LevellerLive

Last year Farleigh Further Education College on North Parade in Frome was rated “Inadequate” by Ofsted inspectors. As a result Ofsted inspectors have been carrying out monitoring visits. The latest Ofsted visit actually took place in and has just been published.

Farleigh Further Education College is an independent specialist college owned by Aspris Children’s Services. It offers provision for 24 young people with all on the autism spectrum. All students are in receipt of funding for high needs.

The latest review concluded that reasonable progress was being made in all the areas examined. These are leadership, curriculum, safeguarding and governance.

The review is important as these are, as noted above, children who are vulnerable with complex needs. The review marked plenty of evidence of good progress under each of the headings. However there remain some areas of concern. The main areas where more work is needed are:

• Managers set staff targets which are too focused on process, not improving the quality of education. Too often targets are generic, lack detail which makes achievement more subjective.
• Leaders are still struggling to ensure that all students, who require specialist therapy to access fully the curriculum, receive their entitlement. Vacancies for therapy staff remain.
• Inspectors found that he majority of classrooms are too hot, which makes a few students feel unwell. Classrooms were too busy for students who struggle with cognitive overload. Inspectors gave the example of walls are full of colourful posters.

The report however, gave an overall impression of progress being made away from the “Inadequate” grading.