Quality of Provision at Harrow College is good, says Ofsted

Harrow College was one of the first colleges nationally to be inspected under the new Ofsted framework which places significant focus on what students think about the College as a part of the overall judgement.

Inspectors found that students enjoyed their work and life at the College, liked the friendly environment and felt safe at Harrow College. Students said that they got good support from their teachers and were being encouraged to do better and gain more qualifications. Inspectors found that the standard of care, guidance and support for students was good and that this, in turn, led to good progression rates to university, higher level courses in the College itself and employment for students.

Employers also played a key role in contributing to the inspection findings. They said that they liked the way their employees were enthused about their learning and that the training they received has improved the quality of their business’ service.

‘The inspection report findings demonstrates that students coming to Harrow College have a great opportunity to achieve well and progress onto university, higher level courses at the College or their chosen career’ Vice Principal, Pat Carvalho, said. ‘We already knew, for example, that our Level 3 vocational results (which includes Btec National qualifications) were now ranked in the top 10% of colleges nationally but it is good to see that Ofsted have acknowledged improvements across the College as a whole. It is also pleasing to note that our traditional course offer and our new programmes introduced over the past couple of years have led to Ofsted judging that our response to meeting the needs and interests of learners and employers is good.’

‘I am delighted with the feedback from the inspectors’ Harrow College Principal, Tony Medhurst, said, ‘The inspection framework is all about what our students and local employers say about us and the positive report is all down to the fantastic work that all the staff have done over the past few years to make improvements to the College as a whole. ‘I was also pleased to see our extensive local partnership work coming in for praise – Ofsted describes such work as highly productive.’

Harrow College continues to develop new courses for local learners and recently opened a new centre for plumbing and electrical engineering programmes for both young people and adults on the Whitefriars Industrial Estate.

<<Back to Archive Winter 09/10