’ all afford students the opportunity to explore stereotyping, prejudices and myths. Mutual respect is apparent between different groups of students and also with staff.

Independent living and leisure skills.

Learning programmes for 16-18 Learning programmes for 19+

Good

 Teaching, learning and assessment are good. A strong focus on each individual student through regular meetings and an emphasis on making the most of all opportunities to learn ensures that students achieve their learning goals. Students develop high levels of confidence, social and life skills that enable them to progress onto higher-level mainstream vocational courses, and a small number move into suitable employment.

 All staff have high expectations of the students. In the best lessons teachers use personal profiles well to assess prior skills and plan effectively, set suitable tasks and improve life and work skills. Individual targets appropriately reinforce students’ personal and social development. Teachers use questions very effectively. In one lesson, entry-level students were skilfully facilitated to discuss the implications of damage to the environment which elicited further topic exploration and deeper subject understanding. Inspection report: Barking and Dagenham College, 22−26 April 2013

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 Support for students is outstanding. Teachers give exactly the right help to their students and learning support practitioners ensure that student needs are consistently well met; they use highly appropriate and proportionate methods to empower and assist students. For example, a support practitioner used appropriate prompting techniques that enabled a student to independently develop numeracy skills linked to cooking.

 Personalised learning is not effective because the curriculum is not flexible or wide enough for the wide range of different needs. Over-emphasis on group teaching and a lack of differentiated resources impede the full active participation of all students in learning. For example, alternative formats, such as pictures and video clips, are not used enough.

 Additional resources to support teaching resources are limited. Students do not always have the necessary equipment they need to remove barriers to learning and support their progress. For example, screen-reading software available elsewhere in the college is not always available within the areas in which these students work.

 Assessment is good and links appropriately to personal profiles and targets which focus on the whole student to develop their social, employability and independence skills. However, the method the college uses to assess academic levels at the start of their courses does not help students to develop their understanding and learning distinctly enough; students do not understand the meaning of the information.

 Students receive very clear and useful written and verbal feedback. Teachers use targets well at the beginning and the end of each lesson. Students bring their targets to lessons and assess their own progress with enthusiasm. Teachers monitor students’ targets carefully using student diaries or electronic individual learning plans. As a result of their weekly tutorial and the attentiveness of teachers, students can all name their targets and describe what they need to do to improve.

 Information, advice and guidance are good and appropriately provided from a range of informed sources, such as personal tutors, work placement coordinator and learning support practitioners. Arrangements for moving on to next steps are well planned and effective.

 English and mathematics are carefully integrated into learning programmes. This approach is very effective in enabling students to practise skills learnt in discrete classes in real contexts. A lesson, typical of others, focusing on money management, required the students to present their findings to the class, therefore practising their speaking, listening and presentational skills.

 Teachers promote equality and diversity well. Opportunities to discuss equality matters are picked up and used as they occur. For example, in a cookery class, the teacher used the ingredients as a platform to discuss different diets and then extended this to religious reasons for not eating certain foods. The students were motivated and learned from this relevant discussion.

Foundation English and mathematics

Learning programmes for 16-18 Learning programmes for 19+

Good

 Teaching, learning and assessment are good and contribute well towards the effective development of English and mathematics functional skills of all students. Specialist teachers successfully develop students’ skills and knowledge reflected in the good progress made by students. Attendance and punctuality are good and progression of many students onto other courses in the college is also good.

 In the most effective lessons teachers make good use of their surroundings to set the learning into context. For example, teachers take students around the college to assess where and how Inspection report: Barking and Dagenham College, 22−26 April 2013

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measurement, weight and volume are used and how this relates to their everyday life. The exercise is productive in developing teamwork and communication skills.

 These lessons are well paced and lively. Similar lessons involve students working against a stopwatch to employ new vocabulary in sentences, using words unfamiliar to them; they also reinforce this by good use of information and learning technology to ensure they fully comprehend the spelling and meaning of the words.

 The majority of teaching stretches and challenges students, encouraging them to be reflective. For example, when discussing bias, students gave appropriate examples about their own experiences of bias and how this had affected them, leading to further consideration of how and why this comes about.

