Colleges across the country have been entering more students for GCSE maths and English re-sits than government policy requires.

The Department for Education’s condition of funding rule means all students in England aged 16 to 19 who have achieved a grade 3 in English or maths are required to retake the subject while those with a grade 2 or lower have the option of taking Functional Skills qualifications instead.

These “forced re-sits” have been controversial in the sector, so FE Week investigated the reasons behind colleges’ decisions to go above and beyond the regulation.

Analysis by this newspaper showed 18 colleges entered more than 1,000 students for GCSE maths re-sits and 26 colleges did so for GCSE English in 2017/18, when the DfE’s latest national achievement rates tables were available.

Colleges claimed they did not want to “to limit our learners’ progress” and highlighted “the strong emphasis that employers and education establishments put on GCSEs” as part of their reasoning.

Criticism was also directed towards the alternative Functional Skills qualification for its “cliff-edge pass or fail”.

Even the Association of Colleges conceded that the “jury is out” on the appropriateness of the new Functional Skills qualifications.

Leeds City College entered the most students for re-sits in both subjects in 2017/18.

Bill Jones, the college principal, said: “Although Functional Skills is a viable option for many of our students, we recognise the strong emphasis that employers and education establishments put on GCSEs.

“With this in mind, it’s in our students’ interest that we provide as many of them as possible the opportunity to resit English and maths GCSE to increase successful destinations upon completion of their courses.”

According to the government’s tables, only 8 per cent of the 2,560 students at Leeds City College who re-sat GCSE maths and 15.3 per cent of the 2,320 students who took GCSE English gained an A*-C (grades 9 – 4).

The general FE college is now part of the Luminate Education Group.

Jeanne Rogers, vice-principal for quality teaching and learning, tweeted photos of the college’s preparation for GCSE English exams this summer and said there were “3,332 students sitting English today. Attendance has been high, stress levels low; as a result of a college ‘I’m In’ approach”.

Under Education and Skills Funding Agency rules, any student aged 16 to 18 who has a grade 3 as their highest level of achievement, one grade off a 4 (C) in their English and maths GCSEs, must retake the subjects.

Colleges who fail to enrol 95 per cent of eligible students have funding withdrawn from a future allocation. South and City College Birmingham entered the second-most students for re-sits in maths and English in 2017/18.

Principal Mike Hopkins said the college put “nearly all” its students aged 16 to 18 and young adults who are hoping to go to university into GCSE re-sits rather than Functional Skills because it recognised this was “an examination and course that students are already familiar with (in the main) and we are looking for progression over time for those students with grade 1 upwards”.

However, just 7.7 per cent of the 2,340 South and City College Birmingham students who re-sat GCSE maths were awarded an A*-C grade and 15.1 per cent of the 2,200 who re-sat GCSE English received an A*-C grade.

Hopkins said the college planned to review this policy “in light of the introduction of technical courses” to determine whether studying Functional Skills English and maths would better serve students in those areas.

Students who join Activate Learning without a grade 4 “normally” re-sit the core subjects because the general FE college based in Oxford does not “wish to limit our learners’ progress”.

A total of 1,940 students re-sat GCSE maths and 1,670 students re-sat GCSE English in 2017/18.

Francis Lawson, Activate Learning’s director of English, told FE Week: “The rationale for the strong focus on GCSE is that our data shows learners from modest starting points often make greater progress on a GCSE than a Functional Skills pathway.

“Some learners improve several grades to achieve GCSE grade 4 within a year.

“We do not wish to limit our learners’ progress because of modest prior achievement, which might not fairly reflect their capabilities.”

However, only 12.6 per cent of maths entrants and 21.4 per cent of English entrants achieved an A*-C grade after their re-sits.

Lawson added that Functional Skills was available to learners “for whom it is most appropriate,” highlighting learners on apprenticeship programmes and in supported learning environments.

Data provided by Activate Learning showed 314 16-18-year-old students, excluding apprentices, took Functional Skills English in 2017/18 and 483 were entered into Functional Skills maths in the same year. The figures supplied by the college include Bracknell and Wokingham College, which merged with the Activate Learning in January 2019.

Capital City College Group entered the fifth-highest number of students to re-sit both GCSE maths and English respectively in 2017/18, with 14.1 per cent of 1,810 students achieving an A*-C in the former and 27.4 per cent out of 1,750 doing so in the latter.

A spokesperson for the group said: “What the data doesn’t show is that, in addition, we enrolled just over 2,000 16 to 18-year-olds on a Functional Skills course that year.

