How New City College raised standards and achieved an Outstanding rating with ETF Partnership  

Raising standards with evidence-led teaching and learning

ETF Partnership provides structured support to define, deliver, review and optimise a Partner Success Plan that connects CPD to your strategy. For NCC, this aligned with an organisational focus on strengthening teaching and learning through an evidence-based approach. Rather than relying on assumptions or isolated pockets of practice, leaders at NCC were looking for a consistent approach to improving teaching and learning.

Gerry describes ETF’s role in helping set the tone and direction. “What I find ETF does incredibly well is it challenges us to raise the standard of our profession. We’ve pivoted to an evidence-based in our approach to teaching.”

Creating a cadence of steady progress

NCC’s priority was making improvement stick. ETF’s deep knowledge of continuing professional development has helped NCC build momentum gradually, in ways that are practical for staff and meaningful for learners.

“ETF really understands how you affect change,” explains Janet Smith, Principal with responsibility for leading Teaching and Learning Quality. “CPD that revisits, that’s small, that’s developmental. It’s drip fed. It’s slowly progressing.” 

Janet describes the value of ETF’s approach to CPD that returns to key themes, builds steadily, and supports staff development as a journey, not a one-off event.

Retaining great teachers at every level

For NCC, the way CPD is designed matters not only for quality, but for keeping great people in the profession. Leaders wanted a model that works across roles and career stages, so that early-career teachers, experienced staff and managers would feel equally supported and connected to a shared approach.

“Our partnership with ETF really helps with retention of teachers. That’s just not one level. It’s all through the levels,” reflects Ruth Scott-Kendrick, Group Director, Teaching and Learning.

Building something special: the Teaching and Learning Lab

NCC decided to go a step further by establishing a dedicated Teaching and Learning Lab. This is a space that is research-informed, ambitious, and shaped by standards recognised across the sector. For Janet, partnering with a nationally-recognised professional body mattered because it helped NCC frame and anchor its approach.

“We wanted it to be something quite special: research informed and sector informing,” recalls Janet. “Partnering with a professional body that had national recognition was really important because then we framed our work in the line with that.”

ETF supported the Lab team in developing a number of small scale research projects, focused on developing an aspect of teaching practice.  Having ETF staff as supervisors for their research really helped staff make these impactful.   “One of the projects supervised by ETF increased the high grades by 48%,” Ruth shares. “It’s having really big impact, not just in student satisfaction but also in our outcomes.”

Supported experiments that strengthen practice and outcomes

Following the success of the small research projects, the Teaching and Learning Lab championed mini research based 'supported experiments' as a model to encourage all staff to try out and develop improvements in real classroom contexts.  The aim is practical: try something, gather evidence, reflect on what it changes for learners, and use that learning to inform wider practice.

NCC describes the impact as scaling beyond isolated activity, with more staff participating and a clearer shared method for improving teaching and learning through evidence.

“We had over a thousand staff participating in supported experiments. This actually changed lives. It changed outcomes for learners,” explains Ruth.

Celebrating NCC’s journey to “Outstanding”

For NCC, professional learning is not only about improvement. It is also about recognition, motivation, and helping staff feel seen. That matters because stronger teaching and learning is not abstract. It is directly connected to learner progression, achievement and outcomes. That mindset helped NCC receive an Outstanding rating from its latest Ofsted inspection.

“The key thing for us, for staff, is the absolute celebration,” recounts Janet. “We were inspected in March and graded Outstanding. Outstanding teaching means outstanding success for those young people and those adults who want to progress.”

A partner that shows up with a shared purpose

Teachers at NCC describe the practical value of connection: being able to engage with the team at ETF as real people who are dedicated to supporting their success.  

“They’re not those people that you just see on a screen, on a website,” explains lecturer Rebecca Le Prevost.  “They are people that you know will actually come and they’ll speak to you.”

“What I value in terms of ETF is that sense of shared purpose, improving teaching and learning,” summarised another lecturer, Abdul Anhar.