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Our Approach to the Promotion of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Quality Assurance Promotion
EDI is embedded into all quality assurance mechanisms designed to drive improvement of teaching, learning and assessment, such as observations and walkthroughs of teaching, learning and assessment, learner surveys, course reviews, departmental and College selfassessment reports (SARs), performance management and quality improvement plans (QIPs).
Teachers use the EDI Champion calendar to plan for the embedding and promotion of EDI into lesson plans and schemes of work.
Latest Ofsted Inspection
The College has an active approach to promoting and celebrating equality, diversity and inclusion. We pride ourselves on being a welcoming and inclusive College with a real commitment to continually raising awareness of equality and diversity matters and minimising discrimination and prejudice. There is a senior strategic lead in place with the objective of ensuring a proactive approach is taken to promoting and monitoring EDI in our College. In-year course attendance, retention, achievement, progress and success rates are monitored by protected characteristic. This approach was recognised by Ofsted in its latest inspection: “Managers and staff promote equality and diversity passionately and exceptionally well. Managers identify any particular groups of learners who do not achieve as well as others and put effective actions in place. Consequently, there are no significant differences in achievement between different groups of learners.” Comprehensive systems are in place to regularly monitor the views of learners (questionnaires, focus groups, learning walks, student representatives). The student questionnaires include specific questions on aspects of EDI.
‘Teachers make good use of a range of learning resources and materials that celebrate diversity and that reflect their multi-racial society. Learners are respectful of each other and work well together in class. The teaching of fundamental British Values and equalities is integrated successfully into programmes. Tutorials are highly effective in promoting diversity and developing learners’ understanding of tolerance, respect and resilience.’
Latest Ofsted Inspection
Curriculum
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion are embedded at the heart of our curriculum planning through a variety of activities such as:
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion awareness and promotion are embedded in session plans, schemes of work and tutorials
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion is scheduled as a standard agenda item in all meetings and good practice is recorded and shared at meetings and through self- assessment. The
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Champion Calendar informs lesson planning. • Observation of Teaching,
Learning and Assessment (OTLA) shows high achievement across
College against the standard:-
“Learners enjoy an environment that supports and promotes good wellbeing, where they feel cared for, respected and safe”. • Teaching and learning materials used in lessons and Learning
Resource Centres (LRCs) promote
EDI and cultural awareness, with LRC staff members acting as champions. Dedicated EDI teaching and learning Moodle resources have been created, aiming to widen the sharing of good practice and the ease of accessing materials. • Themed tutorials are planned against a calendar of diverse events and delivered by the
Learning and Development Mentor (LDM) team such as LGBT+ awareness, Black History Month, support for our partner charity FAST Romania,
Stereotyping, Self-worth and
Self-esteem, Anti-bullying and the College-wide Respect Week. • In March 2019 the College was re-accredited for ‘The Matrix Quality Award’ for its information, advice and guidance (IAG) services.
The award recognised that
‘Equality and diversity, confidentiality, impartiality and professional integrity are all robustly addressed in policy documentation and staff confirmed that these matters are frequently introduced into discussions at team meetings and in individual meetings with managers. An appropriate mandatory training and refresher programme underpins key aspects.”
The College recognises that there has been an increase in poor mental wellbeing amongst our student population due to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s) and the impact of the pandemic. The College has a strong and responsive pastoral team in place to assist staff and students who require additional support with their wellbeing. A Wellbeing Team offer ad hoc and regular appointments for students and staff and students are also supported by Mental Health First Aid Team; the Safeguarding Team and the Counselling Team. Students may also be supported by the Emotional Wellbeing Team in class where their mental health may affect their learning directly. The enrichment offer for students has been redesigned and modelled on the NHS 5 steps to Wellbeing. The Pastoral Team can socially prescribe to and agree activities with students which support their wellbeing. Students are encouraged to take up opportunities to practice mindfulness; connect with others; learn something new; do something for others and be active. A wide range of activities are available for students to choose from and students are consulted about the types of activities they would like to see available. Sports activities are available each lunchtime; Games Club; Colour and Chill Club; Music Club; Drama Club and Chill Out Club have been established to help students have down time and experience mindfulness. Students have new experiences outside of Bolton – trips to Chester Zoo; theatres, museums; and outdoor pursuits trips in the countryside at the Anderton Centre have all be facilitated.
