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Excellence Gateway
This content theme is based on the Annual Report of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector 2007/08.
This content theme has been produced to help identify resources for guidance and practice, that will help providers to address the issues identified in the Ofsted Chief Inspector's Report for 2007-08, and avoid weaknesses that have been consistently identified throughout the sector inspections over the last two years.
On the Excellence Gateway there is a large range and scope of resources to support improvement. This article points you to some of the available materials, and offers a number of suggested search terms, which can be used to find further resources on the Excellence Gateway.
This is the first Chief Inspector's Report from Ofsted covering a full year of inspections, following the merger with the Adult Learning Inspectorate in April 2007, and it provides an analysis of the findings in the context of the evolving Cycle 2 methodology using the Common Inspection Framework.
The report covers the whole remit of Ofsted, which includes the 11 different contexts within the learning and skills sector, and outlines the strengths and weaknesses of the key components of the sector with references to specific provision.
The report identifies a number of key messages and issues for the sector, illustrated by the following direct quotes:
“In colleges of further education, success rates for courses have continued to improve and this year an increased proportion of colleges are good or outstanding overall. In six in 10 colleges, students' achievement is good or outstanding. Underperforming colleges fail to set challenging targets and too much of the teaching is no better than satisfactory.”
“Sixth Form colleges continue to be highly effective.”
“There has been improvement in several areas of adult learning and skills. The sector is flexible and diverse in providing opportunities for a broad range of learners, some of whom have typically found it difficult to engage in learning or to move into sustained employment. Much remains to be done, however, to overcome the barriers faced by some of the most disadvantaged adults. The sector generally engages well with employers but scope remains for greater involvement of employers in training.”
“Initial teacher education programmes are designed well and trainees are highly motivated and enthusiastic. More should be done to ensure that all trainees promote equality and inclusion in their teaching.”
“In adult prisons, while many offenders develop good skills for employment, others have too few opportunities to gain nationally recognised qualifications.”
A summary of the key messages and issues are identified in this content theme and are linked to resources. As noted by the Chief Inspector, the work of the sector needs to be seen in the context of the positives as well as the negatives.
However, shortcomings have been summarised as follows:
These weaknesses are very similar to those identified in the 2006-07 report. However, many examples of good practice are available, which can support personal development around these issues and provide opportunities for personal engagement, and opportunities for providers to support training and development that will lead to improvement.
This article is split into two topics:
You can find this page and download any referenced resources from the Excellence Gateway at http://excellence.org.uk/188097.
