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Management and Quality Assurance

MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY ASSURANCE (QA) SYSTEMS AND PROCEDURES

INTRODUCTION

The Management and QA Systems and Procedures of these awards are determined by the requirements of Bath Spa University, the School of Education, and external organisations such as the Learning and Skills Information Service (LSIS), the Institute for Learning (IfL) and the Office for Standards in Education (OfSTED).

The awards provide pathways to qualification for teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector, and our Management and QA is focussed on delivering those requirements effectively and fully.

Our approach involves thinking about:

• How can we measure if our trainees are improving?
• How can we measure how well we are delivering our awards?
• What are we going to do to improve, and when are we going to do it?

To do that we need to:

• Base what we do on a current appraisal of excellence in teaching and learning.
• Involve all staff and trainees in the process of management and QA.
• Produce valid and reliable data identifying strengths and areas for development from the field.
• Produce, prioritise and follow up on clear action points.
• Deliver improvements on an ongoing basis.

Ensure what we do contributes to internal university, and external quality requirements (e.g. OfSTED; QAA review).

APPROACH

Moving towards a consistency in delivering and supporting the training experience of our trainees is our key challenge within the current reform agenda for Teacher Education and Development.

In order to ensure consistency across all centres, the management and QA system has been tailored to include:

• a comprehensive set of guidance, procedures, documents and QA tools which are in place across the partnership
• an online portal for sharing and developing these systems and tool
• regular opportunities for trainees and the course team to contribute feedback which enables policies and procedures to be reviewed and improved
  

COURSE MANAGEMENT

The university has agreed with all partner colleges on key aspects of common Course Management to ensure consistency across all centres.

The Components of the LL ITT Course Management System are:

1    Course handbooks and Guides to Practical Teaching and Professional Development
These are the key definitive documents for the awards, and are central to all course management.

Course Handbook Year 2 - ms word - pdf
Guide to Practical Teaching and Professional Development Year 2 - ms word -  pdf

2    Roles and responsibilities
This document is a concise statement the differing roles and responsibilities across the teaching teams.

Course team roles

3    New staff approval
This document explains the approval requirements for new staff, including minimum requirements for tutors, mentors and observers working on LL ITT, and an induction process for all categories of staff.

Approval process

4    Course Managers’ Meetings
Play an essential role in course management and QA as explained below.

5    Visits by university staff
Play an essential role in course management, teaching development and QA, as explained below.

QUALITY ASSURANCE

COMPONENTS OF THE QA SYSTEM

1    QA ACTIVITY AND RESULTS
A comprehensive range of activity takes place to support day to day management and QA, assist development, collect data and deliver improvement. Each activity provides data, reports or other evidence, and these are drawn into the ongoing analysis of results, establishment of strengths and areas for development, and action points for improvement by the LL ITT team. The activities are:

1.1    Bath Spa University Annual Reporting
Each programme in the university produces a subject level annual monitoring report each year which is considered at School Boards in November/December of that year. After consideration at School Board, one whole School level report is compiled by each School for submission to the Academic Quality and Standards Committee (AQSC) in December each year. The report contains data on a variety of quality indicators including:

• External examiners’ reports
• BSU team moderation reports
• BSU team vist reports
• Results of, and the actions taken in response to self-assessment activity from each partner college.
• Any further data collected for our annual OfSTED Self Evaluation Document
  

Results
The report contains sections on key activity each year, key successes, a SWOT analysis, an update on the action plan for the year, and a preliminary action plan for the current year.

1.2    Wessex partnership reviews
These reviews were part of partnership quality assurance of all partnership programme until 2010. Bienially, each partner college produced a review document based on a series of key questions and these were answered in a college document which was discussed at an arranged meeting on partner college premises. A representative of the college senior management, the course manager, one other member of staff and two students on the programme attended these meetings to contribute to the discussion. Members of the LLITT team, senior staff from the Wessex Partnership and an adminstrator were the university part of the review. 

Results
The resulting reports and action points were agreed by all partners and endorsed by the university's Academic Quality and Standards Committee (AQSC).

1.3    Visits to partner centres by BSU the ITT (LL) Team
Members of the BSU Initial Teacher Training (LL) team, including Field Affiliates and the Award Leader, visit each partner college, and write a report on that visit at least four times each year to:

• Monitor and review all aspects of quality by:

• Support new and existing staff in all aspects of delivering the awards.
• Support all staff with curriculum development and implementation.
• Teach on course activities and sessions as negotiated.
  

Results
A report on each visit is written by the person visiting. This is then sent to the college course team for their comment and to add to their files.

