Article 4 on The Quality of Education a new Key Judgement in EIF

For me measuring quality impacts and actions is an intrinsic part of providing great education. Not only for Ofsted to ensure everyone is inspection ready, but more importantly to ensure leaders and staff are securing the best possible experience for every student and member of staff that make up the college community.

We know from the plethora of leadership research available that people are the College’s greatest asset. You can have state of the art building and the latest technology, but it is the people that make a students’ experience the best it can be. Buildings alone cannot be aspirational for others, guide and support others or provide access to the latest knowledge needed for skills development. It is the people.

 It is people who make a culture, it is people who provide excellence in learning, assessment and achievement. My experiences teach me that a great college is about its people, staff and students alike. I welcome a quality assessment framework that focuses not only on high quality student experience but also has a key focus on the wellbeing of staff. 

The new inspection process is undoubtedly a more dialogue-based approach to Inspection. The process seems to be fundamentally constructed on inspectors getting out and about and talking to learners, staff, parents/carers, employers and the wider college community. Inspectors are keen to hear what life is like at college, what do the learners say about their own and others learning journey? There is a clear move away from previous frameworks where data played a vital part in how inspectors reached judgements. It is now a much more person-centred quality assessment framework with people and culture central to the process. 
The three core activities of providing and gaining a great education remain central in the new key judgement on ‘the quality of education’. However, the focus appears to have shifted towards the impact of LAT rather TLA. Learning and assessment are threaded throughout the EIF with teaching central to but supportive of learning and assessment. There is a clear steer for leaders on the effective management of assessment, the EIF states that it is important that ‘leaders understand the limitations of assessment and do not use it in a way that creates burdens for staff or learners “.

The effectiveness of curriculum structure is a large part of this key judgement. With the introduction of measures around curriculum intent, implementation and impact. Inspectors are interested to see does learning take place in a coherent way that allows learners to constructively build their knowledge and consistently develop skills and application.

When I read through the EIF, application of knowledge and skills, pedagogical approaches and ‘stickability’ of learning are three areas I feel are critical in enabling learners to grow into independent self-managing learners. I would suggest teaching learners ‘how best to learn within the curriculum’ is central to rapid and sustained in-learning progress. That is understanding and sharing the pedagogical approaches that teachers are using is more important than ever in enabling learners to continue their individual learning journey both outside and inside their lessons.  I am passionate about the Finnish education system where the starting point for each student is an explanation on how the teachers are going to teach them. That is the pedagogical approach to be used when delivering the curriculum. The basis of co-creation in learning and a ‘means to’ the students becoming more self-directed and self-sustaining in their learning, e.g. when they are out with employers or in skills competitions.  

As in all the other three key judgements, the body of the criteria are in the section on Good. You have to be seen to be secure in meeting the Good criteria and in addition meet the outstanding criteria to be judged to be outstanding. 

In summary, I like to look at key words and phrases in documents it helps to give me a flavour of the essence of the content. Key words that spring out of ‘The quality of education’ key judgement and provide a flavour of the focus are; 

An ambitious curriculum which is coherently planned, exceptional, curriculum intent, implementation, impact, sequencing learning, skills & knowledge, in-learning progress, all learners, SEND, High Needs, disadvantaged, engagement & commitment to learning, teaching and training are of high quality, learners work embodies consistently demanding curriculum goals, challenge, aspirations, sustained and rapid improvement over time, readiness for employment or next steps, assessment, achievement, securely & consistently, progression, best possible outcomes and a positive learning environment that values and nurtures difference.

I think that’s my favourite phrase in the whole Further education and skills Inspection handbook is ‘a positive learning environment that values and nurtures difference’. How powerful an aspiration is that?
Anything in italics in the article is my own view or interpretation otherwise I have taken the information directly from the new Ofsted Further Education and Skills Inspection Handbook, published in July 2019, reference 190021. 

