Prior Pursglove and Stockton Sixth Form College

Overview

Prior Pursglove and Stockton Sixth Form College continues to be a "good provider," delivering high-quality education across two sites. Students benefit from well-sequenced curricula, effective teaching strategies, and strong support for those with high needs, leading to positive progression into higher education and apprenticeships.

Strengths

• Teachers "carefully plan their curriculums" to help students "develop, reinforce and consolidate their knowledge over time," particularly in subjects like A-level biology.
• Staff use "effective teaching strategies" such as self-marking and frequent practice questions to help students "learn and remember more" and prepare for examinations.
• Provision for students with high needs is strong, with teachers using education, health and care plan targets to plan learning and employ specific strategies to support participation and focus.
• Students feel safe and receive comprehensive tutorial programmes covering topics such as radicalisation, substance misuse, and sexual health, which they value for their "mature" delivery.
• Leaders have "clear systems to understand the quality of their provision," including thorough evaluations of teaching and learning, and take "targeted, effective actions to improve."

Areas to improve

• Use information about students’ prior knowledge and skills in English and mathematics to plan learning so that students on skills for development programmes make good progress.
• Ensure that all staff benefit from ongoing training and development to develop their teaching skills, as the current plan has not yet been "consistently applied across all subjects."

Safeguarding

The report states that "the arrangements for safeguarding are effective."