Sometime ago, I watched a college observer evaluating a flower-arranging lesson. It was delivered by a pro who gave up her time once a week to run an evening class. And it was one of those lessons you really wished you were involved in, rather than watching! When the observer fed back, their criticism was that the teacher hadn’t used any learning technology. This gave me a mild moral dilemma. As an observer of the observer, I shouldn’t be challenging […]

Let me pose a fascinating thought challenge about the purpose of Further Education & Skills provision and why, of late, Ofsted seems to have its trolleys in a tangle over IAG. Before I do, however, I’d like to ask a couple of questions. Does achieving their qualification guarantee learners a job or a university place? Of course, unless there’s some sort of special relationship in place, the answer is no. While it should go without saying that qualification success is […]

In this Thursday’s open, online training session, we’re going to be taking a forensic look at Progress Reviews. One delegate summed up the session by say it “identified that progress reviews will be a cultural change and not a procedural change”. Couldn’t have said it better. When you’re next surfing inspection reports, sharpen your antennae for judgements on Progress Reviews. You may well find that there are a significant number of weaknesses on this themes, few strengths, and, well.. have […]