Elliott Hudson College Ofsted Report

Full report

Information about the provider

• Elliott Hudson College opened in 2015. It is part of The Gorse Academies Trust and was established to provide academic 16 to 19 study programmes for the young people of south west Leeds. In the previous academic year, the college operated from two sites, with Year 12 at one site and Year 13 at the other. All students moved into the new building at the White Rose Business Park in September 2017.
• Leeds has an unemployment rate that is higher than the national average, and hourly pay is below the national average. The proportion of residents educated to level 3 is higher than that seen nationally but the proportion educated to levels 1, 2 and 4 is lower than the national average. Leeds contains 14 of the 162 most highly deprived neighbourhoods in England.

What does the provider need to do to improve further?

• Provide work experience earlier in the study programme for students who would benefit from it because, for example, they are not planning to progress to university.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• Governors and senior leaders have been successful in delivering their strategic vision to create a college that delivers very high-quality education, raises aspirations and increases the social mobility of young people aged 16 to 19 in south west Leeds.
• Leaders and managers have created a positive culture in which learning and ambition flourish. Students of all abilities are encouraged to excel and fulfil their potential. Consequently, students make outstanding progress from their starting points. Demand for places at the college is now very high.
• The self-assessment undertaken by leaders provides a thorough and accurate analysis of the many strengths and very few areas for improvement at the college. Leaders have a clear plan to address the areas for improvement and have taken prompt action that has resulted already in significant in-year improvements. For example, they have increased the number of Year 12 students who stay on the programme and have improved careers advice and guidance for students not going to university.
• Leaders have created a relentlessly self-critical approach to improvement. Across all aspects of their work they use a ‘4i’ (information, identify, intervene, impact) planning approach to making improvements. Staff understand this approach and work with managers so that interventions quickly result in impact. For example, when in-year progress was too slow in A-level geography and mathematics, managers and staff made successful interventions that resulted in significant improvements and ensured that students made good progress.
• Managers use data exceptionally well to analyse student performance and to make sure that all groups of students achieve equally well. All staff have access to very detailed information about their students, which they use to monitor the progress that students make. This means that students from disadvantaged backgrounds, those with additional learning needs, male students and female students all make very good progress.
• Leaders and managers have ensured that students have a broad choice of A levels to include within their study programmes. All students take useful qualifications in addition to their A-level courses. Unless they need to retake a GCSE course in English or mathematics, students follow courses that enable them to gain a project qualification or a level 3 qualification in mathematics. The vast majority take the project qualification course, which is pivotal in managers’ literacy strategy as it develops skills in research, planning, extended writing and verbal presentation. As a result, students develop excellent study skills and improve their confidence; a few receive university offers specifically because of the high standard of their projects.
• Curriculum managers are thorough in their management of the performance of staff and use a range of evidence to evaluate teachers’ performance. In the very few instances where performance falls below the expected standards, managers’ interventions are swift and effective.
• Managers use student feedback to make important improvements to the student experience. For example, in response to student feedback, communication with students has improved through a very informative student bulletin. Teachers have introduced regular knowledge tests to supplement the completion of examination-style assessments.
• Managers provide a safe place to work and study for all students. Expectations of high standards of behaviour and conduct are set through the Elliott Hudson College 10 commitments to and from students (EHC10). Students demonstrate a high awareness of how their behaviours uphold fundamental British values and they are proud of the high levels of respect shown for all the members of their community.

The governance of the provider

• Governors, including representatives of The Gorse Academies Trust, are very well qualified and experienced. They are committed to supporting leaders to implement the ambitious strategic vision of providing excellent academic post-16 education, particularly to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. The senior leaders provide governors with clear and evaluative reports and, in return, governors offer robust support and proportionate challenge to leaders.
• Governors and leaders have secured excellent purpose-designed premises and a sustainable financial future for the college. The Gorse Academies Trust members took a courageous step to close their local sixth forms in order to create the college and support leaders to improve the quality of sixth-form education that their pupils receive. A growing reputation means that applications to study at the college have increased significantly. This should ensure that ambitious recruitment targets are met, and secure the sustainability of the provision.
• Governors are rightly very proud of what has been achieved in less than three years. For example, the qualifications and experience that students gain at the college have been instrumental in changing the lives of many, particularly in securing high levels of progression to higher education for those with no family history of going to university.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Managers ensure that they meet all statutory safeguarding requirements. Appropriate pre-employment checks are carried out, and staff receive the safeguarding training they need to keep students safe.
• Managers forge good and improving links with local schools to ensure early identification of vulnerable students and to meet their support needs as early as possible in their college career. Consequently, these students are able to stay on their course and succeed in line with their peers.
• Support staff have a range of excellent partnerships with external organisations that enable students to access the support they require to stay healthy and safe. Staff provide exceptional support to students who live independently.
• Leaders have ensured that all staff have had thorough training in identifying concerns relating to radicalisation and extremism and keeping students safe. Managers arranged inspirational training for staff delivered by an imam and an ex-football hooligan to enable them to hold difficult conversations about extremism. Students have great confidence in their teachers and tutors and readily report concerns so that they are addressed promptly.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

