Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Three years later and college still rated as ‘requires improvement’
Education watchdogs have told Canterbury College it needs to improve after its third poor inspection in a row.
The institution in New Dover Road has once again been hit with a “requires improvement” rating by Ofsted – just one grade above the lowest possible.
But a technicality has narrowly saved it from having to be overhauled by troubleshooting education experts.
College principal Alison Clarke admits the latest grading, published on Monday, is “disappointing”.
But she insists the next inspection will be better after the introduction of new strategies, a management shakeup, staff development and the employment of new teaching staff.
Ordinarily, a third successive rating of grade three would have prompted external measures by the government to accelerate improvements.
But Ms Clarke says its first grade three rating in 2012 – followed by another in 2013 – does not count as it was as a result of a pilot run by Ofsted to intro- duce a new inspection regime.
She said: “We were helping them test out their new framework so this is technically our second grade three.
“It is disappointing, but I and the whole team at the college felt Ofsted were very clear that we had made improvements.
“So while the overall grades haven’t changed, they should be set in the context of the national picture, where a lot of colleges have actually been downgraded in the latest, more rigorous inspection round.”
The Ofsted report is particularly critical of IT provision at the college, rating it “inadequate”.
Inspectors say the teaching they observed when they visited the college for a week in May needed to be more inspiring and interesting, which in turn could help address problems with low attendance.
The report went on to say too few students are making the progress they are capable of,