Suffolk New College with campuses in Ipswich, Leiston, Otley and Halesworth is rated 'good' by Ofsted

A further education college is on a 'journey to outstanding', its principal has said, following its Ofsted report that moves it up to a 'good' rating.

Suffolk New College is celebrating after getting 'good' in seven areas and one 'outstanding', with a 'good' grading overall, when a team of 10 inspectors visited from November 15 to 18.

Since the last inspection, in 2019, the college has dramatically expanded and now incorporates four campuses in Ipswich, Otley, Leiston and Halesworth.

Suffolk New College was rated 'requires improvement' for overall effectiveness at the last inspection.

Principal Viv Gillespie said: “We believe we are on a journey to outstanding and the encouragement everyone received on the back of our latest inspection result gives us all the desire and drive to continue this forward momentum.

“We would like to thank students, staff, stakeholders, parents, governors, business partners and all of the community for their efforts in helping us to achieve this outcome.

“We are very pleased to receive the positive feedback, but we won’t be resting on our laurels. We are all hungry for more success.”

Suffolk New College was judged to be good in the areas of: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, leadership and management, education programmes for young people, adult learning programmes, apprenticeships and provision for learners with high needs.

The area of personal development was judged to be outstanding.

Highlights from the report include:

• 'Learners enjoy their time at the college and value the new skills and knowledge they learn';
• 'Leaders work closely with stakeholders to identify industry developments so that they are prepared well to meet future skills needs';
• 'Learners and apprentices benefit from a well ordered learning environment';
• 'Leaders have established a strong culture of safeguarding across the college'.

Chair of Governors, Stephen Pugh, said: “Suffolk New College has been making great progress in recent years as we have expanded our offer, merged with the college at Otley, now Suffolk Rural, and met the needs of ever more learners and employers.

“It is terrific news to have this progress recognised by Ofsted and be graded as a 'good' college. A lot of people have worked extremely hard to achieve this grading and on behalf of the governing body I would like to send them my sincere thanks.”

Sian Dent, 18, from Colchester, is a student governor and she is also studying on a level three equine course at the Suffolk Rural campus of Suffolk New College.

Sian said: “I’m ecstatic with this news and the outcome of the report.

“I’m looking to work with horses in the context of rehabilitation as a career after college and being a student at Suffolk Rural has given me the skills I need to achieve those dreams.”

Areas highlighted by inspectors for improvement include: ensuring staff communicate effectively with employers throughout the apprenticeship programme so that they know the progress that apprentices are making and can support them to achieve within the planned timescales; and making sure the quality of teaching in mathematics is of a consistently high standard so that the proportion of learners achieving their qualifications improves.

See here for the final report.

The video was created by Luke Penning at Suffolk New College.