City College Plymouth
28th April 2015
Performance and Standards Committee
CITY COLLEGE PLYMOUTH
PERFORMANCE AND STANDARDS COMMITTEE
Prior to the start of the Performance and Standards Committee Meeting, the Vice
Principal (Curriculum & Quality) delivered a governor development session on the
updated Common Inspection Framework (CIF) which is due to come in to force in
September 2015. The purpose of this session was to highlight some of the key
themes emerging from the new CIF and consider their impact on the college.
SF informed members that Personal Development and Welfare had been added to
the current 3 common judgements that contribute to the overall effectiveness grade.
SF outlined the expectations of Ofsted for colleges to achieve Outstanding in all four
common judgements and the role of governors in monitoring and scrutinising
colleges.
Headline messages identified from Ofsted feedback are:
 Study programmes are not being implemented quickly enough
 Degree to which the study programme is used and understood by learners
 Learners are not getting the help they need to succeed in employment
 The most disadvantaged young people have the worst experience of further
education
 Impact of staff development and CPD in improving and enhancing the
learners progress
 The range of work experience programmes and work related activities
 The level to which employers feel the college is preparing learners for
employment
SF summarised the key priorities for City College Plymouth as:
 English and maths
 Study Programmes
 Work Experience
 Quality of Teaching Learning and Assessment
 Success rates and Timely achievement
 Robust and supportive Enquiry to Enrolment process
 Sustained focus on above priorities within all CPD activities for both teaching
and support staff.
The Ofsted proposal is for future inspections to deliver frequent but shorter
inspections for ‘Grade 2 - Good’ providers, probably every three years and focusing
on whether the quality of the provision is being sustained. This, almost certainly, will
be influenced by success rates in the first instance.
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City College Plymouth
28th April 2015
Performance and Standards Committee
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE PERFORMANCE AND STANDARDS
COMMITTEE HELD ON TUESDAY 28th APRIL 2015 AT 4.45PM IN ROOM KI110
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Mr Phil Davies – Principal
Prof Paul Brunt - PB
Ms Louise Harrop – LH
Ms Judith Harwood - JH
Prof Pauline Odulinski – PO
Mr James Venning - JV
IN ATTENDANCE:
P&S 15/01
Mr Simon Friend –SF - Vice Principal – Curriculum and
Quality
Mrs Julia Tindall-Jones - Clerk
For Item 5 Only
Mr Ben Manning – BM – Director of Quality
Ms Teresa Gardner – TG – Director of BHAS
Ms Julie McLean – JM – Director of WBLSP
Mr Peter Mercy – PM – Director of TMR
Mr Ian Roberts – IR – Director of LSVE
Mr Mark Trewin – MT – Director of CCDI
Item 1 – Apologies
Apologies were received from Nick Holman. Paul Brunt agreed to take
the chair for the meeting.
P&S 15/02
Item 2 - Confidential Business
RESOLVED that no items required to be treated as In Commercial
Confidence or Part II.
NOTED that no declarations of interest were made at the meeting.
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Item 3 – Minutes of the Last Meeting and Matters Arising
RESOLVED that the minutes of the Meeting of the Performance and
Standards Committee held on the 2nd December 2014 be approved
and signed as a correct record.
The Clerk informed the meeting that there were no matters arising that
were not covered in the agenda.
P&S 15/04
Item 4 – Biennial Review of the Performance and Standards
Committee Terms of Reference and Standing Orders
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City College Plymouth
28th April 2015
Performance and Standards Committee
The Clerk introduced the biennial review of the committee’s terms of
reference (TORs) and standing orders and asked for members’ views
of the proposed amendments and the proposal that approval of the
Teaching, Learning and Assessment Strategy, the Maths and English
Strategy and the Quality Improvement Strategy be delegated to the
Committee by the Corporation.
Members discussed the role of the committee and agreed that the
specific responsibilities outlined in the TORs were appropriate and that
the proposed delegated powers to approve the key strategies
pertaining to performance and standards were a logical progression.
The Committee then AGREED to RECOMMEND the amended
terms of reference and standing orders to Corporation for
APPROVAL.
P&S 15/05
Item 5 - Curriculum Directors’ Progress Reports – Introduction by
VP (C&Q)
SF briefed the committee on the remit given to the Curriculum
Directors prior to them joining the meeting. At the last meeting, the
Directors had highlighted their areas for improvement as identified in
the College 2013/14 SAR and presented their action plans to address
these. The aim of this meeting was for the Directors to update the
Committee of progress to date and identify any concerns or issues of
strategic importance.
