Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College Ofsted Report

Full report

Information about the provider

• Ealing, Hammersmith and West London’s College is a large general further education college with four main sites at Ealing, Hammersmith, Acton and Southall. It recruits learners from across west London and neighbouring boroughs. Courses are offered in almost all subject areas. Some 90% of all enrolments are for courses up to, and including, level 2. Around 75% of all enrolments are for adult learners, mostly attending the college part time. Learners attending fulltime are largely on 16 to 19 study programmes, mainly in vocational areas. The college also has learners on higher education programmes. It continues to have a significant provision for apprenticeships, with training delivered directly by the college and by subcontractors. New management arrangements are to bring all provision into the college, under the newly formed college company, Evolve Learning Group Limited. Around three quarters of learners at the college are from a black or minority ethnic heritage.

What does the provider need to do to improve further?

• To further improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment to the highest level, managers must continue to work closely with their teachers to ensure that they fully use the positive techniques and skills learned in their extensive professional development, building on the good practice of many of their colleagues.
• To improve the quality of apprenticeship training, and to improve apprentices’ outcomes, leaders and managers must fully implement their agreed management changes and improvement strategies for this provision, improving target setting and progress reviews in particular.
• Leaders and managers should continue to implement their well-conceived strategies to further improve the quality of teaching and learning in mathematics and English, and to increase the proportion of learners achieving a grade C or above at GCSE in these subjects.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Leaders, managers and governors are highly ambitious for the college. They have a clear and well-explained vision and mission, effectively communicated and understood by staff throughout the college. A consistent expectation of high standards, and shared college values, underpin a relentless focus on improvement.
• Leaders and managers have successfully reversed the decline in standards, and have significantly improved them since the previous inspection. The college’s chief executive officer (CEO) has been instrumental in driving the substantial improvements in the quality of the provision and in the college’s finances to help ensure a secure and sustainable future for the college.
• Since the previous inspection, leaders, managers and staff have improved the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, which is now good overall, leading to successful outcomes for the large majority of learners.
• Excellent relationships exist with partners and stakeholders. These have proven critical in managers’ development of the college’s curriculum and accommodation strategy to ensure that the college remains fit for purpose and fully focused on employment for its learners and apprentices. Partners and stakeholders consider the college to be a positive, proactive and supportive strategic partner, willing to invest in the community, and serious about working with business to support their needs and to meet the skills gaps within west London.
• Leaders and managers have invested highly in their workforce to ensure that they have the skills to deliver the ambitious vision. Opportunities for staff to develop, progress and gain qualifications, additional responsibilities and promotion are now very good. Managers and teachers value the extensive work with the Education and Training Foundation through which staff develop, improve and share their effective practice in order to improve.
• Through effective performance management, leaders and managers have dealt successfully with a number of underperforming areas of provision. They now use lesson observations, learning walks and peer observations well to support teachers and share good practice, and have an accurate view of the quality of teaching and learning.
• Leaders and managers ensure that well-planned and structured monitoring and accountability are central to their work, leading to improvements. Their evaluation of the quality of provision is effective and accurately identifies areas for improvement. Clear and focused action plans direct activity appropriately to areas of most concern and are aligned to college priorities. Through the consistent and effective use of data and monitoring of critical success factors, leaders, governors and managers identify much earlier areas of concern and intervene swiftly.
• Leaders and managers have successfully implemented an effective English and mathematics strategy across all provision, resulting in much improved outcomes for these subjects overall, although the proportion of learners achieving a grade C or above for GCSE English and mathematics is still too low.
• All staff successfully promote the value of diversity, and learners demonstrate mutual respect and tolerance towards each other. Activities and events promote a broad understanding by learners of their expected responsibilities and contributions to society. Staff and learners demonstrate the college values and behaviours well.
• The management of apprenticeships has recently undergone significant changes to seek to reverse the weak management and performance of the provision directly managed by the college. New structures, systems and processes have been introduced to add more rigour to management. The changes are at an early stage and their full impact cannot be judged. Early indications, such as improved in-year achievement, are positive and current learners make better progress.
• Leaders and managers did not ensure rigorous quality assurance of a significant subcontractor and risks were identified late. Swift and decisive action to establish a system of control has mitigated the potential negative impact on the remaining learners. The current contract will not be renewed.

