Continuing our focus on learning

In March, I wrote in FE News about our outlined strategy and priorities that we had refined in response to the current climate in the Further Education and Skills sector. Foremost of these priorities was ‘to drive forward outstanding teaching and learning’. High quality teaching and learning is an essential component for sustaining excellent provision and improving inspection grades and we need to ensure that we support providers at every stage of their journey with a learner.

LSIS offers a wide range of services in support of improving teaching and learning, but we realise there is a need to further develop the strategic context in which they sit. As a result we are working on our own LSIS learning and teaching strategy, which is being developed with sector colleagues from the LSIS Council. We aspire to develop and deliver the service needed to improve learning and teaching throughout the sector, whether in colleges, community settings, work based learning or specialist provision. The strategy will be founded on the core LSIS principle of sector-led development to accelerate sustainable improvement.

Our internal work will run alongside the Independent Commission on Vocational Adult Teaching and Learning, its chair, Frank McLoughlin, CBE, Principal of City and Islington College, will lead a panel discussion at our National Teaching and Learning Fair. This discussion will serve to inform the commission’s early work, and provide an opportunity for us all to think about how we take its learning forward in the future. Senior managers, alongside those who lead on changing and developing teaching and learning, will have the opportunity to reflect on their practices whilst considering contributions from Baroness Susan Greenfield, David Hughes of NIACE and Fintan Donohue, Principal and Chief Executive of North Hertfordshire College, amongst others.

For all of us the Teaching and Learning Fair continues the important consideration of learning. It reminds us, as a sector, to continue our focus on learning if we are to ensure that our learners make the great improvements they deserve.

Rob Wye is chief executive of the Learning and Skills Improvement Service, which aims to accelerate the drive for excellence in the learning and skills sector

Read other FE News articles by Rob Wye:

Skills Commission inquiry into specialisation

LSIS Annual Governance Conference round-up

Setting out our priorities