“We would generally put a student in for whichever level qualification they are most suited to. For us it’s about what level the student can best work at, rather than the qualification per se.”

The South Essex College entered the sixth and seventh largest number of students to re-sit GCSE maths and English in 2017/18.

Around 8 per cent out of 1,500 South Essex College students achieved an A*-C in GCSE maths while 17.1 per cent of the 1,460 entered into GCSE English received an A*-C.

A spokesperson told FE Week: “The majority of students who gain a grade 3 or below in GCSE English and or maths are entered for English and maths qualifications at the college.

“Some students do gain a grade 4 or higher in GCSE English literature, but not in English language.

“In this case, the students are offered the opportunity to take English language even though they are not eligible for government funding.

“We do this because of the fact that English literature is not as widely recognised for university entry compared to English language and it offers our students better progression opportunities.

“We have made this decision to benefit our students and give them the best opportunity to progress on to their chosen careers or higher education study programmes.”

A spokesperson from the Colchester Institute said the reason behind its decision to enter more pupils into the two GCSEs was that the college found “the cliff-edge pass/fail in Functional Skills did not recognise progress, and was demotivating for those who did not pass”.

In 2017/18, 1,310 students re-sat GCSE maths with a 7.5 per cent A*-C success rate and 1,300 re-sat GCSE English with 13.4 per cent achieving grades A*-C.

“While the GCSE grading system has imperfections, it does at least allow us to demonstrate and recognise incremental improvement,” the spokesperson added.

HCUC, a merger between Uxbridge College and Harrow College, entered the fourth and eighth-most students to re-sit GCSE English and maths respectively in 2017/18.

A spokesperson said: “Our intention is that students will be appropriately stretched to support their progress, progression and aspirations through GCSE and Functional Skill pathways.”

Moreover, a spokesperson from NCG, which has seven colleges across the country, told FE Week that the curriculum at each was “designed to respond to the needs of the students at each individual college”.

“In some cases this does include entering students with a grade 2 for GCSE exams if their progression route requires them to have GCSE.”

A spokesperson for BMet in the West Midlands added: “Like other colleges we believe it’s important that all of our students have access to GSCE maths and English and have the opportunity to re-sit their exams, which is why we have adopted this approach.”

A Nottingham College spokesperson also said: “The College continues to refine its approach to meet the needs of individual learners and maximise their opportunities to achieve English and maths qualifications. This includes offering a range of study opportunities including GCSE and Functional skills.”

Figures for City College Norwich reveal that 1,200 studied GCSE Maths and 1,150 took English. When asked why more were re-sitting the exam than the government policy required, a spokesperson said: “In many cases, GCSE English and maths are the correct qualifications for their intended destination as they are widely recognised and understood by employers and often a formal entry requirement of Higher Education providers.”

The Association of College’s senior policy manager, Catherine Sezen, said the reasons for entering students into the exams varied according to individual profiles: “For some, re-taking GCSE and improving your grade, even from a grade 2 to a grade 3, can be seen as a positive step in the right direction.

“For others, re-taking GCSE several times is regarded as a negative, demotivating experience.”

She said “the jury is out” on how appropriate Functional Skills specifications are in meeting students’ needs.

Cheshire College South and West was approached for comment.

A move to campus-level Ofsted grades for college groups is back on the cards and they could be introduced as soon as next September, FE Week can reveal.

The education watchdog will shortly meet with college leaders to discuss the move and a consultation will be run early in the new year.

If support for it is there, Ofsted will not wait for a new inspection framework to launch the change.

“College voices may not get fair representation in a single report”

Campus-level grading was first mooted in 2017 but chief inspector Amanda Spielman (pictured) ruled it out last year as the inspectorate needed “more granulated performance data”.

Paul Joyce, Ofsted’s director for FE and skills, has now acknowledged that data should no longer be a barrier, but affordability and resource might be.

Big college groups, including the likes of NCG and Luminate Education (formerly known as Leeds City College Group), said they would support the move, stating that it would be more useful for students, parents and employers “to see separate reports for their colleges”.

Joyce revealed the plans during an FE Week event last week after he was challenged on the set-up of current inspection reports and the issues they hold for college groups.

Tresham College in Northamptonshire, for example, was awarded a grade four based on an inspection in June 2016. On 1 August 2017 it merged with Bedford College Group and had its Ofsted rating wiped.

It still exists with its own website and Tresham College branding with its main “iconic campus on Windmill Avenue” in Kettering and a “modern £36 million Corby campus”.

Tresham College campuses are 25 and 35 miles from Bedford College. Bedford College Group, including Tresham College, was inspected in September 2019 and received a grade two for overall effectiveness.

