Writtle College Limited

Overview: Writtle College Limited is a specialist further education college that provides a range of courses in sport, agriculture, horticulture, animal studies, equine studies, wildlife conservation and floristry. The college has a good overall effectiveness, with strengths in teaching, learning and student outcomes.

Strengths:

• Students and apprentices are very keen to learn and work positively with each other in a calm, respectful and purposeful environment.
• Teachers create a strong focus on developing professional, personal and social skills alongside technical knowledge.
• The college makes a reasonable contribution to meeting skills needs, with leaders having a secure understanding of the local and regional skills needs.
• Staff have appropriate expertise to provide effective support for students with high needs.
• Teachers use a range of effective teaching strategies and provide clear explanations of complex topics.

Areas to improve:

• Enhance the teaching of mathematics so that students develop the skills they need to pass their examinations.
• Strengthen the use of formative assessment and developmental feedback to ensure that students continue to develop their vocational and academic skills and knowledge.
• Enable students and apprentices to develop a meaningful understanding of British values and the risks of radicalisation and extremism that relate to their industry.
• Strengthen senior leaders’ oversight of safeguarding compliance checks and safeguarding training.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, although at the time of the inspection, a small minority of new staff were yet to complete their safeguarding training, and managers had not ensured that references were obtained for a small minority of recently appointed teaching staff.