Inspection reports for FE providers could be set to include a grade for learners’ behaviours and attitudes, Ofsted’s deputy director for FE and skills has said.
Speaking at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ National Conference in London, Paul Joyce told the audience that the inspectorate’s new framework will be “evolution not revolution”.
He said that Ofsted was looking at introducing a separate grade for providers, including those in FE, looking at learners’ behaviour in the classroom.
Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman told the Festival of Education at Wellington College last week that she wants to see behaviour “get the attention it deserves”.
‘Not all about data’
At the AELP conference, Mr Joyce added: “Because it is not all about the data, and because learners’ attitudes and behaviours matter, it’s most probable that in the new framework we will see a separate grade being awarded for behaviour and attitudes.
“It’s important that learners and apprentices in FE and skills are developing the right attitudes and behaviours to prepare them for their next steps, be that to employment, for progression to further training or to higher education or for independent living. A grade that enables recognition of those attributes, therefore, seems a sensible way forward.”
Mr Joyce said the new framework would also likely bring an enhanced focus on the curriculum.
