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Guide to achieving an effective curriculum & quality committee for a sixth form

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By visiting Professor Ron Hill, University of Sunderland

This guide has been produced with the intention of helping senior staff, the governance professional and the members of the committee to achieve an effective curriculum and quality committee¹. It is intended as a suggested framework from which boards can build.

External governance reviews of sixth form colleges

From recent external governance reviews² of colleges and multi-academy trusts with sixth form colleges, there is some evidence that whilst curriculum and quality committees have been established and thus form part of the governance structure of the organisation, the performance of such committees could be much stronger. This guide is intended to provide support for the operation of a curriculum and quality committee or similar.

For sixth form college corporations

It is not compulsory for the governing board to form a curriculum and quality committee. However, given the overall educational purpose of the college, there is considerable benefit to establishing a committee to focus on teaching and learning and, in so doing, support the governing board in its responsibilities, particularly ‘holding executive leaders to account for the educational performance and quality of the college’ (FE and sixth form college corporations: governance guide – July 2025, Department for Education).

For 16-19 academies

Para 2.2 of the Academy Trust Governance Guide (2024) states:

‘In academy trusts, the purpose of governance is to provide:

strategic leadership
accountability and assurance
â€‹ strategic engagement.

The board has collective accountability and strategic responsibility for the trust. It has a focus on ensuring the trust delivers an excellent education to pupils while maintaining effective financial management.‘

With this purpose in mind, the board of trustees of a sixth form college or colleges may wish to form a curriculum and quality committee and / or the board may encourage a local governing body of a 16-19 college to form a curriculum and quality committee.

^{1. Such committees are also known as ‘quality and standards committee’, ‘learner and learning committee’, ‘education committee’. There may be slight variation in committee terms of reference to explain the function of the named committee. For ease of reference this document will use the title ‘curriculum and quality committee’.}

^{2. The author has wide experience of undertaking external governance reviews for Stone King LLP.}

Consultation and guidance

To assist the preparation of this guide, a sixth form college (principal, chair of curriculum and quality, governance professional) was consulted and as were groups of attendees at the SFCA Curriculum Conference on 19 November 2025.

Feedback on the benefits of a curriculum and quality committee included:

support and challenge from governors
opportunity for student governors to contribute
expectations and ambitions of governors
expertise, knowledge and insight from governors.

However, it was recognised that for the above benefits to be able to realised, it was necessary for:

governors to be trained and developed for their role on the committee
governors in membership of the committee should be a mix of educationalists and others
governors shouldn’t automatically defer to the educationalists on the committee
preferably two student governors be appointed to the committee membership and supported to be able to contribute
data interpretation should not be taken for granted
reporting should be succinct, with a clear purpose.

This guide has been prepared with these important points in mind.

Terms of reference: curriculum and quality committee

Where the governing board forms a curriculum and quality committee it is necessary for the governing board to establish terms of reference (ToR) for the committee.

The ToR should include the following details (with suggested text)

i. Purpose of committee

The purpose of the curriculum and quality committee is to advise the governing board on matters relating to the educational performance of the college. This includes:

Curriculum range, structure and innovation (including relevance, design and impact)
Quality of course provision (from self-assessment and external review)
Specific focus on course improvement, where necessary
Learner profile (attendance, retention, achievement, success)
Learner experience of courses and wider college life (including Student Association contribution and Course Representatives)
Learner outcomes, performance and destination
Safeguarding
British values and democratic education
Special educational needs and inclusion
Annual review of ‘educational character.’

ii. Membership of the committee

The membership of the committee will consist of at least six members.

The six members will include at least three governors. The remaining places shall be completed by co-opted members with a relevant expertise / experience to the purpose of the committee.

Co-opted members will be included in the quorum of three members for the committee and will have voting rights for committee meetings.

It is vital that all committee members are able to actively engage with the purpose of the committee and this ability will be taken into account when the governing board appoints governors and co-opted members to the committee.

Student governors can add considerable insight and opinion as members of a curriculum and quality committee, and appropriate support and training will be provided to student governors.

In addition, there will be induction and regular training and development for all members of the committee.

iii. Chair / vice chair of the committee

A chair and vice chair will be appointed for 12 months. The position of chair and vice chair for the forthcoming college year will be recommended by the quality and curriculum committee at the final meeting of the committee in the concluding college year.

The chair and vice chair must be appointed as governors.

The chair and vice chair may serve for successive years whilst they are appointed as members of the governing board.

iv. Attendance at committee meetings

The governance professional will attend all meetings and be responsible for the drafting of the minutes of the meeting for approval by the chair of the committee.

Senior staff may attend the committee at the request of the committee. Of assistance to the committee will be senior staff with responsibility for curriculum and quality, student support, welfare and safeguarding and special educational needs and inclusion.

v. Meetings of the committee

The committee will meet on six occasions in the year as follows:

September: meeting
November: meeting
January (workshop – strategic themes)
March: meeting
May (workshop – review and planning)
June: meeting.

vi. Main duties and model agendas (advisory, with recommendations to the governing board)

Learner profile data, planned and variances, with analysis
Learner experience, voice, parent/stakeholder voice
Monitoring relevant strategic performance data
Planning and reviewing annual self-assessment and recommendation to the governing board; development of action plan and recommendation to governing board
Review of Accountability Statement and recommendation to the governing board (college corporations only)
Monitoring Ofsted action plan and recommendation to the governing board
Improvement focus, where necessary
Prevent, democratic education, safeguarding, support
Monitoring governor link assurance
Equality, diversity and inclusion action plan monitoring/recommendation to the governing board
Curriculum planning, innovation
Annual review of the ‘educational character’ of the college in relation to defined criteria, advised by the committee, determined by the governing board