 In a minority of lessons teaching does not motivate and interest students, the pace is slow, differentiated tasks are not used effectively or activities planned to fully meet individual needs. In these sessions teachers put too much emphasis on reaching the criteria for the examination and not enough emphasis on improving the individual skills of students. Behaviour can be disruptive, hindering suitable learning.

 The standard of students’ work is good. Teachers give constructive and regular feedback with clear ideas on how students can improve. Students are proud of the work that they produce and enjoy the praise and acknowledgement they receive from the teaching staff.

 The needs of students are assessed effectively early in their programme and followed up quickly, with good timely support that includes additional study help during holidays. Their individual learning plans help students to cope confidently with working on the variety of topics and projects they must complete.

 The promotion of equality and support for diversity in lessons is good. Teachers use suitable opportunities to develop students’ awareness as they arise. For example, when considering the media, students share experiences about their own beliefs and the impact of advertising slogans on different audiences.

The effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

 Governors, leaders and managers have exceptionally high expectations for the college, typified by the behaviour and attitudes of its students. Leaders and managers lead by example, they are highly visible around the college and have set out a clear strategic direction and ambitious vision. They have made an outstanding response to meet local and national needs, managing change particularly well to ensure students’ outcomes continue to rise and students stay at the heart of the college’s work.

 Leaders and managers have rigorously carried out the recommendations from the previous inspection, such as improving attendance and success rates, and developing its foundation and intermediate curriculum to raise students’ aspirations and give them better progression pathways. The impressive Technical Skills Academy, set up in partnership with the local borough to tackle the lack of vocational learning in the area, is an example of developing excellence in vocational learning.

 Teachers benefit from a demanding and comprehensive lesson observation process that improves their teaching further. As a result, students’ success continues to improve. The arrangements to monitor the performance of teachers to improve teaching, learning and assessment are thorough, well established and very effective; they have led to clear improvements such as in the use of information and learning technologies and lesson planning.

 Managers, also through the lesson observation process, rigorously monitor teaching, learning and assessment with subcontractors’ staff. The management of subcontractors is highly Inspection report: Barking and Dagenham College, 22−26 April 2013

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effective. Measures to quality assure and improve outcomes for students are thorough and have ensured high standards.

 These measures, closely linked to a highly effective performance management system and the excellent staff learning and development programme, have led to better teaching and assessment. Students gain from teachers regularly updating their commercial and industrial experience. As a result, teachers routinely and regularly share best practice, resulting in students experiencing ‘sparkling learning’ and support. For example, many students benefit from the enhanced dyslexia support put in place as the outcome of a tutor’s Master’s degree supported by management.

 Governors are very well informed about the students and know the college well; they provide appropriate challenge and support, ensuring leaders continue to strive for excellence and continued student success based on high quality teaching. They have a good understanding of the student body, involve student representatives well, listen attentively to, and act on, students’ views. As a body they are representative of the community in terms of ethnic heritage and gender.

 The college has a consistent and excellent record of continuous improvement based on a well-established, comprehensive and robust system of self-assessment; its evaluation of the college’s performance is accurate and self-critical. It clearly identifies the college’s strengths and areas for improvement. Through the quality improvement plan, which is realistic and challenging, managers bring about improvements quickly and raise the standard of teaching and learning.

 The college has several highly successful mechanisms to gather the views of students, parents, carers and employers that give useful feedback on teaching and assessment. Through shadowing teaching observations and from their involvement in the recruitment process of senior staff, students’ views are used effectively and regularly to make improvements.

 The college’s developments with local and national partners to improve the curriculum are outstanding. For example, the sizeable increase in the numbers of apprentices over the last three years, coupled with high success rates, demonstrates responsiveness, forward planning and the commitment to high quality. It has also worked most effectively with local schools and the council to provide appropriate programmes to attract into education and training young people uncertain of their next steps.

 Excellent subcontracted arrangements with a large number of training providers ensure that young people and adults have easy access to training where otherwise they would not. Links with employers are particularly strong and used very effectively to identify and secure apprenticeships and jobs. The vast majority of employers stated they would recommend the college and continue to work with it.

 Exemplifying its approach to social inclusion, the college has introduced an innovative initiative for sharing information with the youth offending service, police and probation service to enable young offenders to more easily take part in education and training.