But the now very short report, which only has three pages of feedback, tells the reader nothing about Tresham’s previous grade four, nor does it say anything that identifies provision at the college’s two sites.

Just this week Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group was given the first grade one for a college under the new inspection framework. It was the first full inspection of the group since it was formed from a merger of Newcastle-under-Lyme College and Stafford College in 2016.

The latter was rated as “inadequate” at its previous inspection in February 2016, but the new report said nothing about the previous grade or about the specific provision at the Stafford site.

A similar situation will occur for NCG. Among the seven individual colleges in its group are Lewisham and Southwark, which are London-based and located 300 miles away from NCG’s headquarters in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Asked what a resident in south London would find out about the quality of the learning experience at Lewisham College in NCG’s report under the new inspection framework, Joyce admitted that it would be “next to nothing”.

Liz Bromley, chief executive of NCG, said her group was “concerned that our college voices – with their variation in scale and size – may not get fair representation in a single, brief, group-level report”.

Bedford College Group declined to comment on the potential move to campus-level Ofsted grading, other than to say it was “delighted to gain a group-wide ‘good’ status in our latest inspection”.

David Corke, director of education and skills policy at the Association of Colleges, said his organisation was in favour of campus grades as they are “important for large college groups and multi-site colleges to be inspected fairly”.

He added that Ofsted was now engaging with the sector through pilot inspections to “make sure that the model used to inspect and/or grade colleges is fair, proportionate and avoids the prospect of limiting grades”.

The idea of campus-level grades was brought to the table two years ago, and the prospect was heightened in August 2018 after the Department for Education (DfE) confirmed that it would introduce campus-level performance reporting from the 2018/19 academic year.

Government data now identifies a “campus within a college group” that is “no longer a separate legal entity”.

“The problem is getting greater as more colleges merge”

While official achievement rate data is no longer a barrier to include campus grading under the new Ofsted framework, which was rolled out in September, the watchdog will probably have to gain extra funding from the DfE to make it happen.

A similar deal was struck in September 2018 for Ofsted to visit all new providers entering the apprenticeships market. The DfE handed over £5.4 million, which is being used until March 2020 to carry out as many as 1,200 two-day monitoring visits.

Joyce acknowledged that the problem of overall college group grades is getting greater as more and more colleges merge.

The DfE launched post-16 area reviews in September 2015, which have led to the number of general FE colleges in England shrinking from 241 to 193 as of April 2019, according to an “end of programme report” published by the government.

And data produced by the Association of Colleges states that there are currently 248 further education and sixth-form colleges in England, compared with almost 450 when colleges were incorporated in 1993.

 

What do the five largest college groups in England think about campus grading?

LTE Group

Number of individual colleges: 1

Overall staff numbers: 3,227*

Total income: £183,877,000*

Current Ofsted grade: 2

Despite being the college group with the largest income, the LTE Group only has one college: The Manchester College.

The group is a not-for-profit social enterprise that also encompasses two independent training providers – UCEN Manchester and Total People – as well as a commercial provider called MOL, and a prison education provider, Novus.

John Evans, vice principal at The Manchester College, said Ofsted should “distinguish between multi-site colleges like ours and groups which include several distinct colleges, often geographically dispersed and previously separate institutions”.

“Common sense suggests inspecting the latter separately would lead to more useful reports when identifying the individual and relative strengths and weaknesses of each constituent college,” he told FE Week.

“They probably serve different localities; therefore their responsiveness to different local economic priorities should be evaluated in inspection.”

He added that a single inspection of a whole group of colleges, particularly given the “narrower range of judgments contained in much shorter reports”, does not make differences in areas such as safeguarding and curriculum “clear enough to a reader looking for help in deciding whether or not to enrol at one of the colleges”.

Evans said the LTE Group, on the other hand, comprises a number of “complementary” providers including just one college, which currently has nine sites or campuses. They all “share a curriculum responsive to the same local employment priorities, the same localised governance arrangements and broadly the same safeguarding challenges”.

He added: “Our biggest challenge is ensuring provision is consistently high quality across every site, so inspection of the whole college makes much more sense.”

 

NCG

Number of individual colleges: 7

Overall staff numbers: 2,399*

Total income: £158,234,000*

Current Ofsted grade: 3

NCG, formerly known as the Newcastle Colleges Group, is the largest group in terms of the number of individual colleges.

Its divisions include Carlisle College, Kidderminster College, Lewisham College, Newcastle College, Newcastle Sixth Form College, Southwark College and Lewisham College.