The governance of the provider

• Governors know the college well and understand its strengths and weaknesses. They are highly motivated and work hard, with a commitment to ensuring a successful college. They contribute to setting the strategic direction of the college, its vision and values, and fully support the leadership team in pursuing ambitious plans for the future. Governors contribute to, and fully support, the strategic engagement with key stakeholders and employers in the west London region.
• Governors provide good levels of support for the senior leaders, but also hold them to account with robust scrutiny of the college’s performance. They rigorously monitor progress against the financial recovery plan and the recommendations following the previous inspection.
• Governors meet with learners, staff and stakeholders regularly, through learning walks and focus groups, and in governors’ meetings, with the learner and staff governors. They use these productive opportunities to gain a wider perspective on the improvements that the senior managers have identified for them. They value highly the contribution of the ‘learner voice’ and have recently appointed a former learner governor as a full board member, in recognition of the valuable and insightful contribution of learners.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders and managers ensure that safeguarding receives the highest priority. They have implemented the requirements of the ‘Prevent’ duty well. Learners and apprentices have a good understanding of the dangers of radicalisation and extremism, as relevant to them. Fundamental British values are well embedded into the values of the college and the behaviours of learners and staff.
• Learners and apprentices have a good understanding of potential risks and how to keep themselves safe, including online, and how to protect others. Their induction includes appropriate coverage of safeguarding, reinforced by enrichment and tutorial activities focusing on key safeguarding themes, appropriate to their age, level and core curriculum.
• Staff recruitment includes a comprehensive scrutiny of the suitability of job applicants. The significant number of organisations that access the college’s sites are subject to effective security checks and safeguards to protect learners and staff. All staff receive safeguarding training appropriate to their roles.
• Managers’ and staffs’ attention to effective health and safety is strong, both at college and for off-site activities and workplaces.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teachers have high expectations of their learners. Learners working towards vocational qualifications know what grades they are expected to achieve, make good progress and are enthusiastic about achieving their qualifications. For example, learners research the meaning of the words used to describe a distinction grade, so they can work towards this high grade.
• Learners develop good knowledge and skills through teachers’ careful use of topics and relevant projects and assignments. Teachers encourage learners to choose projects that align closely to their career aspirations and employability skills. For example, on a media course, learners’ projects ranged from interior design to animation in gaming programmes.
• In lessons for English and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), teachers carefully develop learners’ speaking, listening, reading and writing skills through well-conceived activities. For example, learners work in small groups to prepare presentations on the same topic but using different scenarios. Teachers ensure that all learners contribute and speak. Learners’ peers provide constructive feedback on what went well and what could be improved.
• In vocational lessons, teachers develop learners’ technical language well and emphasise the importance of mathematics. Learners increasingly make good progress with their mathematics and in lessons use what they have learned with confidence.
• Teachers use their subject knowledge and experience well, making good links between topics taught in lessons and their relevance to employment or everyday life. Many adult learners feel confident about applying newly acquired skills in their workplaces. They highly value opportunities to discuss different working practices with their peers. For example, teaching assistants discuss varied approaches to supporting different age groups and children from diverse backgrounds.
• To supplement good paper-based learning resources, learners and staff are starting to make effective use of ‘apps’ and an information technology (IT)-based communication and learning system. These are used well for sharing information about courses, quizzes to check learning, submitting assignments and receiving feedback from teachers, which is now much quicker. Learners appreciate the good communication with their teachers and being able find information via their smartphones.
• Most teachers’ feedback on learners’ work is helpful in identifying the skills that learners need to improve and the knowledge they need to develop. Teachers’ feedback in lessons and on marked work is effective in most subjects.
• Learners benefit from a good range of support which staff use well to ensure that most learners make good progress. A range of specialists support learners for whom the college receives high needs funding particularly well and, as a result, learners develop effective independence and communication skills.
• Learners make slower than expected progress in a small minority of lessons. The most common reasons for this are when teachers move on to a new topic too quickly, without checking that learners have fully understood what has been covered, or when teachers do not explain the tasks and objectives clearly enough at the start of the lesson, and then have to clarify to individual learners what they are expected to do.
• A minority of teachers do not use the most appropriate strategies to check on learning. Too often, only the most confident learners answer questions posed by teachers while quieter learners’ understanding is not fully checked.
• Most apprentices on the college’s directly delivered provision, and a small minority of adults, do not receive sufficient or prompt feedback on the work they complete to help them improve.
• The college’s own apprentices, and learners for whom the college receives high needs funding, do not always know what skills they need to develop and by when, as the targets set by apprenticeship assessors and teachers are not sufficiently precise or individualised.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