 Equality and diversity have high status and bullying and oppressive behaviours are not tolerated. The college promotes equality and diversity particularly well through an appropriate range of whole-college activities; it earnestly tries to make sure its staff profile of teachers, leaders and managers represents fairly the attributes and experiences of its community. Managers thoroughly analyse differences in enrolment and performance of different groups of students and have taken swift action to eradicate differences in outcomes.

 Safeguarding meets statutory requirements; it is robust, comprehensive and well planned and goes beyond expectations in scope and thoroughness. Students feel safe in a very inclusive atmosphere of respect. Inspection report: Barking and Dagenham College, 22−26 April 2013

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Record of Main Findings (RMF) Barking and Dagenham College

Inspection grades are based on a provider’s performance:

1: Outstanding 2: Good 3: Requires improvement 4: Inadequate

Overall effectiveness

Outcomes for learners The quality of teaching, learning and assessment The effectiveness of leadership and management

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Subject areas graded for the quality of teaching, learning and assessment Grade

Health and social care Early years and playwork

Engineering Motor Vehicle Building and construction Construction crafts Visual arts Independent living and leisure skills Foundation English and mathematics

2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

Inspection report: Barking and Dagenham College, 22−26 April 2013

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Provider details

Barking and Dagenham College

Type of provider

General further education college

Age range of learners

14+

Approximate number of all learners over the previous full contract year

Full-time: 3371 Part-time: 7545

Principal/CEO

Cathy Walsh

Date of previous inspection

May 2007

Website address

http://www.barkingdagenhamcollege.ac.uk/

Provider information at the time of the inspection Main course or learning programme level

Level 1 or Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 below and above

Total number of learners (excluding apprenticeships)

16-18 19+ 16-18 19+ 16-18 19+ 16-18 19+

Full-time Part-time

455 111 576 114 794 602 14 22 704 1872 261 1085 212 430 -

Number of apprentices by Apprenticeship level and age

Intermediate Advanced Higher

16-18 229 19+ 136 16-18 92 19+ 102 16-18 19+ 1 44

Number of learners aged 14-16 Number of community learners

307 N/A Number of employability learners N/A

Funding received from At the time of inspection the provider contracts with the following main subcontractors:

EFA/SFA

    

Astute Minds DABD UK East London ITEC Learning Curve Mediprospects Inspection report: Barking and Dagenham College, 22−26 April 2013

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Additional socio-economic information

The college is a large general further education college situated on the eastern boundary of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, approximately 11 miles east of central London. It caters for both adult and younger students. Unemployment in the area is high with one out of every eight people actively seeking employment or training, making it the fourth highest in London. The proportion of students attaining five A* to C GCSEs including English and mathematics on entry to the college is below the average for similar colleges. Entry to higher education in the area is lower than the national average. About 19% of residents have no formal qualifications and, since the closure of the large manufacturing industries, the majority of firms, at least 82%, are small to medium, employing 10 people or less.

Information about this inspection

Lead inspector

Peter Green HMI

Three of Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) and eight additional inspectors, assisted by the Vice Principal (Curriculum and the Learner Experience) as nominee, carried out the inspection with short notice. Inspectors took account of the college’s most recent self-assessment report and development plans, and the previous inspection report. Inspectors also used data on learners’ achievements over the last three years to help them make judgements. Inspectors used group and individual interviews, telephone calls and online questionnaires to gather the views of learners and employers; these views are reflected throughout the report. They observed learning sessions, assessments and progress reviews. The inspection took into account all of the provision at the college. Inspectors looked at the quality of teaching, learning and assessment across all of the provision and graded the sector subject areas listed in the report above. Inspection report: Barking and Dagenham College, 22−26 April 2013

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What inspection judgements mean

Grade

Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4

Judgement

Outstanding Good Requires improvement Inadequate Detailed grade characteristics can be viewed in the Handbook for the inspection of further education and skills 2012, Part 2:

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/handbook-for-inspection-of-further-education-and-skills-september-2012

Any complaints about the inspection or the report should be made following the procedures set out in the guidance ‘Raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website:

www.ofsted.gov.uk If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk.

Learner View is a new website where learners can tell Ofsted what they think about their college or provider. They can also see what other learners think about them too. To find out more go to www.learnerview.ofsted.gov.uk