MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE CURRICULUM & QUALITY COMMITTEE

HELD 11 FEBRUARY 2016

Present: Ms T Bruton (Chair)

Mr H Guntrip
Mr P Hannan
Mr G Jessel
Ms D Washer
Ms E Crook
In attendance:
Mr J Allen -Clerk to the Governors
Ms L Brown -Group Vice Principal
Mr M Lumsdon-Taylor - Group Director of Finance

The meeting started at. 11.15

WELCOME, APOLOGIES & DECLARATION OF INTERESTS

66. The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. Apologies were received from
Ms K Richardson and Ms M Akane.

67. The Clerk advised that the membership of the Hadlow Corporation and the
Hadlow Group Board has to be a standing declared interest at each meeting for Ms T
Bruton, Mr H Guntrip and Mr P Hannan. The Clerk confirmed that all Members
attending this meeting would be working and making decisions that are in the best
interests of West Kent & Ashford College, regardless of their membership elsewhere
within the Hadlow Group.

MINUTES

68. It was RESOLVED to approve the minutes of the meeting of the Curriculum &
Quality meeting held 12 November 2015 as an accurate record of the meeting and to
authorise the Chair to sign the minutes.

SUMMARY ACTION LIST & MATTERS ARISING

69. The ‘Summary Action List’ was received and it was confirmed that both action
points – separate reporting on success rates for Functional Skills; and an update on
attendance – are both agenda items.

70. There were no other matters arising.

INSTITUTIONAL TARGET SUCCESS RATES 2015/16

71. The College report ‘Target Institutional Success Rates 2015/16’ was received
The College has set its intuitional targets for 2015/16 as outlined in the report and the
Committee is asked to recommend the targets for Board approval. It was confirmed
that the core targets reflect the realistic projections for retention and success for the
current financial year. It was confirmed that the targets are cascaded to all Heads of
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Faculty and Course Managers through the Business Planning Cycle. Retention and
achievement targets have been set realistically against last year’s actuals with a close
reconciliation to the previous years targets. The College targets show a balanced
approach working towards national rates or exceeding them at all levels.

72. It was reported a new methodology has been introduced on how success rates
are to be recorded, with the change from ‘levels’ of student to type of ‘qualification’, and
to include functional skills performance and GCSE outcomes within core rates.

73. It was RESOLVED to recommend that the Board at its meeting on 16 March
2016 be asked to approve the Success Rate targets for 2015/16 – copy of the targets
attached to the minutes.

QUALITY IMPROVEMENT ACTION PLAN

74. The ‘Quality Improvement Action Plan’ was received. The Quality Improvement
Action Plan (QIAP) was put into place to address the areas for improvement identified
in the Ofsted Report (December 2013) and the self-assessment report 2014/15. The
main areas for improvement are drawn directly from the self-assessment report and
other sources. Each one is broken down into targets and assigned to managers for
implementation and monitoring. The QIAP focuses on high priority levels that need to
be addressed in order to secure improvements in performance aligned to the Mission
and Strategic Objectives of the College.

75. It was confirmed the QIAP is monitored through termly Senior Management
Team and Executive meetings. The QIAP is reported to the Curriculum and Quality
subcommittee and to the full Governing Body on a termly basis.

76. The Group Vice Principal assured the Committee that there is in place a robust
monitoring framework to oversee continuous quality improvement. The College has a
culture of continuous quality improvement, which cascades through the organisation
and ensures that all Curriculum areas and Support areas have improvement plans.
These are monitored through the Curriculum and Support area team meetings and are
scrutinised at Curriculum and Support Area Health Checks, which are carried out by
the Quality Improvement Team.

77. The main areas for improvement identified in the QIAP include:

• To improve success rates across all areas of the College provision

• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment across the College,
including Apprenticeships
• Improvement of Apprenticeship timely success rates
• To improve the quality and effectiveness of leadership and management at all
levels of the organisation
• To improve attendance, punctuality and attitudes to learning across the College
• Improve the quality of English and maths teaching, leading to improved
outcomes
• Improve the success and progression in A Level courses
• Improve progression of students – including Employability Skills, Careers and
Preparation for Work
• To improve the use of ILT
• To improve approaches to assessment within teaching and learning

78. The Committee reviewed in detail the actions be taken, or those planned to be
taken, to address each of the main areas for improvement identified in the QIAP.
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79. The key messages arising from the review of the QIAP was that there was a lot
of planning in place to address identified areas of improvement, but embedding this,
and seeing how it works and impacts on the learner experience, is now key to the
success of the College.

80. The Committee welcomed confirmation of there being no ‘Red’ RAG

assessment against any of the actions/targets required. This demonstrated the good
progress that has been made to seek improvements. Although there remain many
‘Amber’ RAG assessments, this reflects the current journey of moving the College from
‘Inadequate’ to ‘Good’. No issues of concern were reported to the Committee on any of
the ‘Amber’ assessments.

81. It was RESOLVED to note the QIAP.

LEARNERS’ ATTENDANCE

82. The ‘Learner’s Attendance Report’ was received.

83. Full time FE authorised attendance was recorded at 87.07%, compared with
88.75% for the same period last year. Full time HE authorised attendance was
recorded at 87.64% compared against 82.03% for the same period last year.

84. Functional Skills attendance was confirmed at 80.18% as against 81.67% for
the same period last year. For GCSE attendance was at 76.86% as against 78.27% for
the same period last year.

85. The report provided a detailed breakdown of attendance at course level at each
campus. Tunbridge Wells continue to be a cause of concern with all curriculum areas
below their attendance figures for the corresponding period last year.

86. Strategies to address attendance issues were outlined in detail in the Quality
Improvement Action Plan, an earlier agenda item.