• Learners and apprentices increase in their confidence and develop their personal, social and employability skills well. Adult learners especially rebuild their confidence after significant time away from education.
• Learners often produce work to a high standard, they take pride in their work and they know what they need to do to improve.
• Teachers ensure that learners benefit from purposeful work-related learning, including work experience in a range of relevant employment sectors. Work experience is well planned and organised, especially for learners on study programmes. Learners talk confidently about the skills they have developed in particular, working in a team, using their own initiative and the application of their learning in college to the workplace. Learners in receipt of high needs funding run many aspects of two charity shops, including stocktaking, pricing and selling items which are donated by the local communities.
• Managers ensure that learners receive good, impartial careers advice, together with wider information, advice and guidance, from specialist and dedicated staff and teachers. A programme of guest speakers, drawn from the world of work and specialist agencies adds to this. As a result, learners are supported to recognise appropriate roles they may be suited to and aspire to progress into further study or work.
• Teachers support learners well to develop their skills in English, mathematics, and information and communication technology (ICT). For example, motor vehicle learners calculate the wear on brake pads, sports learners calculate metabolic rates, and travel and tourism learners calculate holiday prices, percentages and discounts.
• Learners achieve a good range of additional qualifications to support their main study programmes and to enhance their prospects of employability. For example, sports learners complete coaching and refereeing awards, catering learners complete additional food hygiene qualifications, computing and IT learners complete proprietary software qualifications and construction learners complete their industry health and safety examinations.
• Learners are well behaved and show respect for their peers and teachers. They work well with other learners from a diverse range of backgrounds and beliefs. This is amply demonstrated in the way that learners work well together in lessons and in the ways in which they socialise in the college’s common spaces. They understand the main themes of respect and tolerance which lie behind British values.
• Learners and apprentices feel safe at college, and in their workplaces, and have a good awareness of how to keep themselves safe. They can explain what they would do if they had any concerns about their own safety or the safety of others. For example, learners in receipt of high needs funding are aware of how to keep themselves safe online, public services and business learners know the signs of extremism and radicalisation, while ESOL learners and those on employability courses talk about respect and tolerance.
• The large majority of learners attend their lessons well and punctually. Learners’ overall attendance has improved significantly since the previous inspection, and managers and all staff are committed to its further improvement. Inspectors noted lack of punctuality from a small minority of learners. As a result, these learners miss introductory instructions or activities and do not benefit from critical learning points.
• Leaders and managers are open and responsive to feedback and suggestions from learners, and support them to set up and run activities and events to enhance their learning and social interactions, such as the ‘Mindfulness Room’, the ESOL conversational English club and the debating club.
• In a small minority of lessons, learners are not fully equipped and ready to learn, arriving without the necessary equipment, such as pens, paper or folders.
• In the college’s directly delivered provision for apprenticeships, assessors’ support for apprentices at work is not consistently good. Too many apprentices do not see their assessors often enough and do not have a full view of their progress and what they need to do to improve their performance. Additionally, their skills development is not always matched to the very specific needs of their employers.

