Worthing College’s inconsistent teaching criticised by Ofsted

Findings show teaching has not improved, results have declined, and weaknesses exist in subjects such as science and English.

This week, college principal Peter Corrigan said he was not “shying away” from the report.

He said: “The overall grade is satisfactory and I think the balance of that is the college has a great many strengths but within that, some significant weaknesses, many of which we already know about and are in the process of dealing with.”

Inspector Alan Hinchliffe said too many students remained “under-challenged” at the Bolsover Road college.

“Much remains to be done before the college can attain its long-standing ambition to be outstanding,” he added.

Mr Corrigan said the college was working hard to improve teaching.

He added: “There is some very good teaching here but there is some teaching that needs to improve.”

Mr Hinchliffe said although “pockets of excellence” exist in the college’s outside partnerships, its sports academies, in maths, and in students’ progress on BTEC courses, it was mirrored by weaknesses in science and students’ performance in AS levels.

One of the most damning things in the report was when it came to the college’s self-assessment.

It said the college was “too generous” during its internal evaluation and it “overstated” the effectiveness of teaching and learning.

However, Mr Corrigan said the college was working on improving its self-evaluation techniques.