Celebrations as City of Bath College gets best-ever marks from Ofsted
Staff and students at the City of Bath College are celebrating after it was given its best-ever Ofsted report.
Inspectors who visited the Avon Street site over five days gave it a good rating.
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Andy Midgley, Claudia Pogliarani, Ozi Osmond, Charlie Graham-May and principal Matt Atkinson celebrate City of Bath College's art and design department's outstanding Ofsted report PICTURE: Lloyd Ellington
There was particular praise for the art and design department, which was assessed as outstanding.
The college has been making steady progress over the past seven years, bouncing back from crippling financial difficulties which meant it had to be placed into official recovery in March 2006.
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Principal Matt Atkinson, who joined in 2007, said: "Over the past five-and-a-half years we have been working relentlessly at driving up standards and that has been my main focus. When I arrived I gave an interview with The Chronicle where I said I wanted to give the city a thriving college which it could be proud of, and that is what we have done."
The inspectors found that the standards of teaching and learning were good, with emphasis placed on making sure students secured jobs at the end of their courses.
The report said: "Students make good progress overall in lessons and develop valuable vocational and personal skills that prepare them well for their next steps into employment or further study.
"The importance the college places on employability skills is particularly evident in the high standards of students' practical work in real work environments in the college, and in their commercial awareness."
He added that the areas that still needed work, which were highlighted as the health and social care and early years courses and the English department, were already being improved.
"This is a really positive report, but we are not complacent about what needs to happen to move forward," he said.
"This report has increased our determination. We are saying let's give ourselves 18 months to get to a stage where we can self-assess as outstanding. We know exactly what we need to do in the areas that require improvement."
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Comments
by capndave
Friday, March 15 2013, 8:30PM
“I visited yesterday for the first time.
Boy was I impressed, and no wonder Ofsted were blown away.
Great effort, great result, great achievement and well done.”