• Students benefit from their teachers’ high expectations, encouragement and extremely positive relationships. They become confident in what they do, immerse themselves in academic activities inside and outside of the classroom, and continually seek to improve their work. They develop successfully the subject knowledge and examination techniques that enable them to make very good progress. For example, in physics and chemistry lessons, teachers provided students with very helpful examination tips that helped them to give excellent responses to questions in relation to the brightness of stars and nucleophilic substitution reactions.
• Well-qualified and skilled teachers use a wide range of methods and make excellent use of resources so that students develop the knowledge and skills, including digital skills, required to be successful in gaining their qualifications. In sociology, students regularly access high-quality electronic resources outside of the classroom that prepare them well for future lessons and assessments and help them to make excellent progress. In a photography lesson, students used computer software skilfully to create images for their portfolio. They benefited from the teachers’ expertise and manipulated their photographs to create highly individualised images.
• Teachers use their extensive subject knowledge and comprehensive knowledge of their students to plan and provide lessons and activities that enable almost all students to make excellent progress. When students find questions or activities challenging, teachers provide very effective and precise reinforcement of learning to ensure that individual students do not fall behind.
• Students benefit greatly from teachers’ expertise. They receive insightful examples and explanations to deepen their understanding of a subject. When students find questions or activities too challenging, teachers provide very effective individual support to ensure that students do not fall behind.
• Students who need additional help with their studies receive timely and very high-quality additional support. Teachers and support staff work together very effectively to ensure that students who have an identified need or disability, and other students from disadvantaged backgrounds, make progress in line with their challenging targets. As a result, these students make at least the same progress as their peers, and often better progress.
• Teachers assess students’ progress frequently during lessons and in their written work. Their feedback is extremely helpful for students who use this information to correct mistakes and omissions, so that their work is the very best that they are capable of producing. The feedback that students receive also focuses on the knowledge and skills required to be successful in future examinations. Students compare their performance against aspirational targets and are clear about how assessment activities will help them to meet these targets.
• Tutors monitor students’ overall progress closely, and they provide students with helpful reviews of their progress during routine tutorials and in progress reports. As a result, students set themselves very specific targets to improve their identified weaknesses, leading to almost all students improving the quality of their work and achieving higher grades.
• With excellent guidance from their teachers, students produce comprehensive subject files containing essential information, references and research activities that relate very closely to their examination syllabus. Students use the files extensively to collate assessed work and detailed notes from lessons. This helps them to monitor their progress closely and to prepare very thoroughly for examinations.
• Managers ensure that parents and carers receive helpful and timely information about students’ progress throughout the year. Teachers and staff contact parents and carers routinely to celebrate student achievement or when behaviour or attendance is below college expectations. Parents and carers value the information that they receive and support students where necessary to stay on track and achieve their goals.
• Teachers develop students English and mathematics skills well. Students develop their English skills particularly well. They correct errors that have been identified in feedback, and proofread their own and each other’s work to identify common errors and to ensure that they use correct technical terminology. They also undertake regular intensive and extended writing so that they hone their writing skills in preparation for examinations. In health and social care, students collaborate with their peers online outside of the classroom to review and improve the quality of their coursework. A small minority of students take additional mathematics qualifications at level 3 to extend their mathematics skills.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