Outcomes for learners Good

• In contrast to the previous inspection, the large majority of learners now complete their courses successfully. Since the previous inspection, learners’ achievements have improved markedly, both for learners aged 16 to 18 on study programmes and for the much larger number of adult learners. Learners’ pass and retention rates have each improved, and learners’ retention is very good. At the time of inspection, a very high proportion of learners who started their courses at the beginning of the academic year were still in learning.
• Overall, adult learners achieve better than learners aged 16 to 18, largely because of the historic poorer performance of learners on A- and AS-level courses, a relatively small provision which is now being ended.
• Learners achieve best, and well, on entry level, level 1 and level 2 courses, which make up the large majority of provision. Learners on vocational programmes at level 3 mostly achieve well.
• At the previous inspection, too many learners made insufficient progress in their studies. Now, they mostly make good progress, developing good and relevant skills for their future studies and working lives.
• Of particular note is the good progress that learners make in improving their English and mathematics, given that just over half of all college learners have neither GCSE English nor mathematics at grade C or above. Learners’ achievement in functional skills qualifications has improved markedly since the previous inspection, and was high in 2015/16. Not enough learners achieve a grade C or above in GCSE examinations, although current in-year achievement in assessments shows improvement with much larger proportions of learners gaining high grades.
• Learners for whom the college receives high needs funding, and those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, achieve very well on their courses and make good progress, as do the significant number of learners looked after.
• Learners’ positive progression to further studies, training and employment is good, with most of those completing their studies in 2016 achieving positive destinations. The majority of learners aged 16 to 18 continued in further education, often at higher levels, and a good proportion successfully started higher education courses or progressed to apprenticeships.
• Learners’ achievements on the small minority of level 3 courses, while improving, are too low overall because of the poor performance in A- and AS-levels. Learners’ achievements are not sufficiently good in all courses and subjects, including, for example, science, engineering, social sciences and business.
• Apprentices’ achievement of their frameworks requires improvement. Currently, the performance of apprentices, both for successful completion and for completion within the agreed timescales, is too low. Apprentices following programmes with the college’s subcontractors achieve much better than the smaller number on the college’s directly delivered provision.
• For learners on level 3 study programmes, the progress that they make based on their starting points when joining the college has improved since the previous inspection, in particular for learners on vocational courses. However, it remains too low for A-level learners.

Types of provision

16 to 19 study programmes Good

• The 1,700 learners on study programmes account for around a quarter of all learners at the college. Two thirds of them study GCSE mathematics and English as part of their programmes. They enrol on a broad range of vocational and academic courses, including ESOL. The large majority stay in learning and achieve well. A small number of learners are enrolled on AS- and A-level courses, but these will close at the end of this academic year.
• Managers, teachers and staff have high expectations of their learners. Managers have developed a broad range of initiatives to improve quickly the impact of teaching and learning, particularly in English and mathematics, and, as a result, learners make good progress. Teachers know their learners’ aspirations and work hard to help them achieve their ambitions.
• The college has a firm and successful emphasis on learners’ readiness for work and their development of essential skills. Leaders have an acute focus on the critical role of mathematics, English and work experience in securing the futures of young people. Learners benefit from a programme of study tailored to their needs and interests, develop a good range of personal, social and employability skills, and are responsive and respectful.
• Teachers plan lessons well to take account of learners’ starting points. They use a good variety of teaching and learning strategies and make effective use of topical events and themes, such as ‘International Women’s Day’ or volunteering. Teachers evaluate learners’ progress well through regular assessment and the setting of homework. Consequently, learners make good progress in developing the skills and knowledge of their subjects. In mathematics, a ‘five-a-day’ challenge uses innovative technology to set daily mathematics questions for learners.
• Teachers use technology particularly well to gain, and keep, learners’ interest in lessons. For example, business learners use a specialist software package and compete in teams to develop their knowledge of primary market research methods. Innovative strategies in mathematics and English, such as the use of a virtual classroom and daily timed tests, enable the majority of learners to develop good mathematics and English skills, and apply them in their vocational learning.
• The standard of learners’ work is good. Most learners benefit from relevant work experience, which they use to improve the quality of their work and enhance their learning in college. For example, catering learners develop an increased awareness of the importance of personal presentation and boost their customer service skills at their prestigious London placements.
• In their wide range of subjects, learners make good progress because of sound subject-based written feedback and regular individual verbal feedback by teachers during lesson tasks and activities.
• Teachers and staff, including those providing impartial careers’ guidance, have a keen focus on learners’ progression and provide good advice, much valued by learners. Most learners are very interested in their next steps to work, apprenticeships or further and higher education.
• Learners feel safe and work safely. Their understanding of aspects of equality and diversity and British values is good. For example, in a GCSE English lesson, learners discussing the benefits of volunteering identified that volunteers showed compassion and tolerance, and linked these qualities to British values.
• Although teachers and staff know learners well, and use this knowledge to plan lessons to meet all learners’ individual needs, in a small minority of lessons, plans are not executed well enough. Learners who are more able do not always achieve their potential or gain the high grades of which they are capable.
• In a few lessons, teachers’ checks on learning are ineffective, resulting in a minority of learners making little contribution and progressing too slowly. Teachers’ strategies to improve learners’ responsibility for their own learning are not always successful. For example, teachers provide many learners with workbooks and good-quality paper-based resources, but they do not always value these or use them for revision.
• In a few cases, teachers do not return learners’ marked work or enter assessment results on the electronic mark book on time, delaying learners’ progress. Teachers do not check learners’ written work in lessons closely enough to identify mistakes quickly so that they can make rapid corrections.