Model agendas

N.B. Learner profile report = enrolment, attendance, retention, achievement, success

MEETING 1 (SEPT)

Student performance (summer exams) plus value added summary
Emerging learner profile – learner recruitment focus
Preparation for self-assessment – validity and rigour tests
Safeguarding (standing item)
Student experience – enrolment (including feedback from Student Association)
Special educational needs – profile and response

MEETING 2 (NOV)

Learner profile (standing item)
Self-assessment – for recommendation to the governing board plus action plan
Safeguarding (standing item)
Equality, diversity and inclusion annual report plus action plan
Student performance (summer exams)
Prevent, democratic education annual report plus action plan

MEETING 3 (JAN)

Workshop* + Curriculum Visit**
Suggested theme strategic questions arising from self-assessment report

MEETING 4 (MARCH)

Learner profile (standing item)
Safeguarding (standing item)
Learner voice
Stakeholder voice
Curriculum planning (additions / deletions)
Special educational needs – monitoring action plan
Equality, diversity and inclusion action plan monitoring
Prevent, democratic education action plan monitoring
Self-assessment action plan monitoring
Review of educational character (annual)
Annual accountability statement (college corporations only)

MEETING 5 (MAY)

Workshop* + Curriculum Visit**

MEETING 6 (JUNE)

Learner profile (standing item)
Safeguarding (standing item)
Self assessment action plan monitoring
Course representatives annual report
Students Association annual report
Preparation for forthcoming college year
Selection of chair and vice chair for recommendation to the governing board
Equality action plan
Prevent action plan
Committee annual review (impact)

^{* Workshops should have the following characteristics:-
- clear strategic question(s) to address
- focus on governor / trustee participation
- seating to permit governor / trustee interaction
- stimulus material / input only (not data dumping or heavy documentation)
- effective facilitation by e.g. governance professional or external facilitator
- recorded outcome(s) (not to be confused with a formal meeting of the board)}

^{** Curriculum visits should be planned and structured. For example, the visit could begin with a 20 minute session where committee members are individually taught something by a pair of students. Then there could be an introduction to the curriculum area by the Head of Department (including student and staff data, and accounting for the latest Ofsted/Self Assessment description of the curriculum area; plus resources for learning). Finally, an informal opportunity to meet students and staff.}

Governing processes

There are some key governing process points to ensure governors and co-opted members can engage with the agenda and ‘govern’ rather than simply become better informed. ‘Governing’ requires recorded decisions for each item on the agenda to best assist the governing board with its responsibility for ‘educational performance and quality’. Therefore…

a. Each report to committee should carry a clear, outcome-focused recommendation;

b. The chair and the governance professional should ensure each item achieves a decision /reaction from the committee.

To ensure the quality of reporting meets the required standard for governing, the committee is advised to develop reporting guidelines for relevant senior staff.

These reporting guidelines should include:

i. A normal limit of two sides of A4 for the core report and a request for limited appendices only

ii. Data to be accompanied by analysis (so what?); ‘data dumping’ to be avoided

iii. Performance against target to be included as standard with variances explained

iv. ‘Learner implications’ to be included with every core report

v. Monitoring reports to be an active process with recorded reaction ‘pleased with progress’ or satisfied with progress’ or ‘concerned with aspects of progress’ in the minutes

vi. Written reports are expected; presentations to be kept to a minimum and justified

vii. It will be expected that reports have been read by members of the committee; senior staff presence is required to observe discussion and respond to queries.

Self assessment and the role of the curriculum and quality committee

Colleges and governing boards approach self-assessment in various ways – many of which satisfy the intended improvement and development that self-assessing college performance can enable.

What is important for the curriculum and quality committee is:

Oversight of the college process for self-assessment, scrutinising for rigour and validity, and the timetable for self-assessment
Understanding the outcome of self-assessment (perhaps through an executive summary, rather than the full document of evidence and judgement, which is of value to college managers)
Support for and oversight of the resulting improvement action plan
Active monitoring and, where necessary, deep dives to ensure necessary improvement.

Impact of the curriculum and quality committee

The impact of the committee could be judged in the following ways:

The quality of the advice provided to the governing board
The timely nature of advice to the governing board
The momentum for achieving action plan intentions and targets
The quality of decision making (as recorded in the minutes)
The engagement with and performance at workshops
The continuous focus on the learner and learning
The degree of understanding and insight contributed by committee members
The achievement of the terms of reference for the committee
The contribution of the committee to encouraging the learner voice (via student governors). See The Role of Student Board Members and How to Support Them.

In summary, how the decision making by the committee (as recorded in the minutes) has supported the board in the achievement of its responsibilities.

Next steps

To apply this guide, you may find the following steps to be helpful…

Step 1: Review your curriculum and quality committee in relation to the themes in this guide.

Step 2: Devise an action plan to implement new ways of working for the curriculum and quality committee from the guide, including consultation with

(a) the chair, principal and governance professional

(b) members of the curriculum and quality committee

Step 3: Implement changes to the operation of the curriculum and quality committee over a college year.

Step 4: Regularly assess changes to the curriculum and quality committee for benefit and impact (see section above for aspects of impact).

Step 5: SFCA would welcome formal and informal feedback and reports which compares the curriculum and quality committee operations pre guide and after the guide, highlighting the nature of any beneficial impact since the practices advocated in the guide were implemented. Please send feedback to Deborah.Perry@sixthformcolleges.org.