• Leaders and managers ensure that personal development, behaviour and welfare have a very high priority at the college. Managers have strengthened further the support that they provide by ensuring that personal tutors also teach the students in their tutor groups. As a result, personal tutors develop a thorough knowledge of their students and provide very effective support. Students gain in confidence and develop excellent personal and social skills that will benefit them in their future lives.
• Students are very well prepared in lessons, demonstrate exemplary behaviour and enjoy learning. They uphold the EHC10 standards of behaviour in social and study areas as well as in lessons, creating a harmonious, respectful and inclusive atmosphere that they value highly.
• Students feel safe at college. Tutors provide a comprehensive tutorial programme, which includes a range of topics to promote health and well-being. For example, in December students received useful information about how to keep themselves safe at parties during the festive season. External speakers talk to students about male and female health issues such as testicular and breast cancer. Managers recognise the importance of addressing mental health issues and ensure that all tutors have received training to be mental health first aiders in order to support the students in their tutor groups. A group of students have also received training to undertake this role.
• Students participate regularly in a wide range of enrichment activities, which teachers and other staff closely map to the development of key skills required by employers. Students record their skills acquisition on a helpful electronic platform. Many students participate in a range of sporting activities, including a prestigious rowing club. In several curriculum areas, students have access to interesting outside speakers to promote further their subject interest and curiosity. For example, in social science they are offered a programme of lectures from academic staff at universities on topics such as how early life environment factors influence a child’s psychological development.
• Well-qualified staff provide excellent careers education. Students are well prepared to make university applications and for university life. Students in Year 13 have received useful guidance on budgeting and have participated in the production of cookbooks for students living away from home. Senior members of staff provide good support for students who are not planning to progress to university, and take full account of students’ intended progression routes to ensure that they receive targeted support. Students have very good access to one-to-one careers advice and guidance and many make frequent use of the service. Managers recognise that students who do not intend to apply for university have insufficient support to undertake work experience early enough in their programme.
• The large number of students who take a project qualification develop excellent study skills, and they recognise that these skills will be of great benefit in their transition to higher education. Students improve considerably their ability to work independently, meet extended deadlines and reference their work appropriately. They also reflect maturely and self-critically on their own work and their strengths and weaknesses.
• Managers set very high standards of attendance and behaviour, including a dress code, and they uphold these rigorously through a system of commendations and conduct points. As a result, attendance is high and the very large majority of students meet the high expectations.
• Students demonstrate a very thorough knowledge of the dangers of extremism and radicalisation. Staff prepare students extremely well for life in modern Britain by, for example, encouraging them to recognise the implications of intolerance and make ‘no-bystander’ pledges. Staff send students an imaginative birthday card when they reach the age of 18, which encourages them to register to vote.

Outcomes for students Outstanding

• Students make outstanding progress from their starting points. Progress is particularly strong in biology, physics, psychology and sociology. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds make exceptional progress. Students made slow progress in English literature in 2016/17. However, managers swiftly identified the reasons for this, and they implemented appropriate improvements that have resulted in current students making good progress.
• Almost all students who complete their 16 to 19 study programmes pass their qualifications.
• Current students are making very good progress. Managers use assessment information extremely well to make interventions when the progress of individual students, or progress within a particular subject, is too slow. Students benefit from sharply focused lessons on the topics or examination questions that they struggle to complete. Interventions are swift and usually successful.
• Through highly effective monitoring and very carefully targeted interventions, managers have ensured that there are no significant differences in the progress made across all groups of students.
• The small number of students who retake GCSE English and mathematics qualifications make outstanding progress. A very high proportion achieve at least a grade 4.
• The proportion of students progressing to university is high, with many progressing to prestigious institutions. A significant number have no previous family experience of higher education. Almost all students who do not go to university progress to an apprenticeship or employment.
• Students regularly produce high-quality work of which they are rightly proud.
• In the current year, a high proportion of students remain on their 16 to 19 study programme. Staff have provided very effective support for the small number who have left the college early to ensure that the vast majority move into courses at other colleges or apprenticeships.

Provider details

Unique reference number 141940 Type of provider 16 to 19 academy Age range of students Approximate number of all students over the previous full contract year 16+ 800 Principal/CEO David Holtham Telephone number 0113 3239777 Website www.elliotthudsoncollege.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 students (excluding apprenticeships) Number of apprentices by apprenticeship level and age 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+

• 853
• Intermediate Advanced Higher 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+
• 16–19
• 19+
• Total
• Number of traineeships Number of students aged 14 to 16 Number of students for which the provider receives high-needs funding At the time of inspection, the provider contracts with the following main subcontractors:

Information about this inspection

The inspection team was assisted by the vice-principal, as nominee. Inspectors took account of the provider’s most recent self-assessment report and development plans. Inspectors used group and individual interviews, telephone calls and online questionnaires to gather the views of students and parents; these views are reflected within the report. They observed learning sessions and scrutinised students’ work. The inspection took into account all relevant provision at the provider.

Inspection team

Rachel Angus, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Kathy Passant Richard Deane Joanna Stokes

Ofsted Inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector