• Introduction
• Current Jobs & Careers
• About Wakefield College
  • Message from the Principal
  • Wakefield College Information
  • Facts & Figures
  • College Organisation & Structure
  • Wakefield District Information
  • What Our Staff Have to Say
  • Staff Survey 2006/07
• How to Apply
  • Application Form
  • Guidance for Applicants
  • Information for Disabled Applicants
  • Outline Terms and Conditions
  • Information for Agencies/Employment Businesses
  • Information for Recruitment Advertising Agencies/Businesses
• The Benefits
  • Pension Scheme
  • Holiday Entitlement
  • Flexible Working
  • Discounted Metro Card Scheme
  • Childcare Voucher Scheme
  • Professional Development
  • Well Being
  • Summary of Benefits

Directorate of Quality and Performance

The Directorate of Quality and Performance was formed in 2009 bringing together a range of departments into a configuration which is unusual in the sector. This configuration recognises the important of quality improvement in the College’s agenda and ensures that key functions to achieve quality improvement work together with synergy.

The Directorate leads on strategic development of quality improvement through self-assessment, including the quality improvement framework used by staff, development of the College Self-Assessment Report and lesson observation systems. We are also currently leading on the implementation of the College’s “Getting to Great” initiative and a seamless migration of the curriculum to the QCF.

The Directorate is made up of the following departments:

Quality and Professional Development
This Unit plans and manages the continuing professional development of all staff through the provision of outstanding in-house CPD programmes (4 per year which run throughout the academic year) and two CPD Days per year, management development programmes for senior, middle and first-line managers and those who aspire to be managers. The abundance of training and development makes a significant contribution to the high quality of teaching and learning observed in the College. The Unit also manages a substantial budget to enable staff to undertake development activities, often outside of the organisation. Also within QPD is the management of the College’s substantial team of Advanced Practitioners and Subject Learning Coaches, who support teaching staff to develop their expertise.

Stakeholder feedback is important to the College and this Unit also manages the primary mechanism for hearing the learner voice – student surveys. However, other stakeholders’ feedback is also significant so this team conduct over 12,000 surveys per year to ensure that learners, parents/carers, employers and our own staff all have an opportunity to share their views with us.

This team also liaises with and monitors feedback from the host of External verifiers with which the College works.

College Information Systems (CIS)
The CIS team has an increasingly significant role to play in ensuring that the returns the College makes to funding bodies are complete and correct and comply with an abundance of rules. However, the team also access monitoring data to ensure that potential problems are spotted before they become problems and that curriculum planning ensures maximum opportunities for learner success.

The team have recently successfully introduced a new facility which ensures that performance data is delivered directly to each member of teaching staff’s desktop as well as implemented a new student tracking system to support improvements in retention and achievement.

IT Support
This team leads on the strategic development of the College communications network and computer services infrastructure. They ensure that learners can harness the very best of the latest technology in a reliable, stable and safe environment to enhance learning.  The technicians service some 1340 student computers in the College, all of which are connected to the Internet and student e-mail.  Then there are a further 600 staff PCs, again, all connected to the internet. Staff can also access all of their files and drives and email from home should they choose to and learners can access the VLE from anywhere. Almost all classrooms are e-classrooms, equipped with interactive whiteboards and IT Support also oversee the loan of additional kit including digital cameras, laptops and PDAs. Photocopying and printing are also looked after by IT Support.

ILT Development Unit
The integration of Information Learning Technologies (ILT) can enhance the learner’s experience and improve the potential for success and invests significantly in ILT.

The Senior Team support a cross College Vision for ILT setting out a development roadmap for the coming years.  The ILT Development Unit undertakes research and development activities to ensure that the College remains at the leading edge of practice in learning technology and leads on progressing the realisation of that vision.

The team looks after the College’s online presence including the Virtual Learning Environment, Blackboard, staff and student intranets among other things. The staff intranet is very sophisticated and a key resource for all. They also ensure that the College’s VLE and other technologies are used effectively by staff and provide a wide range of training opportunities and advice.  Addressing the College as a whole, the team have been very active in developing on-line business support systems to improve efficiency and develop the College’s level of e-maturity.  For example, the staff intranet provides a web-based appraisal system, open access to data, a whole raft of e-forms, shop-fronts for Service Areas on the staff intranet, offering a one-stop-shop for users.  The team is often active in projects both inside and outside of the College, such as the development of the global resource, Wakeypedia, which is dedicated to the sharing of good practice in teaching and learning across the globe!

In 2009, the College was shortlisted for a Beacon Award in recognition of its outstanding approach to integration of Information Technology.

Equality and Diversity
The Directorate also provides the strategic lead on effective embedding of the best-practice principles of equality and diversity in all of our activity. This involves directing the work of the College’s Advanced Practitioner for Equality and Diversity, who works primarily with teaching staff, to ensure that opportunities for the promotion of equality and diversity are never missed.

Recent activities have included the development of a Single Equality Scheme for the College and the organisation of a successful Black and Minority Ethnic consultation event.

In 2009, the College was shortlisted for a Beacon Award for its outstanding approach to embedding of Equality and Diversity.

The Directorate is led as follows:
Sue Slassor - Director of Quality and Performance
Steve Bell - ILT Development Manager
Denise Gledhill - College Information Systems Manager
Mike Penty - IT Network Manager
Helen Rivron - Advanced Practitioner for Equality and Diversity

Janet Walker - Quality and Professional Development Manager