How Loughborough College Keeps Raising the Bar with HOW2

Loughborough College is a large, well-regarded further and higher education provider offering a broad range of A Levels, T Levels, vocational programmes, apprenticeships, and elite sports training. With over 660 educators across full-time, part-time, and off-site provision, the College is proud of its inclusive and ambitious learning environment and is committed to providing high-quality teaching and learning across all areas.

The College is rated ​“Good” overall by Ofsted, with several areas — including Behaviour and Attitudes, Personal Development, and Education Programmes for Young People — graded as Outstanding. The leadership team is determined to build on this success and ensure the College continues to improve and thrive.

Lesley Wojnarowicz, Quality Manager at Loughborough College, oversees teaching and learning quality across the organisation and also co-leads the college’s initial teacher training provision. She explained: ​“Our aim is for every member of staff to be outstanding in their teaching practice. We’re working towards becoming an Outstanding college — not just in rating, but in the everyday quality of provision we offer students.”

For Loughborough College, maintaining high standards means never standing still. The decision to implement the HOW2 Platform was rooted in the desire to keep improving and to encourage every teacher to take ownership of their development. Lesley emphasised, ​“We didn’t want staff to become static in the sense of, ​‘Well, it’s worked before, so I’m just going to repeat it.’ We don’t want to be offering that type of provision.”

Lesley highlighted that while staff are supported through coaching and development sessions, the quality team ​“can’t be everything to everybody.” Instead, the college wanted to offer tools that would allow educators to work more independently and confidently. ​“We want staff to drive their own learning and to have that independence,” she said. ​“And we also want to equip them with the resources to explore and be a bit more innovative.”

Encouraging staff to keep reflecting, adapting, and exploring new ideas was central to the decision. As Lesley noted, ​“Just because you’re Outstanding today doesn’t mean you will be in a year’s time” — a mindset that underpins the College’s commitment to sustained professional growth.

Loughborough explored a range of options before selecting the HOW2 Platform. A key driver was the desire to support teaching and learning in a way that felt practical, adaptable, and grounded in day-to-day classroom challenges.

“We know teachers are extremely busy,” Lesley said. ​“We wanted something they could access easily and quickly — to either use fully or adapt. We also wanted to see a lot more variety within teaching and learning and give confidence to staff to try something different.”

She noted that in some departments, staff had been using the same approaches for several years. ​“It was about getting people to think about more innovative or more digital ways of delivering some of the modules.”

Another major benefit was that the platform created a shared language across the College. As Lesley explained, ​“Having HOW2 gives everyone a common conversation — they can say, ​‘Oh yeah, I used HOW2 for this,’ or ​‘Why don’t we look at it together.’” That shared language, she added, now underpins peer coaching and cross-department collaboration.

The platform also includes built-in tools that support this way of working — such as the Nudge feature which enables staff to send gentle prompts to colleagues, building on previous conversations or shared goals. This helps keep coaching relationships active and supports continuous professional development in a simple, low-pressure way.

Lesley also pointed out that, ​“Even though we had good and outstanding, there were little pockets where staff needed more support in being inclusive in the classroom or using more digital tools or improving questioning and answering.” Recognising these areas for development was a key part of the College’s decision to adopt HOW2, as they looked for ways to strengthen and support teaching practice consistently across all departments.

Loughborough’s reasons for adopting the platform included:

• Empowering staff to take ownership of their development

  
  

• Encouraging autonomy while offering practical support
  
  

• Enabling ongoing reflection to sustain quality
  
  

• Providing a consistent but flexible approach across departments
  
  

• Encouraging collaboration and shared practice

The HOW2 Platform was introduced as part of a wider CPD strategy. Quality Improvement Leads (QILs) and Quality Managers received dedicated HOW2 Champions training, with two attending the HOW2 annual face-to-face event to bring insights back to the wider team. These trained Champions played a critical role in supporting the rollout and embedding the platform across departments.

HOW2 is now a regular feature of Loughborough’s professional learning offer. It forms part of the Teaching Essentials induction programme, weekly CPD ​“tech sessions,” and department-based coaching.

Lesley said: ​“It’s embedded into every session. We’re constantly signposting people back to the HOW2 Platform.”

To support consistency, the College created four organisational HOW2 Sets aligned with its Four Foundations for Teaching and Learning:

1. Developing new knowledge, skills, and behaviours
   
   

2. Stretch, challenge, and supporting all learners
   
   

3. Inclusive learning for all
   
   

4. Regular checking of progress and understanding
   
   

The HOW2 Sets feature allows educators to curate and organise collections of instructional strategies aligned to specific institutional priorities. Staff can create and customise these Sets, making it easy to connect teaching approaches to the college’s broader strategic goals.

At Loughborough, the content of these Sets is regularly refreshed in response to themes emerging from lesson observations and staff feedback. When excellent teaching is observed, the strategies behind it are reviewed and, where appropriate, added to the relevant sets.

As Lesley explained, ​“We’re actually looking at what the teacher is doing successfully and building that into our HOW2 Sets for others to benefit.”

In its first full academic year of implementation, the platform is already delivering results. Staff who use HOW2 regularly are demonstrating stronger outcomes in formal observations.

“We’re finding that the people who are interacting more with HOW2 are actually exceeding some of the pillars within our teaching and learning framework,” said Lesley.

Teachers are also using the platform to personalise learning more effectively — adapting strategies to suit the needs of their learners. As a result, students are becoming more engaged and independent in their learning. ​“Students are really getting involved and being a lot more independent now in their learning. Sessions are being tailored to individual students — even in larger groups,” Lesley noted.

The HOW2 Platform has become a common point of reference across the College. ​“It’s really positive to see that impact — staff are really on board with it. It’s not just a tool that is there to log on occasionally. They really actively use it.”

Additionally, the platform’s Priority Reports feature assists the quality team in identifying teaching and learning priorities for individual educators, departments, or the entire organisation. These reports provide insights into perceived barriers to progress, enabling the team to plan targeted CPD sessions that address specific needs. By analysing engagement data, the College can ensure that professional development efforts are focused and effective, driving continuous improvement and enhancing educational outcomes.

For Loughborough, HOW2 is now part of the culture. It’s being used to strengthen provision, support innovation, and build confidence across the organisation.

“It gives staff the tools they need and helps us keep things consistent. It’s not just something we use occasionally — the more staff engage with it, the more they get from it,” Lesley said.

As the College continues to aim for Outstanding across all areas, the HOW2 Platform is helping ensure that professional growth remains active, reflective, and shared.