Student support prevention of gun and knife crime
In partnership with Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) and through funding from the Association of Colleges (AoC), the college has produced an online resource to support the prevention of gun and knife crime. This was shared nationally at the AoC Conference.
Due to the success of this project, the Personalised Learning Manager has formed excellent working relationships with key staff at local and national companies (such as local colleges, Greater Manchester VRU, Greater Manchester Police and the AoC) and further project work has been established which in turn will further support and enrich the tutorial curriculum.
The College’s Wellbeing for Learning & Life Strategy and our whole college approach to becoming an Ace’s (Adverse Childhood Experiences) Aware organisation, drives the individualised wraparound support packages that students benefit from.
Active promotion of anti- discrimination and anti-bullying and harassment ensures that learners know where to report and how to access support if they have any issues or concerns. Consistent and fair behaviour management and the proportionate use of our trauma informed Behaviour for Success Policy, support and challenge learners to behave appropriately and take responsibility for their actions. These approaches create a culture in which all can be heard and valued whilst harassment and bullying of any kind are minimised.
The commitment and care for the welfare and success of Care Leavers is exceptional. Through the Student Services Manager, the College monitors the progress and outcomes for Care Leavers. The Student Services Manager regularly attends Bolton Council’s Corporate Parenting Board. This is a multiagency group designed to improve the prospects, raise aspirations and track the progress of Bolton Looked after Children/Care Leavers.
At the operational level, the College is involved in a regular EET (Education Employment and Training) Group within the Borough which looks for practical solutions to help hard to place Care Leavers. Each Care Leaver who enrols at College is allocated a Student Mentor to help them with their journey through college life and charts their progress through a termly PEP (Personal Education Plan). The College has invested in a highly skilled transition team that ensures learners with learning disabilities and/or difficulties, and looked after children have a smooth transition into College. This team provides a wide range of support for learners on all courses across the College provision.
The College has an excellent reputation working with these learners and providing innovative and inclusive support packages according to learner need. This is demonstrated by the continued growth in the number of high needs learners choosing to come to Bolton College. In 2020-2021 the Education Funding Agency (EFA) provided funding for 157 high needs learners, in line with the numbers from the previous year. High needs learners achieve and progress as well as or better than their peers and above national average for their category. The College provided high needs support for 160learners in total during 2020-2021. The number of high needs learners expected in 2021-2022 has been increased to 180 to meet local need in Bolton and the surrounding authorities.
Altogether, during 2020-2021, the college provided learning support in various forms to about 1300 learners from every funding source. This matched the average number for previous years. This wrap around support ensured that learners were able to achieve their potential during a very difficult year. Learners accessing support achieve as well or slightly better than their peers.
The College has volunteer chaplains from the Christian and Muslim communities who visit Deane Campus regularly to offer Friday prayers and fortnightly Christian fellowship in the Quiet Room, as well as providing a listening ear for learners who feel they need to talk about faith or non-faith matters..
Latest Ofsted Inspection
This learner enrolled in College after having bad experiences in School and lacked confidence in herself and her abilities. She presented as being a vulnerable learner due to her social skills and she suffered from high anxiety. Her lack of understanding has led her to behave inappropriately towards some of her peers and her use of technology. Due to mistakes in her understanding she has in the past alienated others and she felt that she didn’t have any friends in school. She has difficulty in sustaining friendships. Her emotions can escalate quickly and she can act without thinking.
The learner has a Special Educational Need arising from a Specific language Impairment. Her word knowledge and ability to reason using her understandings of social and practical situations are an area of weakness. She finds it difficult to be able to pick out relevant information from text and can miss important text or misinterpret information. She has significant difficulties with her auditory working memory.
She was assessed for Exam Access Arrangements and it was recommended that she has 1:1 dyslexia support with a specialist tutor, 25% extra time, a reader for her exams and in class support from an Educational Support Worker. Her dyslexia support included using the Alpha to Omega programme which offers practical help in teaching reading, writing and spelling to adults and children with learning difficulties, including dyslexia. The support helped to accelerate her learning. The learner made significant progress due to her dyslexia and in class support and she gained confidence in herself and her learning. The support she received assisted her to progress from level 1 hairdressing to achieving a level 3 diploma in hair dressing alongside gaining GCSE English and GCSE Maths. She is now gainfully employed.
