Worthing College principal recognises the need to improve

Worthing College, in Sanditon Way, received the second-lowest rating in the report, released on Friday.

While inspectors recognised the successful transition from its old base in Bolsover Road, not enough AS and A-level students are making sufficient progress.

Principal Peter Corrigan said: “It was a three last time but there are significant improvements that have been made, particularly in vocational courses.

“We are working very hard on staff training and we had hoped to have done better in this report but still recognise there is further to go.”

In its report, Ofsted notes teachers generally do not plan learning with a strong enough focus to enable students to make good progress.

Activities during too many lessons lack challenge and teachers do not take sufficient account of the needs of different students when planning learning.

But it does, however, rate teaching ‘outstanding’ in sport and public services programmes, with ‘extremely high’ success rates and expertly planned lessons.

The number of students successfully completing vocational courses is also on the rise.

Mr Corrigan was pleased the college had made ‘significant progress’ since the last inspection but recognised the need to improve across the board.

He said: “We accept the findings and are very pleased we have got so many good areas but there are other areas that do need to come up to that same level. Working on getting outstanding staff to work corroboratively with others.

“We just need to be more effective across the board. “

He added: “Nothing in college is very poor. We have just got to work very hard to get everything to become good or better.”

For the full story, see the Herald, out Thursday, November 20.