Newham Sixth Form College

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Information about this provider

Newham Sixth Form College (NewVIc) is located on a single site in Plaistow in the London Borough of Newham. Since October 2023, the college has been led by a large number of senior leaders and managers holding interim posts.

The college offers a wide range of academic and vocational courses to 2,402 learners, from entry level to level 3.

The majority of learners are aged 16 to 18 years old. Of these, approximately two thirds study vocational courses and one third study A-level courses. NewVIc teaches alternative provision to a small group of learners aged 14 to 16.

NewVIc teaches specialist provision (foundation learning) to learners with special educational needs a...nd/or disabilities (SEND) and for those who speak English as an additional language. There are 90 learners at NewVIc who have SEND and education, health and care (EHC) plans.

What is it like to be a learner with this provider?

Learners are keen to study, but for too many, their time at the college does not match their expectations.

They experience disruption to their education due to staffing issues, ineffective teaching and administrative errors regarding their examinations. In the previous academic year, this led to a significant proportion of learners not achieving their qualifications and making poor progress relative to their prior knowledge and attainment. However, learners with SEND achieve well.

While improvements have been made since September, the prevailing issues are not fully resolved.

Learners' attendance and punctuality are not good enough. Until recently, leaders and managers have not been effective in their approach to improving this.

Too often, staff do not follow up on learners who have low attendance, and as a result, do not put appropriate interventions or support in place.

Too few learners participate in good work experience or work-related learning activities. As a result, learners do not have the opportunity to learn directly about the world of work and cannot explore how what they are learning on their courses applies in possible future jobs.

Learners are respectful of each other and the wider college community. The strong visibility of staff around the campus, particularly the security and youth workers, creates a calm and positive environment where learners feel safe and supported. Staff continuously reinforce the importance of abiding by their high expectations regarding conduct.

Learners are very aware about how to manage their mental health and where to get support. Learners speak very positively about the effective support they receive from college staff, or through onward referral to outside services, to help them cope when they have mental health challenges.

Learners, including those with SEND, have secure knowledge of important social issues that affect their lives as young people.

Teachers skilfully teach learners an effective tutorial curriculum. This raises learners' awareness of topics including about relationships, consent, community and personal safety, knife crime, drugs and online safety. Teachers give learners the knowledge they need to be safe and active citizens in modern Britain.

Contribution to meeting skills needs

The college makes a limited contribution to meeting skills needs.

Leaders and governors do not have a suitable skills strategy, and governors do not have a good enough understanding of the skills agenda. The interim leadership team has started a process of reviewing the current skills position of the college.

They recognise that they do not work effectively enough with employers and stakeholders to understand local, regional and national skills needs. They have started to develop an action plan and the actions identified are appropriate. However, they have not considered well enough the time frame for completion.

In a few subjects, teachers and curriculum managers include local employers and higher education institutions (HEIs) within their courses. However, this is mostly confined to topics outside of the main knowledge content of the curriculum rather than helping to meet skills needs. For example, staff from HEIs provide helpful guidance to learners on how to write a personal statement for their university applications.

College leaders do not participate enough in local or regional forums to understand skills shortages and priorities and to make sure that the college is able to make a positive contribution. They also have limited involvement with local employers to make sure that the curriculum they teach is relevant to their needs. Where they do work with employers, this is primarily to find work experience placements for learners.

For example, college and local NHS trust managers are working together to provide work experience for learners on the T-level course in health and science. They are also seeking opportunities for teachers to develop their knowledge of current sector practice. In other subject areas, including vocational courses in business, sport and applied science, staff have not sought the views of employers and other sector bodies to shape the curriculum.

What does the provider do well and what does it need to do better?

Until recently, governors and senior leaders have not done enough to tackle the poor quality of education that learners experience. They presided over a decline in standards resulting in the proportion of learners who achieve their qualifications being low on too many courses. They had poor oversight of key functions, such as the administration of examinations, for which they failed to put in place effective or rapid enough improvements.

They have not made sure that there are adequate learning resources, such as computers, to meet the needs of learners.

The current senior leaders, who are mostly in interim posts, have accurately identified the urgent areas for improvement. They have in place an extensive range of suitable plans to improve the quality of education for learners.

This includes investment in resources, staff development and curriculum planning processes that involve important stakeholders, including employers. Leaders and managers are in the early stages of implementing these actions and it is too soon to judge their impact on the quality of the provision.

Leaders and managers have successfully broadened the curriculum offer over recent years to meet the needs and interests of local young people.

This includes the introduction of T-Level courses. They have put in place a range of suitable programmes in foundation learning for learners with SEND.

A characteristic of the quality of learners' experiences is the wide variability across different subjects, depending on the skill and expertise of teachers and the level of disruption due to staff shortages or changes.