The acting chair then welcomed the Director of Quality and the five Curriculum
Directors to the meeting.
P&S 15/06
Curriculum Overview by Director of Quality
BM gave a brief overview of the progress made to date in the College
QIP to address the Areas for Improvement (AFIs). BM referred to the
9 curriculum inspections that had been carried out using a risk based
model and commented on the positive feedback received from staff
who had been directly involved in them. BM continued that in-year
action plans to address any issues raised had been created in
conjunction with the inspectors. PB asked whether the inspections
had thrown up any surprises and BM confirmed that their judgement
had been in line with the College’s self-assessment which was
reassuring. BM then informed members of the actions taken to
support teaching staff including the positive impact of teaching and
learning coaches.
P&S 15/07
Curriculum Directors’ Progress Reports – BHAS
TG gave an update on the progress made to date and identified the
following areas as requiring further work:
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City College Plymouth
28th April 2015
Performance and Standards Committee




Outcomes in A level, GCSE, Access, Childcare and Trade
Union
Functional Skills in Care
Overall success in Care
English and Maths
P&S 15/08
Curriculum Directors’ Progress Reports – WBLSP
JM gave an update on the progress made to date and identified the
following areas as requiring further work:
 Functional skills
 NEET provision
 Tracking
 Staff training
P&S 15/09
Curriculum Directors’ Progress Reports – TMR
PM gave an update on the progress made to date and identified the
following areas as requiring further work:
 Construction success rates
 Greater differentiation in theory lessons
 Attendance
 Functional skills
 Staffing
P&S 15/10
Curriculum Directors’ Progress Reports – LSVE
IR gave an update on the progress made to date and identified the
following areas as requiring further work:
 Functional skills
 Success in H&B
 Tutorial monitoring
 Maths and English
 Attendance
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Curriculum Directors’ Progress Reports – CCDI
MT gave an update on the progress made to date and identified the
following areas as requiring further work:
 16-18 Recruitment
 Recruitment of Academy Manager for Performing Arts
P&S 15/12
Curriculum Directors’ Progress Reports – ESOL, PACE, English
and Maths
BM gave an update on the progress made to date and identified the
following areas as requiring further work:
 Functional Skills
 ESOL
 Maths & English college-wide
 Tracking
The acting chair then thanked the Directors for their comprehensive updates and
they then left the meeting 6.50pm.
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City College Plymouth
28th April 2015
Performance and Standards Committee
P&S 15/13
Discussion
Members then discussed the usefulness of the briefs provided by the
curriculum directors and agreed that, in general, they had been overly
detailed and that it had been difficult to identify any common collegewide themes that were causing concern.
The Principal commented that the focus of the committee needed to
be narrowed down to ensure that the appropriate level of monitoring
and scrutiny was met. Members agreed and commented that it would
be useful for the narrative to be accompanied by a performance
context to allow any systematic problems to be identified. The
Principal agreed that it was important for the committee to identify and
measure the distance travelled but also to have a clear idea of the
predicted success rate at the outturn of the year.
PO commented that although overly detailed, she had found the
Directors’ briefs useful as a new governor but agreed that the
information brought to the committee should be more top line. PO
then commented that there seemed to be a lack of a consistent college
tracking process and that it appeared to be different in each area.
Further PO commented that there seemed to be little consistency in
the use of eILPs across the College and that the pace of change was
not fast enough. The Principal responded that greater use of MIS was
being encouraged and that some progress was being made towards a
standardised tracking process.
PB commented that the questions asked by the Committee in the
meeting would inform the learning process for both the Directors and
other College staff and that all future meetings should reflect this and
refine the information deemed appropriate for this committee.
SF responded that he would work more closely with his Directors to
ensure that the level of detail brought to the Committee was
commensurate with its strategic importance. The Principal then
referred to the presentation given by SF prior to the start of the
meeting and suggested that the key priorities identified at the end of
the presentation would be a useful baseline on which the committee
could base its approach. Members agreed that the Committee should
concentrate on the following key priorities:
 English and maths
 Study Programmes
 Work Experience
 Quality of Teaching Learning and Assessment
 Success rates and Timely achievement
 Robust and supportive Enquiry to Enrolment process
 Sustained focus on above priorities within all CPD activities for
both teaching and support staff
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City College Plymouth
28th April 2015
Performance and Standards Committee
P&S 15/14
Date of the Next Meeting
The date of the next meeting of the Performance and Standards
Committee will be Monday 29th June 2015 commencing at 4.30pm in
Room K021.
There being no other business the meeting closed at 7.05pm.
SIGNED ____________________
DATE_____________
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