Adult learning programmes Good

• Currently, 4,713 adult learners study full and part time, across all college centres, in the day and evening. Approximately half of the provision is for English, mathematics and ESOL. The remainder is vocational training, including provision for the unemployed and distance learning. Courses are offered at all levels, but predominantly at level 2 and below. Leaders, managers and their staff have taken successful actions to secure rapid improvements to learners’ achievement, raising standards and improving the quality of teaching, learning and assessment.
• Good teaching and learning in most lessons enable learners to work with enthusiasm, enjoy their learning and make good progress. Those on vocational programmes are able to make connections between what they study in lessons and its relevance to the world of work. For example, they become highly confident about expectations and professional behaviours in their occupational areas.
• Teachers ensure that learners gain confidence and develop a good range of personal, social and employability skills, enabling them to make good progress and successfully achieve their targets, qualifications and progression goals. For example, learners of hairdressing and beauty become more able to deal with the demands of the general public, and learners of ESOL become more confident at communicating with a range of professionals to support their children at school and to access public services.
• Teachers successfully encourage learners to work together and much peer support is evident in the majority of lessons. This helps learners complete set tasks together, build their understanding and improve their skills.
• Teachers skilfully use naturally occurring opportunities to incorporate cultural diversity and equality themes in lessons, developing learners’ understanding and knowledge for example, of the Japanese attitude to personal space and raising their awareness of working with children from diverse backgrounds.
• Teachers help learners to improve their English and mathematics skills. Learners understand their relevance and application in their wider studies, including building their employability skills in preparation for the workplace. Teachers prepare detailed glossaries to ensure that learners are familiar with and confidently use key terminology in a variety of the subject areas. Teachers and learners make good use of a range of ICT to aid learning, enhance teaching and monitor progress. For example, learners use digitally based communication and learning systems to track their progress and identify what they need to complete to achieve their qualification.
• Staff ensure that learners feel safe and secure in the college. Learners appreciate the site security and the strict checks on the wearing of identity lanyards. They are aware of the risks associated with radicalisation and know whom to contact should they have any concerns while at college. In their studies, learners demonstrate their sound knowledge of health and safety.
• Learners’ behaviour is good. Supportive relationships with staff and peers help learners returning to education to participate with confidence. Learners who have had a break from education and employment benefit from a good range of information, advice and guidance, helping successful placement and planning for future studies and careers.
• Managers have developed a good range of partnerships, with the aim of jointly meeting the skills needs of the local communities. The college’s vocational, community and distance learning provision closely aligns to local and national priorities, and meets the demands of employers and local community groups.
• In a small minority of lessons, teachers make insufficient checks to ensure that learners have understood, or have successfully completed tasks before moving to a new topic, resulting in slower progress for some learners. Their questioning, for example, does not ensure that all learners are included, and learners who are more confident respond and dominate. Teachers insufficiently challenge learners to ensure that they work to their potential and the pace of lessons is too slow, with more accomplished learners losing interest.
• A small minority of learners do not receive helpful feedback to identify what they need to do to improve their work. A few teachers do not routinely correct spelling, punctuation and grammar errors, hindering learners’ capacity to progress.
• Although improving significantly, the attendance of a small minority of learners is still not good enough and they fall behind with set work and make slow progress in completing assignments and units of the qualification in a timely fashion. In lessons observed by inspectors, too many learners were not punctual. They missed introductory instructions or activities, and teachers delayed the start of lessons at the expense of other learners.