Liz Bromley, chief executive of the group, said her group would “fully support campus-based inspections” as they “will give our local learners, partners, stakeholders and employers important information about our colleges”.

“We have been monitoring the early inspection reports with interest, particularly in relation to the changes in format, content and intended audience,” she told FE Week.

“The curriculum-based focus is welcome, and appropriate, even though it presents a challenge to a college group such as ours. We are concerned that our college voices – with their variation in scale and size – may not get fair representation in a single, brief, group-level report.

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to give our feedback directly to Ofsted through an AoC working group, where we will show both our support for the campus-level inspections and raise our concerns about the complexity of group-level reports.”

 

Capital City College Group

Number of individual colleges: 3

Overall staff numbers: 1,474*

Total income: £111,987,000*

Current Ofsted grade: 2

The group encompasses three colleges – City and Islington College, Westminster Kingsway College and The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London – spread across 11 sites across London.

It also runs an independent provider called Capital City College Training.

On the prospect of campus-level inspections, a Capital City College Group spokesperson said: “We have 11 main sites across five London boroughs that between them teach a wide range of courses and levels from culinary arts to construction, animal management to rail engineering, to over 24,000 students aged from 14 to 89.

“As such a complex organisation with so many students and subject areas, we feel that it’s important that inspections can provide as complete a picture of college life – as well as adequately assessing the quality of teaching and learning – as possible.

“So we would welcome a consultation by Ofsted that looks into expanding their inspection regime so that it can provide much richer information to current and potential students, their families and all our stakeholders.”

 

Luminate Education Group

Number of individual colleges: 4

Overall staff numbers: 1,265*

Total income: £98,588,000*

Current Ofsted grade: Not inspected as a group yet

Leeds City College Group changed its name to the Luminate Education Group this year.

Its divisions now include Leeds City College, Keighley College, Harrogate College, and Leeds College of Music. It also runs the White Rose Academies Trust.

Colin Booth, the group’s chief executive, said campus-level inspections would be “helpful”.

“Luminate Education Group would welcome campus-based inspections. Ofsted inspections provide feedback and help us to focus so that we can ensure that all our colleges and schools continue to improve,” he told FE Week.

“We think that it would be more helpful for Leeds City College, Keighley College and Harrogate College if we were to receive separate Ofsted reports for each college. We also think that it would be more useful for students, parents and employers in Leeds, Keighley and Harrogate to see separate reports for their colleges.

“For education (or college) groups long term, we also think that it would be a good idea to receive short reports on how well the group is performing as a whole. This shouldn’t be difficult – it could easily be based around how well we are supporting each college and school to improve.”

 

Bedford College Group

Number of individual colleges: 5

Overall staff numbers: 812*

Total income: £82,375,000*

Current Ofsted grade: 2

The Bedford College Group encompasses Bedford College, Shuttleworth College, The Bedford Sixth Form, and Tresham College. It also runs the National College for Motorsport.

When asked if they would welcome campus-level inspections, the group said it did not wish to comment at this early stage of the process.

A spokesperson did say that they were “delighted” to gain a group-wide ‘good’ status in its latest Ofsted inspection.

 

*This data has been taken from the groups’ latest available accounts, for 2017/18.

A college will pay off almost £250,000 in loans debt for 59 victims of a subcontracting scandal.

FE Week revealed last week that the learners were being forced to repay thousands of pounds each for courses they did not complete.

Hours after the publication of the investigation, which found that many workers did not know they had signed up to an advanced learner loan or had never received any training, West London College agreed to pay the cost of the debts in full.

In 2015 the courses were subcontracted to a private provider called Edudo, which went into voluntary liquidation in 2017.

The victims told FE Week how they had suffered from stress and depression over the past four years and said that all those involved had “washed their hands” of their cases.

Karen Redhead, who took over as principal of West London College in September 2018, said it was an “easy decision to agree to repay the income to the Student Loans Company (SLC)”.

“It is the right thing to do and the only thing to do under the circumstances,” she added.

“The people affected are hardworking construction workers trying to improve their skills and prospects. My mission now is to achieve this as quickly as possible so everyone can get on with their lives.”

FE Week put the learners and college in direct contact and has passed on 16 more names, in addition to the 13 this newspaper reported on last week.

At the time of publication Redhead said: “So far we have managed to make contact with 24 individuals and are in the process of having the loans cancelled.

“The amount being repaid so far is just over £100,000 and the total amount could reach just under £244,000.”

According to the principal, West London College’s records show that there were 59 learners registered on a short construction programme with Edudo, but none of the students had achieved the qualification.