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Thanks so much for reading, please email wendy@yellowgooseleadership.co.uk with your thoughts or feedback or use LinkedIn. Hope you and your students have a fantastic first term. Wendy

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Below are the GRADE DESCRIPTORS for the key judgement on ‘The Quality of Education’. They describe how “Inspectors will take a rounded view of the quality of education that a provider delivers to its learners”.
For the quality of education provided to be judged outstanding, it must meet the following criteria:

Outstanding (grade1)

• The provider meets all the criteria for a good quality of education securely and consistently
• The quality of education is exceptional

In addition, the following apply

• Intent – the providers curriculum intent is strong. Throughout the provider and its subcontractors, teachers have a firm and common understanding of the intended curriculum and what it means for their practise
• Implementation – the provider’s implementation of the curriculum is consistently strong. Across all parts of the provider, including subcontracted provision and for learners with SEND and those with high needs, teaching and training are of a high quality. Training activities contribute well to delivering the curriculum intent.
• The work that learners do over time embodies consistently demanding curriculum goals. It matches the aims of the curriculum in being coherently planned and sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge and skills for future learning and employment.
• Impact – the impact of the taught curriculum is strong. Learners acquire and develop high-quality skills and produce work of a consistently high standard.
• Learners consistently achieve highly, particularly the most disadvantaged. Learners with SEND achieve the best possible outcomes

Good (grade 2) * The first three grading criteria have a caveat for 2019 inspections to be review in 2020 which says ‘if this not yet fully the case, it is clear from leaders’ actions that they are in the process of bringing this about’.  
 
Intent

• * Leaders adopt or construct a curriculum that is ambitious, appropriately relevant to local and regional employment and training priorities and designed to give learners, particularly the most disadvantaged, the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in life.
• * The curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge and skills for future learning and employment.
• * The provider is ambitious for all its learners, including those with SEND and those who have high needs, and this is reflected in the curriculum. The curriculum remains ambitious and is tailored, where necessary, to meet individual needs.
• Learners study the intended curriculum. Providers ensure this by teaching all components of the full programmes of study

Implementation

• teachers have expert knowledge of the subjects(s) and courses they teach. Leaders provide effective support for those teaching outside their main areas of expertise. Where relevant, teachers have extensive and up to date vocational knowledge
• teachers present information and/or demonstrate skills clearly, prompting appropriate consideration of the subject matter being taught. They check learners’ understanding systematically, identify misconceptions and provide cleat, direct feedback. In doing this, they respond and adapt their teaching as necessary, but without having to use unnecessary, time consuming, individual approaches to presenting subject matter.
• The work that teachers give to learners is demanding and ensures that learners build knowledge and acquire skills, improving on what they already know.
• Teachers encourage learners to use subject-specific, professional and technical vocabulary well
• Teachers work well with support staff to ensure that all learners achieve as they should
• Over the course of study, teachers design and use activities to help learners remember long term the content they have been taught, to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts and to apply skills fluently and independently
• Teachers and leaders use assessment well, for example to help learners embed and use knowledge fluently and flexibly, to evaluate the application of skills, or to check understanding and inform teaching. Leaders understand the limitations of assessment and do not use it in a way that creates burdens for staff or learners.
• Teachers create an environment that allows learners to focus on learning. The resources and materials that teachers and trainers select and produce – in a way that does not create unnecessary workload for staff – reflect the provider’s ambitious intentions for the course of study and clearly support the intent of a coherently planned curriculum, sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge and skills for future learning, independent living and employment

Impact

• Learners develop detailed knowledge across the curriculum and, as a result, achieve well across all areas of their study. Learners make substantial and sustained progress from their identified and recorded starting points in each of their courses and, where applicable, across the curriculum. Where appropriate, this is reflected in results from national examinations, which meet government expectations, or in the qualifications or apprenticeship standards obtained.
• Learners are ready for the next stage of education, employment or training. They have gained qualifications or have met the standards to go on to their destinations that meet their interest and aspirations and the goal of their course of study. Learners with SEND/high needs have greater independence in making decisions about their lives.

 
Requires Improvement (grade 3)
·       The quality of education is not yet good
 
Inadequate (grade 4) – the quality of education is likely to be inadequate if any one of the following applies:
·       The curriculum has little or no structure or coherence, and leaders have not appropriately considered sequencing
·       Learners experience a jumbled, disconnected series of lessons/training that do not build their knowledge, skills or understanding
·       Learners’ experiences in lessons or sessions contribute weakly to their learning and intended curriculum
·       The curriculum does not prepare learners for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life in modern Britain
·       Weak assessment practice results in teaching that fails to meet learners’ needs
·       Learners do not develop or improve the English and mathematical skills they need to succeed in their next stage, whether that is in education, training or employment or in greater independence.
·       The attainment and progress of learners are consistently low and show little or no improvement over time, indicating that learners are underachieving considerably
·       Learners with SEND do not benefit from a good-quality education. Staff’s expectations of them are low. Staff do not identify learners’ needs accurately and are therefore unable to support learners’ development effectively.
·       Learners have attained the qualifications, skills or behaviours appropriate for them to progress to their next stage of education, training and employment.