TAMWORTH’S only dedicated Sixth Form centre, Landau Forte Academy Sixth Form ‘Requires Improvement’ – thats the results of the latest Ofsted inspection.
The academy, which sits on Ashby Road and teaches around 560 16-19 year olds, was subject to a College Inspection on 8-10 November 2016 and was rated as ‘Requires Improvement’.
This inspection comes just over 18 months since an inspection in April 2015, which also rated the academy as requiring improvement.
One of the areas of criticism is around the teaching of mathematics, with the report saying: “Too many students do not develop their mathematics skills well enough to support progression to higher levels of study or employment.”
This is an area which appears to have seen little or no improvement from the last inspection which at the time stated: “Too few students on courses for A-level and GCSE mathematics achieve their qualifications or make the expected progress given their attainment at the start of their course.”
A main point of the latest inspection said that: “Teaching, learning and assessment are not consistently good across subjects.”
It is however, not just the teachers that are slated in the report, the governors are also criticised, with the report saying that the governors do not have sufficient knowledge about teaching, learning and assessment or about study programmes to be able to support and challenge leaders to the necessary level.
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The only people the recent report clearly praises are in fact, the students themselves. The report says: “[The students] have very positive attitudes to learning and are confident, polite and very well behaved both in lessons and in their own study time.”
It goes on to say: “[students] quickly apply themselves to work in lessons and maintain good focus on the tasks they have been given. They are enthusiastic to learn and progress to their next steps.”
The overall ratings of the inspection.
Tamworth Sixth Form opened in 2011 and it is part of the Landau Forte group of academies. It serves Tamworth and the surrounding area.
The local area has six secondary schools, only one of which has a sixth form. Other local post-16 provision includes a general further education campus (South Staffordshire College) that offers a range of vocational programmes.
This poses the question as to whether a dedicated sixth form centre for the Borough and surrounding areas was the right way to go.
The full inspection report can be viewed here.
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