87. It was RESOLVED to note the report.

LESSON OBSERVATION REPORT

88. The College report ‘Lesson Observations’ was received. The lesson
observation process implemented at West Kent and Ashford College (WKAC) from
September 2014 is aligned to that used at Hadlow College. The documentation used is
the same as at Hadlow and represents a proven model of assessing high quality
teaching, learning and assessment.

89. As reported at previous meetings, there was no formal graded lesson

observations carried out during 2012/13 and 2013/14 at K College and therefore there
is no historic documentation and no grade profile.

90. To give assurances on the robustness of both the process and grades awarded,
lesson observations at WKAC are carried out by an internal lesson observation team
and through the use of external experts such as Associate Inspectors who are
employed to observe specific themes and to standardise observations.

91. The expectation is for all members of staff to achieve Grade 1 and Grade 2
teaching. Where teachers fall below that benchmark i.e. their teaching is graded as

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Grade 3 or Grade 4 then there is a supportive Stepping Up process designed to
support staff to address their areas for improvement and achieve a Grade 1 or Grade
2. Following a Grade 3 or a Grade 4 staff are given a supportive improvement plan
and then are re-observed within 6 weeks. Failure to improve to at least ‘Good’ will
result in further support and then ultimately the capability process will be implemented.
The College makes every effort to support staff to improve to the required standard but
there is a responsibility to ensure that all students receive a high quality learning
experience and teaching that is at least ‘Good’. There are currently 35 staff on the
Stepping Up Programme.

92. The grade profile for term one for the 101 graded observations were as follows:

• 66 lessons were judged to be good or better (65% against the target of 80%)
• 31 lessons required improvement (31% against the target of 7%)
• 4 lessons were inadequate (4% against the target of 3%).

93. It was RESOLVED to note the report.

FUNCTIONAL SKILLS/GCSE REPORT

94. The College report ‘Functional Skills and GCSE Update’ report was received.
The following key points were noted:

• During 2014/15 the Study Programme was re-launched with the curriculum
teams to ensure they understand the importance of English and Maths in the
curriculum.
• The primary challenge remains the recruitment of appropriate qualified and
capable tutors, particularly in Maths.
• The restructuring of the Faculty of English and Maths has resulted in a newly
appointed Head of Faculty who will lead a team of 4 Team Leaders.
• ‘Golden Hellos’ have been introduced to incentivise external candidates to
apply.
• Recruitment for English teachers has been successful and by 22 February
recruitment should be complete and fully staffed.
• Recruitment for Maths teachers is still taking place. One teacher has been
appointed and another has been offered a full-time post. Currently 40 hours of
maths classes are delivered by agency staff.
• There is a requirement to improve teaching, learning and assessment within
English and maths. The target for good and outstanding lessons is 78%. As at
October, 55% of English and maths lessons observed were good or
outstanding. This has increased to 88% as at February 2016.

95. The Committee welcomed the progress update with confirmation of a clear
Faculty structure in place and good strategies for staff recruitment. The quality of
provision has improved but needs to continue to improve, with an improvement in year-
end results. The pace of change needs to be increased significantly in order to drive up
standards. The Committee agreed that this area remains an area of high risk.

96. It was RESOLVED to note the report.

ANNUAL EQUALITY, DIVERSITY & WIDENING PARTICIPATION REPORT 2014/15

97. The ‘Annual Equality, Diversity & Widening Participation Report 2014/15’ was
received (copy attached to the signed minutes).

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98. The report provided the Committee with updates on:

• The legal context

• Scope of the Annual Equality & Diversity Report
• Strategic Plan and objectives: an overview of targets, progress against
targets, and further action
• Staff Development and Training
• Student Awareness and Training
• Initiatives to support Equality Duties
• Equality and Diversity Impact Measures (EDIMs)
• Data Monitoring and Reporting (staff and students)
• Analysis of Equality Performance

99. It was RESOLVED to note the report and to recommend the report to the full
Board.

CURRICULUM STRATEGY 2016/17

100. The College report ‘Curriculum Strategy 2016/17’ was received. The report
provided a summary of recent developments that have informed curriculum proposals
with a summary of the new courses planned to be delivered. It was confirmed that the
curriculum strategy is aligned to national priorities and builds on the current curriculum
provision focused on land based and rural industries.

101. It was RESOLVED to note the report.

MONITORING OF COLLEGE PERFORMANCE & ASSESSMENT OF RISK

102. The College report ‘Monitoring of College Performance & Assessment of Risk’
was received. The Board has agreed a framework for the monitoring of College
performance and assessment of risk. The Committee is responsible for making
assessments in the area of student experience, teaching & learning. Assessments are
to be carried out at each meeting of the Committee through a standing agenda item
‘Monitoring of College Performance & Assessment of Risk’ with an overall assessment
for each of the two areas being made available to the Board.
103. Once the assessments have been agreed, the Committee, in conjunction with
College management, will then agree on the overall assessment (Red for concern/risk,
Amber for some concern/some risk or Green for no risk/no concern) to be made for the
area of student experience, teaching & learning.

104. Two ‘Red’ assessments (high concern/high risk) were confirmed for student
attendance on GCSE and Functional Skills programmes and on lesson observations.
Of the remaining KPIs, 6 were assessed as ‘Amber’ (some concern/some risk) and
assessed as ‘Green’ (no concern/no risk).

105. Following the review of ‘Red’, ‘Amber’ and ‘Green’ assessments, it was
RESOLVED to inform the Board of the following overall assessment as ‘Amber’:

Student experience, teaching & learning Some Concern/Some

Risk

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ANY OTHER BUSINESS

106. There was no other business.

DATE OF NEXT MEETING

107. 09 June 2016 @09.30 at Tonbridge

The meeting closed at 13.15

Signed: _________________________ Date: _________________________