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Who are Northcoders?

‘Award-winning coding bootcamps that launch tech careers. We help people from all backgrounds break into the tech industry — with beginner-friendly training, expert support, and job-focused outcomes that change lives.’

What is our story?

Our journey to Outstanding was built on three things: honest self-reflection, strategic focus, and a deep commitment to doing what’s right for learners, even when it wasn’t easy.

We self-assessed as ‘Good’ the year before inspection. That wasn’t a safety rating; it was a confident, evidence-based position. But we also knew where we wanted to go next. The Quality Improvement Plan became our guide, it didn’t sit on a shelf. It lived in our team conversations, in our board updates, and in how we supported delivery and improvement across the business.

What made the difference wasn’t a single initiative, it was clarity. We knew our strengths and where they had impact. We also knew how to evidence progress, not just describe activity. Every action in the QIP was tracked, revisited, and embedded well before inspection week. Most importantly, we trusted our people. From curriculum teams to compliance, governance to delivery, everyone had a role, and everyone had the information they needed to talk about it confidently.

If I had to sum it up; we didn’t aim for Outstanding in a rush, we aimed for consistency, culture, and clarity. Outstanding followed.

 

What would you say were your greatest challenges, and how did you overcome these?

One of our biggest challenges was navigating organisational change while still maintaining a clear focus on quality. Like many providers, we were working through structural shifts and budget constraints, yet it was vital that learners didn’t feel the impact.

We overcame this by being completely intentional in how we planned, communicated, and monitored quality. Leadership was transparent, and the support from senior leaders and governors gave me the autonomy to act swiftly where needed. When changes were made, we didn’t just make them, we measured the impact and shared that insight across the organisation.

Another challenge was keeping teams aligned and motivated through a sustained period of improvement. Not everyone immediately saw the ‘why’ behind each change, and there were moments where I had to shift strategy and take a more consultative approach.

Listening played a big part. So did consistency, following through on actions, celebrating progress, and keeping our quality goals visible, not hidden in spreadsheets.

Ultimately, it came down to creating a culture where improvement wasn’t feared, it wasexpected, supported, and shared. That’s what allowed us to move forward with confidence, even when the path wasn’t always smooth.

Which FIN resources or events have you found most useful?

We found several FIN resources incredibly helpful in shaping and strengthening our quality improvement work, particularly in governance and quality planning.

The Quality Improvement Plan template helped us build a live, strategic document that was easy to update, share, and track across the organisation. We also made good use of the quality indicators, which gave us an external benchmark to reflect on our progress and challenge ourselves to aim higher.

The governance support from James was another key asset. It helped us frame effective board conversations and gave Ofsted added insight into what good scrutiny and oversight looks like in practice. Padlets were a hidden gem. They were great for practical sharing of awareness. Sometimes it’s those smaller, flexible resources that make the biggest difference on the ground.

FIN’s resources helped us create clarity and consistency, and gave us the confidence that we were aligning with sector expectations while staying true to our own context.

How has your FIN Membership supported your work?

James’s support has been incredibly helpful. He guided us to be outstanding, and encouraged us to aim high (he was a good motivator!). Having that support only a phone call or email away was always something I held in my war chest, James is friendly, experienced and gives expert advice and guidance. Other colleagues of mine attended the nominee bootcamp and found this to be extremely beneficial.

How important was developing an accurate SAR and QIP in improving quality and standards to get to outstanding?

The inspectors really praised the SAR and QIP, they said the SAR was great, and quality improvements were precise, implemented swiftly and impact measured on an ongoing basis (that was not in the report, but given during feedback). For me personally, I love writing the SAR, but don’t enjoy the QIP as much, but persevere with both, make sure the two are aligned, honest and not hallucinating about what you think is happening – base your SAR off evidence and map your improvements.

One bit of advice from me is – don’t try and shoehorn everything into your curriculum, work with your subject leads and make it work for them and your learners, it might take a little more time to get things embedded, but it is worth it.

There is nothing worse than a great SAR accompanied by a poor QIP. Make the two interconnect and work together.

Thank you and Congratulations

A huge congratulations to Graham and all of the team at Northcoders. It has been hard work but well worth the it to get to this point.

We have thoroughly enjoyed working with everyone at Northcoders and look forward to not only continuing our journey together hearing you share your story at Septembers ‘Aiming for Outstanding’ event.

Discover how FIN can guide you and your team in creating an effective SAR or QIP, contact our team today.

To find out more about Northcoder’s, visit https://www.northcoders.com/