Askham Bryan College

Overview

Askham Bryan College is a specialist land-based provider offering courses across five campuses, with an overall effectiveness judged as ‘Good’. The report describes a ‘calm, purposeful and engaging learning environment’ where staff use industry expertise to teach relevant, up-to-date techniques. Leaders maintain high expectations for behaviour, fostering a positive culture that prepares learners well for their next steps in employment or further study.

Strengths

• Teachers are ‘suitably qualified with relevant, and often current, industry experience’ and effectively develop learners’ fluency in specialist terminology.
• The curriculum is carefully sequenced and aligned with employer needs, with leaders investing in digital resources like ‘robotic milking machine[s]’ and ‘virtual-reality design suites’.
• Learners benefit from extensive opportunities to participate in competitions, social action projects, and high-profile industry events, aiding networking and professional development.
• Staff provide helpful career guidance, including tutorial lessons focused on ‘curriculum vitae writing’ and interview skills.
• Governors provide ‘helpful scrutiny and support’ and have a clear oversight of safeguarding arrangements.

Areas to improve

• Ensure that information from education, health and care plans is consistently used to plan effective individualised programmes for learners with high needs.
• Ensure all staff support learners to develop their English skills, as some teachers do not integrate this well enough or correct spelling and grammatical errors.
• Ensure all learners capable of achieving higher grades receive effective feedback that clearly highlights the actions needed to improve.

Safeguarding

The report states that ‘the arrangements for safeguarding are effective’ and that governors have a clear oversight of these measures.