IT has been hailed as a “remarkable change”.

Kirklees College has just been assessed as good by Government inspectors – just 18 months after being labelled as inadequate by the same team.

College staff are celebrating the publication of the Ofsted re-inspection report which moves the college from its overall Grade 4 ‘Inadequate’ in May 2011, to a Grade 2 ‘Good’ college with a number of ‘Outstanding’ features including college leadership and management.

Kirklees College understands that it is the only further education college to move from ‘Inadequate’ to ‘Good’ at re-inspection in the last 10 years.

Ofsted inspectors spent a week at Kirklees College in November to carry out a re-inspection and the official report has just been published.

And in it, Ofsted said: “The principal has spearheaded a remarkable change in the culture of the college; now only the best is good enough”.

The report’s main findings highlight the high levels of student success, the excellent support available to students and the benefits of teachers with relevant vocational expertise.

The summary of key findings included the following statements:

Learners achieve high levels of success

Teachers are vocational experts and learners benefit greatly from their first-hand industry knowledge

Learners develop good skills, knowledge and understanding that make a big difference to their employment prospects, career success and chances of moving to university.

Learners who are disadvantaged or who have been less successful at school make great progress due to the excellent support they receive.

All the curriculum areas of the college that were inspected were found to be ‘Good’ or above.

Ofsted said there were still some areas that needed improvements.

More students need to be encouraged to stay on to the end of their courses, and there were still pockets of mediocre teaching.

They also urged college staff to push for higher grades in English at GCSE.

Peter McCann, who joined the college as principal in May 2011, said: “We’re delighted that Ofsted have given us the endorsement the staff deserve.

“The college has some really great people with a passionate commitment to our community and our students.

“We believe that every student who stays the journey with us deserves success.

“We also know that the sooner you respond to a student who needs help, the more likely they are to stay and succeed and this Ofsted report is a ringing endorsement of the high level of support available to students at Kirklees College.

“I’m optimistic that with the results we are seeing at the moment, our own self-assessment next year will demonstrate that we are operating as an ‘Outstanding’ further education college, something we can all be very proud of. When we move to our new centre at the Waterfront Quarter in 2013, I honestly believe we will be as good a college as you will find anywhere.

“We will continue to strive to be even better each day in every way, but this report is a wonderful endorsement of the progress we have made to date.”

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