Apprenticeships Requires improvement

• Currently, 521 apprentices are working to complete their intermediate, advanced or higher-level frameworks, of whom 352 are on subcontracted provision, largely at intermediate level. Apprentices train in several subject areas, including engineering, care, accounting, plumbing and IT.
• Too few of the apprentices directly trained by the college are retained or achieve their apprenticeship within the agreed timescale. The much larger number on subcontracted provision fare much better and achieve well. Leaders and managers are currently implementing significant management and operational changes to address this quality gap.
• For the college’s directly delivered provision, managers do not ensure that off-the-job training is sufficiently linked to apprentices’ job and technical skills needs, and a minority of employers do not feel that training meets their work needs. While assessors conduct individual reviews of apprentices’ progress, review outcomes do not adequately influence apprentices’ overall training plans.
• In the direct provision, managers and assessors do not identify apprentices’ slow progress or poor performance sufficiently early to ensure timely achievements. The monitoring of apprentices’ progress requires improvement, as does assessors’ target setting for apprentices’ improvement. Too many targets are imprecise, not focused on skills development, and do not support apprentices to make progress. Assessors’ sparse feedback to apprentices does not support them to improve their future work and make progress.
• Arrangements to identify, and meet, the needs of apprentices who require additional support require improvement in directly delivered provision. Expert learning support tutors provide good help to apprentices who have particular needs, but the essential and supportive link between apprentices and assessors is underdeveloped, with negative impact on progress and achievement.
• Teachers and assessors do not always have the expertise and confidence to integrate the development of skills in English and mathematics into the apprentices’ programmes. In too much marked work, staff do not help apprentices’ identify and correct spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, and apprentices fail to improve their skills sufficiently.
• College managers work closely with external partners to ensure that apprenticeships meet local and regional needs. For example, the ‘Leadership through Sport’ accounting programme recruits learners not in education, employment or training (NEET) and unemployed individuals, supports them though bespoke provision and finds them employment.
• For both the direct and subcontracted provision, managers ensure that off-the-job training meets the requirements of apprenticeship programmes. Teachers consistently manage good off-the-job training that furthers apprentices’ subject knowledge.
• Managers also ensure that for subcontracted provision the management of reviews and the related target setting for improvement is good. Reviews link all aspects of the apprentices’ training programme and are to a good standard. Target setting and written feedback to apprentices are rigorous and support apprentices well to improve their work, extend their knowledge and make better progress. Employers are able to influence their apprentices’ skills development through their involvement in progress reviews.
• Managers’ positive drive to improve learners’ English and mathematics has resulted in the development of these skills earlier within the programmes and there is a positive impact on the proportion of apprentices achieving their English and mathematics qualifications. Where the ICT functional skill is a framework requirement, training is well integrated and apprentices’ skills development and achievement of ICT qualifications are appropriate.
• The majority of apprentices who successfully complete their framework sustain their employment, benefiting their local economies, and a few progress to higher levels of apprenticeships.
• Apprentices’ attendance and punctually are good. Assessors and teachers challenge punctuality sufficiently and follow up absences with employers well.
• Apprentices’ health, safety and well-being are assured. Assessors routinely check safe practices in the workplace. Apprentices feel safe and can report any concerns about safety, extremism and radicalisation confidently. Apprentices have a respectful attitude towards each other and work well together.
• Assessors develop equality and diversity themes that enable apprentices to understand the needs of different types of customers and colleagues whom they may work with. For example, an apprentice electrician could explain how to deal with certain customs, such as eating types of food, if visiting Muslim and Jewish houses.

