NWSLC Transforms English and Maths Delivery with Personalised AI Learning

North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College (NWSLC) is a leading further education college dedicated to providing students with the skills and qualifications needed for their future careers. To support their mission, they have integrated CENTURY into their English and maths departments to help bridge learning gaps and personalise the educational journey for every student.

We spoke with Alex Lindsay, Assistant Principal for English and Maths; Catrin Meredith, Head of Maths; and Rachel Duffy, Head of English, to discuss how the college successfully rolled out the platform and the impact it has had on both staff and students.

What initially prompted the decision to partner with CENTURY?

We decided to partner with CENTURY because we were no longer happy with our previous diagnostic tool. It wasn’t doing what we needed it to do, particularly in terms of filling the specific knowledge gaps that learners have when they arrive at the college. We wanted a product that aligned with our college aims: identifying individual learning gaps, personalising learning pathways, and complementing our existing teaching practice. CENTURY stood out because it effectively supports in-year progress monitoring and allows us to target students for their individual development.

How did you manage the rollout across the college?

The rollout was a critical part of our success. Despite deciding to bring the platform in late in the academic year, we ensured everything was ready for the start of the next term. We maintained regular meetings between our developer support and CENTURY’s technical team to ensure a smooth transition.

Communication was our biggest priority. We enforced a clear, consistent message across all campuses using every channel available: our internal communication system, team briefings, the student app, and even scripts for vocational staff to ensure students heard the same message everywhere. This daily communication ensured that the platform was quickly embedded into our English and maths strategy.

What have been the biggest successes since implementing the platform?

Achieving consistency on such a large scale has been a major win. We have seen incredibly high completion rates for diagnostics across the whole college, which gives our staff a clear picture of every learner’s starting point. This data gives our teachers the confidence to plan effective interventions.

We have also seen a cultural shift through competitions. By embedding these into the start of lessons and using our college-wide communication channels to promote them, we’ve built student engagement and confidence. One campus even ran a competition over the Christmas period to see who could complete the most nuggets, ending in a pizza party. The leadership dashboards make it so easy to track this progress.

What impact has CENTURY had on your teachers and learners?

For teachers, it has supported more focused conversations with learners and provided clearer targets for support. It has made independent study much more purposeful. Crucially, it has reduced teacher workload by automating tasks that they would otherwise have to do manually.

The impact on learners has been very positive. They understand why they are using the platform and can see their own strengths and gaps, which makes the learning feel much more personalised. This is especially important for students who may lack confidence in English and maths; seeing their own progress gives them the drive to keep going. The vast majority of our learners are very positive about how the platform works.

How have you integrated CENTURY with your existing college processes?

Integration was essential for sustainability. We have embedded CENTURY into our lesson planning, independent study expectations, quality assurance processes, and even appraisal conversations. By being explicit with staff about how the platform aligns with their existing work, we avoided it feeling like an additional burden.

We also established a structure of “department champions.” These are staff members with high credibility and willingness who support their individual teams. We’ve even dedicated time for our Head of Maths to meet with vocational areas — not just English and maths staff — to ensure they know how to use the platform to support their students. This cross-college buy-in is why our engagement is so high.

What are your favourite features of the platform?

The Assignments feature has been a game-changer for us. It helped us embed the platform into our pedagogy while supporting teacher workload and ensuring consistent assessment across all campuses. This year, the addition of Smart Nuggets within assignments has been fantastic. It allows us to assess everyone against specific criteria for an end-of-topic assessment while still providing each student with the individualised follow-up learning that CENTURY assigns automatically.

What are your plans for the future with CENTURY?

Our goal is to continue strengthening the links between the platform and classroom teaching. We don’t want it to be seen as just an “add-on” for homework; we want it to help refine our pedagogy and curriculum sequencing. We will continue our heavy focus on communication and professional development to ensure that as new staff join the college, they are fully supported to use CENTURY to the best of their ability for their students.

Interested in how CENTURY can personalise learning and reduce workload in your college? Book a demo here.

Already a CENTURY customer? Contact your Account Manager or email support@century.tech to learn more about maximising engagement.