When the English and maths provision went online before the full lockdown, the key support tutors embarked on a timetable of staffed classrooms so that learners who would have been unable to study online for any reason were able to come into college and access their zoom lesson with support from a tutor. The learners then had the option of staying another hour each week to further enhance their studies. Also, despite the lock down and the difficulty of finding times to assess learners face to face for access arrangements, this process was still completed in a timely manner using any periods of face to face time that was available. SENCO exam file notes were still written for learners with EHCPs and those with access arrangements for exams which enabled us to ensure that when the teacher marked assessments in English and maths were presented, the team was able to provide the individual packages of support usually available in exams to all the learners. This involved 25% of the college candidates.
These two measures meant that young people accessing support achieved in line with their peers. Maths supported achievement rate was 81.2% compared with the college rate of 79.6% and for English the rate for supported learners was 84.8% and the college rate was 80.9%.
Latest Ofsted Inspection
Kelly M.
Kelly has special educational needs arising from Autistic Spectrum Condition, social and emotional difficulties and mental health needs. Kelly started college on level 1 Performing Arts. She had a grade 5 in English Language but a grade 3 in maths. She is very maths phobic. She was given a mental health mentor as soon as she started college to help her navigate her emotions and settle in to the new environment.
It was clear that she would not be able to study her maths in a classroom setting and so she was taught maths by a teacher who was experienced in working with people presenting with these disabilities. She needed a lot of reassurance and it was Christmas of her first year before she was comfortable enough with her teacher to be able to begin the maths syllabus. With the onset of covid 19, the shutdown of college and the effect this had on Kelly’s mental health, it took two academic years and a lot of hard work on her and the teacher’s part to learn how to have lessons online for Kelly to achieve her grade 4 in maths but she did it in her second year at college. She also achieved her level 2 Performing Arts qualification but that too was not without a lot of trauma and a lot of support on a daily basis. She had an up to date mental health assessment at the end of year two which gave her the medical and personal tools to progress. She is now on level 3 Performing Arts, holding down a part time job and living independently. These are all huge steps forward for Kelly. She is also getting to grip with her emotional difficulties which is allowing her to manage her mental health and supporting her to achieve her level 3 this academic year.
Susan B.
strategy. She was immediately referred to the Mental Health Mentors and the college Counsellor who have supported Susan throughout her college journey. Susan progressed and achieved her Level 3 qualification in Health & Social Care and GCSE English providing her with the necessary qualifications needed to secure employment in a local care home. Susan has developed healthy personal relationships and has returned to college to complete her GCSE maths.
Susan started her college journey at 16 studying Health & Social Care, GCSE maths & English. Susan came to college and exhibited emotional, social and mental health difficulties which she did not declare at enrolment. Susan found it extremely difficult to control her triggers in classroom settings and would often ‘play up.’ Within the first two weeks of term, Susan began to be supported by the support tutor in her maths & English classes and by the Educational Support Workers. Susan was given an open-door policy to contact a designated support tutor when things became difficult. She was also a regular attendee in our Hub for additional support with her maths. Both teams worked well with Susan to build her confidence but unfortunately she began to self- harm as a coping
Josue Losasa Business Extended Diploma Level 3 Schooled abroad
‘I started on an ESOL course then progressed to business and I’ve received Distinctions in all of my assignments. My tutor Ravinder has been so supportive; after seeing that I always give 100% and help and encourage other students, she nominated me for the Karin Eckersley Prize, which I won. I’ve also been named ‘Student of the Month’ four times!
After this I’m progressing to the University of Salford.’
Community Champions Accelerator Programme
Over the period of Covid, Bolton Council has worked hard to engage and develop Community Champions. These volunteer residents successfully leveraged their influence and credibility to amplify helpful messages about measures to combat Covid 19 in diverse communities which were identified as being vulnerable to misinformation. In particular positive messages about vaccine update were disseminated in a non-threatening way via these means.