1.4    Course Managers’ Meetings
Course Managers’ Meetings (all course team members are welcome to attend) take place at least five times per year, and include a mix of fixed and tabled items on the agenda, including:

• Review of previous action points
• Course / Module Reviews
• Information share / update
• Staff development
• Future planning and curriculum development
• QTLS update
• OfSTED update
  

They provide:

• an informal forum for discussion
• a means of reviewing activities, plans and developments and agreeing actions for improvement
• staff development opportunities
• a support network for all teaching staff
• opportunities for cross-centre interaction. moderation and team building
  

Results
Meetings are minuted and these are circulated to all course team members with associated documents. Action points are reviewed and followed up at subsequent meetings.

1.5    Collection of Feedback

1.5.1    Trainee feedback
Trainees give feedback on their experience in a number of ways:

• Participation in feedback meetings when a member of the BSU team visits, which take place in each centre at least once a year, and are a forum for discussion on aspects of the awards for students, staff and the award leader.
• Student evaluations of course modules.
• Other discussions with visiting members of university staff
  

1.5.2     Staff feedback
Staff feedback is gathered in a number of ways including:

• Participation in Course Managers’ Meetings.
• Participation in feedback sessions when visits to the centres by BSU staff take place. 
• Other discussions with visiting members of university staff
• Second marking / moderation sessions
• Examination Boards
• Staff Development Sessions
  

Results
Summaries of student and staff feedback contribute to the following documents:

• Course Managers’ Meeting minutes
• Summary reports of module evaluations.
• Summary course and year evaluations.
• Teaching development visit reports.
• Second marking / moderation reports
• BSU Annual Reporting
• OfSTED Self Evaluation Document
• OfSTED Action Plan for Improvement
  

1.6    Assessment and Moderation
A very comprehensive system of assessment and moderation of trainee work is in place to satisfy all internal and external requirements. Each centre has a clear schedule of assessment deadlines, and these feed in to the university requirements for an annual Examination Board and Resubmission board. Moderation and second marking of trainee work is exceptionally thorough and rigorous, ensures consistency across centres, recognises and shares success, and highlights and plans action on causes for concern. Moderation and second marking reports contribute to an award leader summary report to all centres after each examination board, and action points are shared at Course Managers' Meetings, taken up by the course team, and monitored during visits.

Results

• Moderation Reports to each partner college about student work sampled.
• Summary reports circulated across the partnership each year.
  

1.7    External Examiners
There is one external examiner for the LL awards, who is an experienced practitioner on similar programme at another university. They attend our annual Examination Board, spending the day before the board sampling trainee work. There is also an opportunity during the day of the Examination Board for the course team to meet with the external examiner. In 2010/11 annual external examiner activity included a visit to one college, (Wiltshire), to observe teaching on the awards, sample trainee work and meet with staff and trainees. All centres are visited in this manner on a rotating basis.

Results

• Two annual external examiners reports
• University responses to the external examiner reports and associated action plans
  

2    QA REPORTING

The QA activity described in section 1 is only fully effective when the reporting of that activity provides clear information to answer the questions from the start of this document.

• How can we measure if our trainees are improving?
• How can we measure how well we are delivering our awards?
• What are we going to do to improve, and when are we going to do it?
  

There are key documents which summarise, cross reference and synthesise QA activity and report into overarching strengths, areas for development and action points for improvement.

These are:

2.1    BSU Annual Reporting action points
A summary of all action points from Annual Reviews and progress on achieving those action points is maintained by the School for Development and Participation. 

2.2    OfSTED Self Evaluation Document
These awards are inspected by OfSTED as part of their inspection of Initial Teacher Training. In addition to the reports indicated above, a Self Evaluation Document (SED) is produced by 31st December and submitted to OfSTED each year.

The framework for inspection has a series of key areas which are:

• Trainees’ Attainments
• Recruitment and Selection
• Training and Assessment
• The Effective and Efficient use of Resources
• The Quality of Provision Across the Partnership
• Promoting Equality and Diversity
• Overall Effectiveness
• Capacity to Improve Further and/or sustain high quality outcomes
  

Data gathered from the other QA systems and approaches in this section all contribute to this document, and each framework area is reported on in terms of strengths and areas for improvement, including actions for improvement for the following year.

2.3    OfSTED Action Plan for Improvement
To record Quality Assurance priorities, and progress towards achieving priorities, an ‘OfSTED Action Plan for Improvement’ has been developed by the team. This document is structured around the OfSTED Inspection Framework, and is a ‘quick reference point’ for summarising developments and activities across the work of this programme. It includes most of the action points which feature in the BSU Annual Report, and summarises:

• Key actions for improvement
• Actions taken across the year
• Progress on actions checked and signed off twice each year
  

As new data comes in, priorities are reviewed and updated, and this document provides a useful tool for tracking improvement over a period of time.

OVERVIEW OF MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY ASSURANCE

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