South Gloucestershire and Stroud College

Overview: South Gloucestershire and Stroud College provides a highly inclusive environment for learners, with a strong focus on meeting the needs of local and national employers. The college has a clear and ambitious vision for providing education and training that contributes to meeting the needs of local and national employers.

Strengths:

• Learners and apprentices enjoy studying in a highly inclusive environment created by staff at all levels.
• Leaders value and nurture diversity, working with a range of partners to develop curriculums that meet the varied needs of their communities exceptionally well.
• Teachers have expert knowledge of the subjects they teach, including significant experience in industry.
• Leaders and managers work highly collaboratively with local authorities, the West of England Combined Authority, and over 1,500 employers to develop the curriculum.
• Teachers provide learners and apprentices with opportunities to develop their personal attributes and employability skills, as well as to gain a wider understanding of how to contribute positively to society.

Areas to improve:

• Learners with high needs studying on programmes specifically designed for them often participate in work-related activities that are not sufficiently personalised.
• Teachers do not plan sufficient opportunities for learners to develop fluency and deeper knowledge in a minority of lessons.
• Teachers often do not provide enough useful feedback to support learners to know what to do differently when they provide incorrect answers to questions.
• The reviews of the progress apprentices make are not consistently useful.

Safeguarding: Learners and apprentices feel safe at college, rarely experience harassment or discrimination, and are confident that staff would listen and take swift and appropriate action.