Many second-year learners experienced disruption to their studies in their first year. This has left them struggling with some of the content of their current studies.

Overall, teachers do not plan, sequence and teach the curriculum consistently well.

In a few curriculum areas, such as English literature, sport, business and science, teachers plan and sequence a coherent curriculum. For example, in sport, teachers teach an introduction to psychology, so that learners have the knowledge to understand motivational theory, from which they learn to design a psychological skills training programme. However, in too many cases, teachers do not assess learners' starting points accurately, and subsequently do not teach the curriculum in a way that builds effectively on what learners know.

In a small minority of cases, learners are not on the correct course relative to their prior qualifications. Too often, teachers do not sequence theoretical and practical content well to help learners link the two.

In English literature, sport and applied science, teachers teach appropriately challenging content.

They use good activities to make sure that learners can recall what they have previously been taught. They use effective teaching strategies and give clear explanations to help learners understand the content they are taught. For example, in English literature, teachers make sure that learners can define and explain precisely the rhetorical devices poets use, and then analyse in depth the meaning they create within different poems.

In other curriculum areas, teachers are not ambitious enough for their learners. They do not use effective teaching strategies to deepen and develop learners' knowledge. Teachers do not make effective links to previous or wider learning to help learners understand what they are being taught.

Teachers do not give consistently effective feedback to learners to help them improve. In some subjects, including applied science, teachers give very precise feedback. They helpfully guide groups of learners on topics that they need to focus on for revision.

They give personalised guidance to individual learners based on recent marked work. In too many subjects, teachers confine their feedback to recording the extent to which learners have achieved the assessment criteria. They do not provide guidance to learners on the knowledge they have gained, and what they still need to learn or understand.

Teachers do not set suitable or helpful targets for learners to develop their knowledge and skills. Too often, teachers set targets that are too broad and focus on task completion rather than identifying the knowledge that learners need to gain in their subjects. Teachers do not adequately review the targets they set for learners to help them make progress in specific areas.

As a result, learners are unclear in which parts of their studies they are doing well, and how they can improve. This has a negative impact on the progress that learners make.

Until recently, leaders and governors did not provide effective or sufficient staff training.

Recently, a few staff have taken part in training to help them develop their subject knowledge, teaching skills and SEND expertise. However, there are still limited opportunities for staff to participate in a broad range of development opportunities to enhance their skills. This contributes to the lack of progress in improving learners' educational experience.

Staff provide helpful careers advice and guidance to learners. This includes useful one-to-one career interviews and support with university applications. Learners who have an EHC plan receive helpful advice throughout their programme and in their EHC plan reviews about their next steps.

Learners have a clear understanding about the range of pathways available to them at the end of their courses, and the steps they need to take to secure their progression. Learners with SEND move to positive destinations once they complete their courses, such as further study at a higher level or employment. However, too many learners who apply for higher education do not achieve the grades they need to go to their first-choice university.

Leaders and managers offer a range of extra-curricular activities to learners. However, they do not provide a sufficient range of opportunities for learners with SEND. Most learners are aware of the college's offer of activities to develop their talents and interests further.

However, too many are not motivated to attend the extra-curricular clubs and activities. This means they do not benefit from sufficient opportunities to further develop their talents and interests.

Teachers do not have a sufficient awareness of the EHC plan outcomes for learners with high needs.

As a result, they do not plan or teach an appropriate curriculum for these learners to be able to achieve their outcomes. Teachers set targets for learners that do not link well enough to their EHC plan outcomes. Teachers and learners are unclear how much progress learners make towards achieving their EHC plan outcomes.

Until recently, leaders and managers have not been considerate enough of staff workload and well-being. Many staff remain highly committed to the college, despite their high workloads. The current interim senior leadership and management team have started to implement strategies to manage staff workload better.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Improve the standard of teaching and learning to be consistently good across courses so that learners make good progress and achieve their qualifications, including in English and mathematics. ? Improve how leaders and managers check the quality of the provision so that they understand the strengths and weaknesses and take appropriate action to improve learners' experiences.

• Improve learners' attendance and punctuality so that it is consistently high across courses. Manage the workload of staff and provide training for them so that they develop their expertise and are suitably skilled to teach learners, including those with SEND. ? Improve the targets that teachers set learners, and the feedback they give on marked work, so that learners know what they need to do to improve their knowledge, and the standard of their work.

• Make sure that teachers set targets for learners with high needs that link to their EHC plan outcomes and to the knowledge and skills they need to learn, and that they give learners planned opportunities to achieve their targets. ? Increase the range of extra-curricular opportunities for learners with SEND, and for all learners, increase their uptake of activities and clubs so that they broaden their talents and interests. ? Work with employers and other stakeholders to make sure that the college improves the contribution it makes to meeting local and regional skills priorities.