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2. Coaching for quality improvement

Quality improvement — the facts

Excellence and nothing less! That’s the challenge, backed up by the Government’s intention to stop funding after 2008 for any provision that does not meet the benchmarks for minimum levels of performance. As a manager, you’ll be focusing on providing evidence of your organisation’s capacity to improve to meet these requirements and on implementing robust systems that enhance learner outcomes and increase learner satisfaction.

How does this link to other initiatives? The Government’s strategy as outlined in the March 2006 White Paper Further education: Raising skills, improving life chances highlights the need for organisations to:

  • adopt a clear mission focused on the employability and progression of their learners
  • develop one or more areas of specialist excellence which will be fundamental to driving up improvement
  • meet the needs of employers and learners (you can find more on employability and the National Teaching and Learning Change Programme in Coaching to support the development of employability skills)
  • improve the quality of teaching and learning
  • share good practice and eliminate failure
  • respond to demand-led funding
  • support a simplified, integrated planning strategy that will bring together national and regional priorities and allow providers to play to their strengths.

In support of the quality improvement agenda, the LSC Framework for Excellence aims to provide a transparent mechanism for performance assessment against which providers will be measured. The framework defines excellence and is based on a scorecard of seven key performance indicators (closely aligned to the Common Inspection Framework) that will capture three dimensions of a provider’s performance:

  • responsiveness
  • effectiveness of provision (quality)
  • finance.

It’s a natural progression for us to use Subject Learning Coaches to further enhance the improvement processes under way in the college. The improvement in satisfaction of students as a result of using the resources and approaches is easy to see.

Chris Sherwin, Vice-Principal,
Cambridge Regional College

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Challenges for managers

The Government expects your organisation to be adopting rigorous and robust self-assessment processes. You will be using the data that underpins your judgements about the quality of your provision to target areas for further development and to support continuous improvement. You will be aware of any inadequate provision in your organisation and you will be taking action to improve it.

This is in itself a challenge; but equally so is the need for continuous quality development, improving areas that are satisfactory so that they become good, and maintaining the impetus in areas that are outstanding. To support the focus on quality improvement, you will be encouraging peer review and the exchange of effective practice. And your Subject Learning Coaches can do much to help here by working with their colleagues to bring about change and to support active and innovative approaches to teaching and learning.

We faced significant challenges to ensure a consistent quality of delivery across the five in-house sites, and the six sites operated by sub-contractors. The role of the Subject Learning Coach is an important part of our overall strategy to encourage everyone to work together to improve the quality of provision. Staff have welcomed, and been encouraged by, the sharing of good practice.

Sally Winkworth, E2E Contract & Curriculum
Manager, Somerset County Training

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How Subject Learning Coaches can support the ‘excellence’ agenda

  • By driving up the quality of teaching, training and learning, thus contributing to better learner outcomes and higher inspection grades
  • By being part of quality improvement processes — supporting internal and external peer review, and coaching new and experienced staff
  • By working with staff to deliver engaging CPD sessions based on approaches to active teaching and learning that really work
  • By contributing to self-assessment and quality improvement planning

It has cascaded subject coaching skills and knowledge across the college. The Subject Learning Coaches are highly skilled, confident professionals. They remove barriers and move the learning journey on for so many staff and learners. It has provided a benchmark for managers to let them know they are doing the right things to promote good teaching, training and learning.

Margaret Woodcock, Quality Manager,
City College Manchester

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Working with your Subject Learning Coaches

If you haven’t already done so, consider introducing the following measures:

  • Ask your Subject Learning Coaches to work with you to identify which areas need support in raising standards
  • Use your Subject Learning Coaches to carry out supportive, peer observation of teaching, training and learning. They don’t need to use graded systems — coaching works best when it’s not judgemental
  • Establish practice sessions, facilitated by your Subject Learning Coaches, for teachers and trainers to exchange ideas. You can link these to internal peer review
  • Ask your Subject Learning Coaches to work on or lead quality improvement projects in areas such as enhancing e-learning or active learning
  • Bring in your most experienced and successful Subject Learning Coaches to moderate self-assessment. They’ll be able to offer valuable insights into the evaluation of quality and planning for improvement

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Three tips for getting the most out of your investment in coaching

  1. Set up a simple system of internal peer review, facilitated by one or more of your Subject Learning Coaches
  2. Ask your Subject Learning Coaches to work with teachers and trainers whose performance is ‘satisfactory’: Subject Learning Coaches can help to ‘raise the bar’
  3. Deploy your Subject Learning Coaches in the areas where learners are highly challenging or disaffected — Subject Learning Coaches can help teachers and trainers to improve quality where the learners are least engaged

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Success stories

  • City College Training has used its Subject Learning Coaches to support the self-assessment process and to help to inform development plans.

The programme has enabled the staff team to improve their knowledge — they’re now more willing to look at different ways of delivery, different ways of doing things. And it’s paying off — achievement in Business has increased over the last year or so from 18% framework achievement to 48%. They have self-assessed the programme as a grade 2.

Maxine Cutter, Skills for Life Manager, City College Training, Middlesbrough

  • Following the work of Subject Learning Coaches at Oakfield Solutions, 80% of learners are enthusiastic about their learning.
  • Oakfield Solutions carried out a comprehensive review of learners’ knowledge and understanding of the Entry to Employment (E2E) programme, what their barriers were and how E2E was helping them overcome them and move forward. The results showed that few learners knew why they were on E2E and what specifically they were aiming for. After introducing new approaches, a recent review by Oakfield Solutions shows that learners are now far more aware of their own particular barriers and how to overcome them. A very positive outcome arising from the work of Subject Learning Coaches!

Using the Framework developed initially by theStandards Unit and motivational dialogue technique is now a mandatory element of the new contracts with providers. This is already being seen as a positive development as providers have been actively involved in the development of this process and can see the benefits for staff and learners.

Tony Whitehead, Learning Support Co-ordinator, Oakfield Solutions

  • At South Cheshire College, staff are sharing good practice and exploring new approaches to teaching and learning.

Although we are an ‘outstanding’ college, the resources and programme provide us with targets and areas where we can enhance what we teach and deliver to learners.

Sheelagh Salter, Head of Organisational
Development, South Cheshire College

  • Huddersfield Technical College is a lead partner of the Calderdale and Kirklees E2E Partnership. It has a diverse range of partners — 14 in total. The partnership shares one full-time Subject Learning Coach based at the college; some partners also have their own Subject Learning Coaches.

The Subject Learning Coach helps the partners with their individual organisation’s quality assurance of teaching and learning by session observations and subsequent action planning for improvement.

Judith Horsfield, Partnership Manager,
Huddersfield Technical College

  • At Tameside College, the work of Subject Learning Coaches is integrated into the staff development programme as well as into the assessment and support processes in the college. Subject Learning Coaches have conducted observations and peer coaching with colleagues, taken part in developmental peer reviews and helped to showcase resources.

This work is a key driver in the achievement of a key strategic objective in the college’s three-year development plan to raise standards in teaching, training and learning. It has already been influential in changing the culture at Tameside College.

Gabrielle Lagan, former Assistant Principal,
Tameside College

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