Provision for learners with high needs Good

• The college has 92 learners with high needs, from nine local authorities. Sixty-eight learners are taught on discrete high needs programmes and a further 24 follow vocational courses across the college, from pre-entry to level 3.
• Learners develop good independence and communication skills that will support them effectively in their future lives. They benefit from the social aspects of college life and become more confident in speaking out, offering their opinion and making decisions. Managers recognise that for a small, but significant, minority of learners with complex needs, more visual stimulus, such as symbols, to aid understanding is required and have strategies in place to achieve this.
• Learners make good progress in developing practical skills, such as learning how to travel independently. They are determined to succeed and staff have high aspirations for them. This is reflected in the significant number of leavers who gain paid employment, move onto a higher level of programme or progress into supported living.
• Assessment of learning is effective. Gaps in individual learners’ skills or knowledge are established at the start of programmes and learners benefit from regular tutorials and reviews of progress. Learners’ written work is marked thoroughly and captures spelling and grammatical errors, including ideas of how they can improve their work.
• Learners make good progress in developing their personal and social development skills. Teachers’ recording and monitoring of learners’ progress are accurate and effective, but managers recognise that better moderation of successes on non-accredited programmes would ensure that the achievements of learners are fully captured.
• Teachers ensure that learners’ development of English, mathematics and ICT skills are good. Learners make progress in developing their vocabulary, recognising letters of the alphabet and producing bar charts to show how many grams of sugar are present in different foods as part of healthy eating. Those who have complex needs use suitable adapted ICT hardware and software. Learners use interactive boards well to make decisions and to self-evaluate their progress.
• Learners’ development of skills for employment is good. Managers provide effective college opportunities for learners, such as working on reception and in the learning resource centre. Excellent enterprise opportunities include the management of two shops, including the ‘Scene on the Green’ charity shop, where learners learn retail skills such as pricing, customer care and making decisions on how profits will be used.
• A wide range of employers provide external opportunities for learners, including a well-established supported internship programme for a very small minority of learners, and many make excellent progress into paid work.
• Staff ensure that the support, information and guidance that learners and their families receive are good. The college works with a large number of professionals and school partners and, as a result, support is put in place quickly at the start of learners’ programmes.
• Ever-vigilant staff ensure that learners are well supported and safeguarded. Learners are aware of their own safety and know what to do if they have any concerns.
• Learners demonstrate good attitudes to work, behave well and respect staff and their peers. Staff know their learners well and this reflects the successful behaviour strategies that exist for complex and challenging learners.
• Staff use funding effectively to meet individual learners’ needs. A variety of support methods are in line with local authority care plans and staff implement variations to support where required.
• Although goals and targets for learners are set and monitored frequently, the quality of target setting requires improvement. Too many targets teacher set are overly broad to be effective and often link to the completion of tasks rather than focusing on critical personal skills development, or learners do not understand them easily.

Provider details

Unique reference number 130408 Type of provider General further education college Age range of learners 16+ Approximate number of all learners over the previous full contract year 13,100 CEO Garry Phillips Telephone number 020 8741 1688 Website www.wlc.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+ 576 2,414 358 1,443 641 358 - 25 Intermediate Advanced Higher 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 93 324 19 60 0 25 Number of traineeships 16–19 19+ Total - - - Number of learners aged 14 to 16 Number of learners for which the provider receives high-needs funding - 92 Funding received from: Education Funding Agency and Skills Funding Agency At the time of inspection, the provider contracts with the following main subcontractors:

JTJ Limited Learning Curve LVC Limited Phoenix Simply One Stop Umbrella Training

Information about this inspection

The inspection team was assisted by the executive 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

David Martin, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Judy Lye-Forster Her Majesty’s Inspector Steve Lambert Her Majesty’s Inspector Joy Montgomery Her Majesty’s Inspector Helen Bramley Ofsted Inspector Vanessa Cass Ofsted Inspector Fadia Clarke Ofsted Inspector Kanwaljit Dhillon Ofsted Inspector Philip Elliott Ofsted Inspector Rebecca Gater Ofsted Inspector Alun Maddocks Ofsted Inspector