Correspondence

EFA e-bulletin for schools, colleges, local authorities and other 16 to 19 providers: 23 July 2015

Published 23 July 2015

This correspondence was withdrawn on 13 December 2019

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. The EFA e-bulletin has been replaced by ESFA Update.

1. Information: 14 to 16 in further education - college performance information in key stage 4 performance tables

Since September 2013 colleges have been able to enrol, and be directly funded for 14 to 16 year old students. The first cohort completed key stage 4 (KS4) this summer, and the headline KS4 measures for these students will be published in the 2015 KS4 performance tables in January 2016.

The published measures will encompass the high level headline data for all pupils, including the percentage of students achieving 5+ A* to C grades including English and maths, and EBacc entry and achievement information.

This will apply to colleges which started recruitment in September 2013. Colleges which started recruitment in September 2014 will have their performance reported in January 2017.

We will be writing to participating colleges to confirm these arrangements.

Further information will be published on GOV.UK in January 2016.

2. Information: 16 to 18 data and management information - June 2015 release

To accompany the June 2015 release of the data and management information we have produced a demonstration to help local authorities make best use of the data provided in the pivot tables.

Demonstration about 16 to 18 data

This is in addition to the user guide currently published on GOV.UK, and has been developed in response to feedback from local authorities.

We have previously notified you that we had identified a ‘bug’ affecting the 2014 to 2015 academic year retention data in the June release of the 16 to 18 data and management information and were working to resolve this. This issue has now been resolved and the corrected data uploaded to the Information Exchange.

3. Information: Sixth-Form College Commissioner recruitment of assessment advisers

We are advertising an opportunity for assessment advisers to support Peter Mucklow in his role as Sixth-Form College Commissioner through the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) associates’ framework.

To submit an initial application interested parties will need to be registered as a National College Associate. The deadline for applications is 29 July 2015, with bidders notified of the outcome by 7 August 2015.

We expect there to be a further opportunity to recruit advisers through open advert later in the autumn term.

If you would like further information please contact us through the EFA online enquiry form.

4. Information: RAISEonline inspection dashboard

RAISEonline will release a new inspection dashboard in mid-September to support changes to inspection arrangements that come into effect from September.

5. Action: changes to immigration rules for tier 4 international students

The Home Office recently published a ministerial statement on proposed immigration rule changes for tier 4 students from 3 August 2015.

Tier 4 is the element of the immigration rules which relates to international students travelling to the UK to study at their own expense.

The Home Office has also published a briefing note on the changes. Colleges may also wish to read the UK Council for International Student Affairs explanation of the changes.

Institutions that currently recruit international students or are proposing to do so in future are advised to read these documents.