Lincoln College Group rated good by Ofsted inspectors

A college group has been praised for high quality education and skilled teachers following an inspection earlier this year.

In January Ofsted visited colleges in the Lincoln College Group and have graded as good across all areas of inspection.

The report highlighted the quality of education, as well as education programmes for young people, apprenticeships, adult learning, provision for high-needs learners, personal development, behaviour and attitudes and leadership and management.

A main area of praise was for the quality of the education staff, with inspectors stating “students learn from skilled teachers and access high-quality learning settings.”

This is supported by good leadership, where leaders demonstrated a detailed understanding of local and regional skill needs and used this knowledge to “effectively to identify priority skills areas and to inform strategic and curriculum planning”.

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On the classroom levels, most teachers checked students’ understanding through effective questioning, practical tasks and group exercises and in many cases adapted their teaching in response to these assessments.

However, leaders did recognise that further work needed to be done in some subject areas to ensure better and more consistent outcomes for learners.

Inspectors suggested that the colleges needed to ensure that actions currently being put into place continue to have a positive impact on improving retention and achievement rates where it is too low, particularly in GCSE English and maths.

Beyond this, leaders and staff members are said to create a welcoming and inclusive college environment for students who also access a range of facilities and guidance to support mental and physical well-being.

It was also stated that the colleges made a strong contribution to skills in the area, by offering a wide range of skill based apprenticeships and had established long-standing partnerships between the college and employers across the area.

Inspectors noted that students and apprentices have access to a beneficial careers programme, including a wide range of activities such as trips to university and careers talks from industry experts — in turn, helping them to understand their future career options.

As part of this, the report states that apprentices demonstrated positive attitudes to their studies and work and that they perform well in their jobs and were valued by employers when on placements.

This extends into the Air and Space Institute courses currently being taught at Newark College, until the dedicated building just off the A46 Cattlemarket Roundabout in Newark is finished.

Principal of Lincoln College Group principal and chief executive, Mark Locking, said: “I’m absolutely thrilled for our students and our staff.

“This report confirms what I have known for some time, that we are accelerating towards fully achieving our Purpose, which will eventually ensure all of our students get an extraordinary learning experience on all of our programmes.

“What shines through in this report is consistently strong performance. We hope this result reinforces the trust our students, parents, adult learners and employers place in us.

“This is a real win thanks to the professionalism and dedication of our staff”.

Deputy principal, Matt Vaughan, said: “Although our colleges were rated as overall as good in 2018, this was not in all categories and since then a tremendous amount of work has been done to ensure consistent quality in our education and levels of support.

“As the number of students grows, we will work tirelessly to maintain and improve our quality.

“Ofsted also identified areas that we need to work even harder on, including maths and English. We will not be complacent and we have already invested in extra management and teaching staff to increase the amount of tuition we can offer to our students.

“I would like thank our teaching and support staff for their determination, energy, passion and skill in serving their local community.”