Kaylie Crompton is Head of College, Pure College. Kaylie says: ‘I have worked with disabled children and adults for over 16 years, across both social care and education settings. During that time, one thing has consistently made me uncomfortable: the way low expectations can sometimes present themselves as kindness.’ This article explores how Pure College has approached working with their learners to set and achieve high standards preparing them for employment and life post-college.
One of the ongoing challenges in education, particularly for learners with SEND, is how we balance encouragement and support with ensuring learners develop and maintain the standards required in the workplace. In preparing learners for adulthood and employment, it is vital that they develop an accurate understanding of quality, independence and what is expected of them beyond education.
In education settings in particular, we can find ourselves celebrating work that would not be accepted in other contexts. We lower the bar and call it “differentiation by outcome”. We applaud effort and outcomes in a way that quietly signals, “that is good enough for you”, and in doing so, we unintentionally reinforce the very barriers we are trying to break down.
Without high expectations and clear standards, there is a risk that learners experience success within education that does not translate into success in the workplace. The impact of this can be significant. Confidence can quickly fade when expectations change, particularly for learners with SEND, who may already find resilience and managing setbacks more challenging than others. Over time, this can often lead to disengagement and that feeling of “what is the point?”
Think of a young child proudly bringing home a lopsided cupcake, decorated with enthusiasm rather than skill. As a parent (or teacher) we focus on building confidence and shower praise, “what a beautiful cake”. Now fast forward to when the child is a young adult preparing for adulthood, including where appropriate employment. What happens if that young person produces a cake that is lopsided with messy icing, where we have concerns about how it was made. Do we still offer the same praise? Take the cake to ‘eat later’ but quietly throw it away?
Perhaps it feels kind. But is it helpful to protect young people from challenge? Or does it unintentionally deny them the opportunity to strive, improve and experience the pride that comes from meeting a real standard?
Pure College is a specialist employability college with the core purpose of preparing young people with Special Educational Needs (SEND), not just to access work, but to sustain meaningful, paid employment. Within that context, high standards and expectations are not theoretical; they are essential to learner success.
At the college, we saw this play out in a simple cake-baking project within our employability curriculum. Learners were preparing for a cake stall and, as practice, they baked and then rated each other’s work. Every learner gave their peers, and themselves, between 8 and 10 out of 10. Staff proudly shared examples of the teamwork, communication and engagement shown throughout the session.
And they were right to celebrate those things. Learners had worked well together. They had listened, followed instructions and supported one another.
However, when compared against commercial standards, the cakes did not yet meet the expectations you would expect. The icing was uneven and inconsistently applied, some cakes were overbaked, and sizes varied significantly.
This provided an important moment for reflection. If these cakes had been sold as they were, would they have been chosen because they were good enough, or because people wanted to be kind? In the real world of work, success cannot rely on sympathy; it must be built on genuine quality and consistency. So, the following week, we approached the session differently. We brought in some professionally made cupcakes and asked learners to compare them with their own. For the first time, they had a clear and tangible benchmark of quality.
The impact was immediate
Learners started to reassess their work more critically, scoring their original cakes significantly lower. Some expressed doubt, questioning whether they would be able to achieve that standard. The question we then had of those learners was why couldn’t they meet that standard?
From this point, we made a conscious decision to review our teaching approach. We invested in the right equipment, including piping bags and appropriate cases. We tested different recipes. We practised piping repeatedly. We brought in experienced bakers to teach technique and expected standards. It was repetitive. It took time. It required persistence.
Learners began producing cakes that were commercially viable. They were consistent, well-presented, made hygienically and genuinely appealing. When they held their bake sale, they raised nearly £100 through sales to the public. The cakes sold because they looked good, tasted good and reflected real skill. The learners had achieved a high standard, because this was expected and the learners were supported and encouraged not through vague praise but using meaningful feedback to achieve a measurable outcome: a professional standard cake.
If we settle for less, our learners can come to expect the same
At Pure College we believe that high expectations are not optional, they are essential. Not because we do not recognise effort, and not because we lack empathy, but because we know our learners are capable of more.
Many of our learners arrive having experienced repeated failure, multiple broken placements and an internalised belief that they will not succeed. When the system rewards low-quality outcomes, it does not protect them, it confirms that belief rather than challenging it.
True inclusion is not about making things easier. It is about making success possible and meaningful.
At Pure College our learners complete placements in public-facing, community roles, including cafés and commercial kitchens. This is challenging, but it provides an accurate assessment of learners’ skills, knowledge and behaviours in real working environments.
Alongside this, we operate a “least help first” approach. Staff are instructed to take a step back, allowing learners the space to attempt tasks independently before any intervention. This extends beyond the classroom into community and workplace settings.
A key principle underpinning this approach is clarity around outcomes. The goal is not task completion, but the acquisition of knowledge, deeper understanding and the ability to demonstrate this through independent skills. How long this takes may vary; task completion is not the measure of success; skill development and knowledge retention are. This approach is underpinned by an appropriate level of support and encouragement, to encourage motivation and build confidence. This is particularly important where a learner may not immediately have the resilience to deal with challenge and high expectations. If high standards are the goal for all learners, the journey may look different for some.
When tasks are completed by or with significant input from staff, the opportunity for genuine learning is reduced. In contrast, when learners complete tasks themselves, particularly when challenged, they develop deeper understanding, greater confidence and a stronger sense of achievement.
This means that learners will, at times, struggle. They may become frustrated. They may get things wrong, which can be challenging for staff to navigate. Many people who work in this sector do so because they are empathetic, because they want to help and make a difference. The instinct to step in and support is strong and often comes from a place of genuine care. As professionals, we must be confident in allowing this struggle. When supported effectively, these moments of difficulty become the foundation for growth, enabling learners to achieve things they may not have believed possible and to feel a genuine sense of pride in doing so.
Providing the right level of support
At Pure College, we support staff to manage this through training, including approaches such as Training in Systematic Instruction (TSI). This helps staff to break learning down into clear, structured steps, enabling them to provide the right level of support at the right time. This enables staff to recognise when to step in, and when to step back, ensuring that support leads to progress rather than limiting independence.
Rather than lowering expectations to secure success, we adapt our teaching. We reframe, we repeat, and we find multiple ways to support learners to work things out for themselves.
Learners are also active participants in their own assessment for learning. Through our learner portal, they upload evidence against their objectives and long-term aspirations, as outlined in their Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). We extend this approach to our work with employers. Employers are well informed about each learner’s targets, barriers and long-term aspirations. This ensures a shared understanding and a collaborative approach to setting high expectations, with the appropriate support in place.
This was commented on by a worker at our Supported Internship host employer “We match interns’ ambitions and their aspirations. They are valued for the work that they produce, but what it gives to us is unbelievable. It really helps us as an organisation to understand more about how to be an inclusive employer.”
We emphasise the importance of developing self-reflective skills, recognising that this is both challenging and essential. This skill is particularly valuable in preparing for employment, where individuals are expected to communicate their strengths and identify areas for development, for example in job applications and interviews.
Learners are supported to reflect using a structured “What? So what? Now what?” approach, enabling them to move beyond describing activities and instead consider what they have learned, why it matters and what they need to do next.
By supporting our learners in this way, we are demonstrating our ambitions for our learners, providing opportunity, challenge and building the learners’ belief in what they can achieve.
As one learner reflected:
“I thank the staff for showing us the skills we might need for the world of work and treating us like adults, encouraging us to build our skills as independently as we can and do the things we enjoy.”