Middlebrough College Case Study
Middlesbrough College's
3 — Case studies; What do your customers say — how do they use it?
HOW2s improve learning through better teaching. We use HOW2s across our organisation, to train new staff and refresh established staff, from Oxford to Saudi
Sally Dicketts, CBE, CEO of Activate Learning group of colleges, and President of the English Association of Colleges
Evidence of Impact.
English Further Education (Community) Colleges are regularly inspected and graded by Ofsted (The UK Government’s Office for Standards in Education). A grade 4 is inadequate and a grade 3 unsatisfactory. We are extremely proud of the part we have played to support numerous colleges to achieve Good (2) and Outstanding (1).
Since 2011 we have supported over 100 colleges transitioning from a 4 or 3 to a 2 (like Middlesbrough College and Gateway College) or staying at a 2 (Like the Activate Learning group of Colleges) or a 1. Helping them achieve consistently high quality of learning across increasingly large organisations, we have an unparalleled track record of success. For example, over 88% of colleges using HOW2s have transitioned (or staying at) a grade 2 or 1 at their next inspection visit; compared to 65% of colleges not using HOW2s.
Middlesbrough was one of them. Download their case study below.
Resource
Before Middlesbrough subscribed to HOW2s, as a college, we were used to delivering training to all teaching staff on specific topics throughout the academic year. This meant one trainer, delivering set content to multiple teachers. Teachers (and trainers) found this method very time inefficient – having to go to a set place, at a set time, for a set period — and it clearly did not meet the needs of those staff who worked non-traditional hours. In addition, the training was never contextualised in order to meet the needs of each individual. As a result, during an inspection, we had evidence of attendance at training, but no evidence of the impact of training on future practice. HOW2s changed all that…
Gordon Duffy McGhie, Director of Teaching, Learning and Student Achievement at Middlesbrough College
Reducing Teacher Workloads and moving from 4 to 2.
Gateway College is another FE (Community) college in England to use HOW2s to help them transition from a Grade 4 College to a Grade 2.
Coaching
With educators dispersed across the UK, a need to improve the quality of provision but not enough coaches or coaching time to go around and a limited budget, SCL approached HOW2s.
We have increased our coaching from 44% in an academic year to 100% in just one term and will complete the process again for term 2, meaning that our staff will have a dramatic increase in opportunities to develop their teaching practice.
HOW2 allows the Quality Improvement team to provide bespoke coaching, especially with the use of the HOW2 cards that enable the teacher to identify the area for development and signpost them to strategies that help develop that specific area. The questions posed on the cards prompt rich and valuable discussions and reflections.
Beckey Vallely, Quality Manager, SCL Education
Resource
From 44% a year to 100% in a term
A sessional lecturer
I was 20 years of age, inexperienced, lacked confidence in my teaching ability and spent hours trying to plan my lessons.
It was a weekend, and I was planning my lessons for the following week, I logged into the How2 app and started to scroll through the techniques. To my surprise, I was amazed at the number of techniques and strategies available to me to use within my lessons. HOW2 was going to make planning my lessons and planning a variety of activities so much easier and quicker. WHY HAD I NOT LOOKED AT THIS SOONER?”
Damian Rollinson, Faculty Developer London, England
Paula Han is a teacher trainer at Milton Keynes (Community) College, England.
This is the beauty of HOW2; it provides a wealth of activities at your fingertips, it is so easy to use, you search the area and up pops a variety of things for you to try. HOW2 supports me to role model good practice when delivering my teacher training sessions and in my Quality role when delivering CPD, coaching and feedback for observations
Paula Han