Bolton College has been at the centre of this piece of work, with Community Champions drawn in many cases from learner ranks and all Community Champions supported to develop skills via our Community Champions Accelerator Programme. The success of this project has been such that Bolton Council have now approached the College to enlist our support on similarly structured public health campaigns targeting messages around alcohol, addiction and mental health and wellbeing.
‘Bolton Community College has been extremely supportive and accommodating to our care leaver students. I have particularly noticed the progress of our students who are studying ESOL and how well they seem to have settled. Staff are communicative when issues arise and helpful in reaching a resolution. Moreover, I am especially grateful for the support given by the Mental Health and Wellbeing Mentors ‘ and their patience during the roll out of our new online education portal.
Debbie Selby, Bolton Council
Mental Health support for learners in the Community
During the academic year 2020/2021 additional support for residents with mental health difficulties was introduced into Bolton College’s community hubs.
The community mental health and wellbeing mentor provided a drop in service at Deane and Derby, Brownlow Fold and New Bury Community Learning Centres to support residents with mental health difficulties to return to education, and to remain and continue in education successfully.
Of thirty residents who the mentor supported, twenty seven continued in education during the academic year 2021-2022, while an additional three started work in the following academic year.
Greater Manchester Higher
The college is part of the Greater Manchester Higher collaborative network. This national Government initiative was introduced to raise the aspirations of young people and increase progression to Higher Education, in particular disadvantaged learners.
During the academic year all curriculum areas engaged in Higher Education workshops which helped to break down barriers and support learners to make informed decisions regarding their academic futures.
The programme identified curriculum areas with the highest number of disadvantaged learners. The target curriculum areas were engineering, early years and public services. These departments engaged in subject specific activities with industry specialists to enrich their learning and confidence.
Public services engaged in a digital court case. A criminal lawyer gave the learners real life court cases to critically analyse. The learners were split into defendant and accused teams. This activity inspired their choice of degree or areas of specialism such as criminal law & criminology.
Early years visited Manchester Metropolitan University for a taster day to explore relative degrees. Engineering participated in 1-1 mentoring with industry experts and the exciting opportunity to visit London during an engineering residential trip.
The programme offers disadvantaged learners access to new opportunities and choices to aid their future success and progression. The college has observed an increase in Higher Education progression. In the academic year 2020-21, 123 Youth Provision learners progressed to Higher Education institutions.
Community Engagement
Bolton College works collaboratively with local partners large and small to widen participation and engagement in education.
Our community hubs in Farnworth, Halliwell and Deane aid residents to transition back into education, gradually building their confidence, increasing their employability and preparing them for the workplace.
Our established network of partners refer residents to Bolton College as the provider of choice for Bolton borough.
Our community job coach has been highly successful in supporting learners to successfully gain employment.
The job coach works closely with learners to update their Curriculum Vitae, conduct mock interviews, enhance employability skills and complete job applications in addition to delivering interview skills courses. 23 community learners who were supported in this way gained paid or voluntary work (Jan 2021)during 20/21, and learner feedback is excellent.
‘With each week that passed of the course, I was growing in confidence and felt for the first time I was going to get the job!’ (Student A, 2020).
95% of learners are satisfied with teaching, learning and assessment practices at the community learning centre hubs (2021).
‘Partnership work between Ingeus and Bolton College has led to an authentic team approach to supporting young and adult residents with a variety of considerable barriers to enter the employment ’better prepared.
Loraine Campbell, Ingeus
Digital Inclusion
Following an accelerating pace of change and digital disruption caused by the pandemic, Bolton College responded in a number of ways to ensure that our learners and staff were ready for change whilst also targeting the digital divide and ensuring that those who were scared of the digital developments taking place could keep up and access key information/services.
Bolton College are part of local and national digital collaborative groups, including the Bolton Borough Digital Strategy Group which brings together chief executives of companies such as the NHS and Bolton Council to discuss digital inclusion within Bolton; GMCA which brings together digital representatives from the exam board Pearson and Digital Manchester, along with other colleges in the GM area to focus on developing the digital curriculum. This collaborative work has helped to build a network of people who have a passion for digital and a growth mind-set in regards to overcoming the digital divide. We also work closely with employers to ensure that the most up to date information in regards to digital development informs our curriculum. Our digital community courses were a starting point for many. We offered a variety in terms of levels from absolute beginners to Level 1. Essential Digital Skills qualifications were also offered at Entry 3 and Level 1. All courses were free and we had x enrolments to courses throughout the academic year.
