Barnsley College and Protocol National have created a DVD to help other colleges develop outstanding teaching and learning.
The commissioning of the DVD and training package by the College’s Quality team and Protocol National's Observe and Improve Service was a natural progression for the already established working partnership, which had just seen Barnsley College achieve the highest possible grade by Ofsted, giving them the best ever overall judgment of any college in the UK.
The College’s Media team were responsible for the audio-visual production and the task was set to capture examples of good and outstanding teaching and learning from across all curriculum areas within College.
Sam Wilson Curriculum Manager for Creative Media plus the projects Producer and Director said: “This is one of the hardest tasks we have completed to date. The challenge was to transform the numerous opportunities of good and outstanding teaching and learning which take place within the College on to a TV screen.” Sam also praised the professionalism of all the College staff who took part in the production, “The teachers and learners we worked with are just that, teachers and learners not actors, and to cope with the added pressure of a film crew in their classrooms is testament to them. Without them we wouldn’t be able to produce the DVD, which would have been a great shame, as they have an abundance of good practice to share.”
Deborah McVey, Head of Observe and Improve at Protocol National said: “Knowing the College’s media production team and the quality of resources available to them gave us the confidence that we would be able to create a product that can make a real difference.”
The end product itself is a multi-use teaching and learning resource consisting of a DVD pack supported by lesson observation reports, lesson plans, schemes of work and other high quality learning materials aimed at sharing and identifying good practice. Deborah added “The materials have gone through the most stringent of quality assurance checks involving verification by experts in the relevant specialist areas meaning that we can say, with confidence, that what is included is good and outstanding”.
Comments from the Verification team include “This is far better quality
than anything else on the market”. Peter Harrison, Associate Learning and
Skills Inspector said: “My overall impression of the DVD is very positive.
I particularly like the attachment of the associated documentation bringing
the DVD as close to an actual observation as possible.”
Rory Cunningham, Quality Improvement Manager from Doncaster College, which was one of the first colleges to purchase the product, said: “I believe it’s an essential resource for improving the quality of teaching and learning. Lecturers always ask me what does outstanding teaching look like? Well this resource goes a long way to answering that question.”
With the product already attracting interest and sales from across the country Deborah Mcvey said “I think the key to the packages success was that it captured real learning in its natural environment. It is truly a massive tool in developing reflective teaching and is a product suitable for all training and education organisations.”