During a turbulent year where lockdowns were unexpected and both staff and learners had to quickly move to online learning, staff and learners were continually offered digital support. Our LRCs and ILT team offered 1:1 and group help for both staff and learners. As a result teachers felt confident in supporting their learners to access online remote sessions as well as resources on platforms such as Moodle and Microsoft Teams. Teams of staff across college started to integrate new technology, which they had learnt to use in the first lockdown in March 2020, with their groups of learners to help prepare all for the digital developments taking place globally and this also prepared learners for transitioning to online learning when lockdown happened again. Initially attendance overall declined in January by 5.4% and this may have been due to the unpredicted lockdown which was announced early January which shocked many and some learners did initially struggle to adapt again to online learning. However, by March attendance had increased by 5.2% showing the growing confidence in accessing digital platforms and remote sessions.
During lockdown Bolton College delivered ESOL classes via blended to over 1000 residents. 180 of the most hard to reach and digitally marginalised learners developed their English exclusively online via the ESOL for Integration Fund. Over 80 of these learners progressed into mainstream College ESOL classes to study towards accredited qualifications for the academic year 2021-2022, demonstrating the effectiveness of a pro-active digital inclusion ethos.
To ensure that staff could deliver online sessions and continually create, publish and share online resources and learners could access these, digital equipment such as laptops, 3G/4G dongles were provided to those who didn’t have this equipment at home. Those learners who received financial support were provided too with the opportunity to loan a laptop/3G/4G dongle. Approx 500 learners and 200 staff were provided with equipment.
Working with larger companies on the digital inclusion agenda, Boo Hoo donated 4 iMacs which helped us to update our Mac suite and enabled larger groups of learners to have access to specialist software for their photography/Art course.
Building Confidence for Life and Work
We are determined and passionate to ensuring we provide education for the most vulnerable and at risk learners. Through partnership with the local authority we identified a specific profile of learners who suffer from severe Mental Health, many of whom have been sectioned or may have made attempts on their lives. Due to these challenges, educational institutions are reluctant to offer them a place or have the ability to offer them a place through not being able to support their needs. These learners are highly at risk of becoming NEET and their Mental Health suffering even more due to this.
As a college we wanted to provide for the needs of these learners and ensure they were improving their lives through education and set about creating a bespoke curriculum to support them. We created ‘Building Confidence through Life and Work’, the intent of this course is to provide a learning environment that supports learners with their mental health, build resilience, build confidence and develop their employability skills so that they can engage with education and make positive progression to make their lives successful for them. As we worked with the local authority in identifying learners for this course we discovered a pattern that was developing. Nearly half of the learners referred to the course were in the process of transitioning their gender or were transgender. This showed us that 16-18s who were transgender were more at risk of suffering severe mental health. In response to this we reviewed or schemes of work and planned in gender identity as part of our building resilience unit to ensure we are responding to the needs of our venerable learners and building a bespoke curriculum around their needs to ensure they stay in education and are developing themselves as not only learners, but people.
Feedback from guardians, carers and the local authority has been wonderful, we are seeing a truly positive impact on learners’ lives, learners who have not been in education for years or historically would start a course in September but have to withdraw within weeks due to mental health are staying in education and making positive progression with us. They are more confident in themselves, understand their identity more and are making great progress towards their Maths and English. We are incredibly proud of this provision and the service it provides to learners who are extremely at risk. Our approach for developing curriculum that meets the needs the individual needs of our learners and our community is ingrained into everything that we do. We will always strive to ensure our curriculum meets the needs of all. We are wholehearted participants in the Bolton Preparing for Adulthood group which is dedicated to supporting young people with SEND successfully enter the world of work.
Partnership work with Bolton PfA has had a deep impact on curriculum planning where innovative courses now offer greater authenticity in developing the employability skills of young people and adults with SEND.