Due to the high turnover of managers at the college, Redhead said “there is nobody remaining that could help me fully understand what happened in 2015”. She was “wholly reliant on the data and on the personal testimonies featured in FE Week”.

Redhead added that she believed the victims, concluded that they did not know what they were signing up for and listened to how the situation had prevented them from enrolling on other education and training programmes. It also caused problems for those wishing to take out other loans with their banks.

Marcin Tryka, 38, who claimed that contact from Edudo was cut off after one site visit, said the confirmation of the loan write-off was still sinking in. “I can’t believe it happened really… [after] four years.

“That was the biggest worry I had. This was the ultimate problem for me. The loan [was] just getting bigger and bigger.”

Tryka plans to start college again as soon as he has received documentation from the SLC confirming the debt has been repaid.

“I can finally get my NVQ somewhere,” he said.

Members of the group planned to meet up and have been trying to reach as many of the other victims as possible.

“I am blessed right now, thanks to [FE Week]. I would like everyone to [be the] same,” Tryka added.

A training provider can ask the loans company to cancel a borrower’s loan, provided it returns the funds it has received under that loan  to the SLC and the learner has provided their consent.

An SLC spokesperson said: “Following communications from the college we can confirm that we have been asked to cancel the customer liability for these loans.

“The precise method of how this is done is being considered and the customers will be contacted in due course.”

Grzegorz Bogdanski, 34, who was being forced to repay a £5,421 loan, was the first to receive a call from Redhead last Friday notifying him that she had told the SLC that the college would repay the loans of the learners.

He said he was “so overjoyed it’s hard to describe its sensational feeling”.

Another victim, Roman Trela, 62, said that “a heavy burden” had been lifted and Radoslaw Michalowski, 42, said: “Everything is sorted now. [FE Week] really helped us.

“All my family is happy. Everyone is happy.”

Many of the victims claimed they had been previously sent “in circles” by authorities.

Juliana Mohamad Noor, NUS vice-president (Further Education), said: “NUS is pleased the fees students have incurred have finally been refunded, however four years is too long to resolve these situations and can hinder other channels of education in the wake.

“It is critical providers have back-up plans when they decide to subcontract courses, to ensure students are protected in this instance, and for regulators and providers to work together so students have clarity on how they are protected in the event of provider failure.”

Redhead said that West London College’s arrangements for the management of subcontracting were “now robust, and have been for the last 16 months or so, following a change of senior leadership and management in that area”.

“We are otherwise making really good progress on financial recovery and I do not anticipate this repayment impacting on this progress,” she added.

“The b***ards” was the reaction of one of many small businesses owed thousands of pounds by the first college to go into education administration.

Albion Fencing and Construction is one of 300 creditors awaiting a total of £40 million by Hadlow College, according to administrators BDO’s statement of proposals.

“It could not come at a worse time for us”

Albion in particular is owed £12,000 for decking and outdoor furniture at Betteshanger Visitor Centre near Deal in Kent, part of the Betteshanger Sustainable Parks project that Hadlow is selling after going into administration in May.

Manager Vicky Harris said she “did not expect in a million years it would go into administration and we would not get paid for the work we have done, especially when the project was almost finished”.

She says she feels “very let down” by the “b***ards” as it is “an awful lot of money to us”.

Albion has only just recovered from when the Kent amusement park Dreamland went into administration in 2016 and Harris predicts that it will take a year for the company to recover if Hadlow does not pay up.

“It could not come at a worse time for us,” she said, as business has slowed down in the county.

The government is another target of business anger.

Adrian Cross, managing director of electrical contracting firm Gilbert and Stamper, said Whitehall ought to be “doing more”.

It seemed strange to him that “the college can continue to run and dump all its debt”, including the £22,000 that he is expecting.

Steve Finch, finance director for Cambridge HOK, which constructed a £1.5 million glasshouse for Hadlow and is owed over £145,000, said he feels let down. “Our frustration comes from the fact legislation [meaning colleges could become insolvent] changed between us signing the contract and completing it,” he said.

Finch believes his prospects of being paid depend on whether whichever college takes over Hadlow wants to use the glasshouse for provision.

“Legislation changed between us signing the contract and completing it”

The Department for Education is the largest creditor. It is owed £10.8 million by the college, which will also have to fork out over £2 million for the costs of the administration process.

BDO has billed the DfE for £627,407 for a total of 3,208 hours’ work. This is an average of £196 per hour, although BDO partners charge £320 per hour.

The accountancy firm estimates that this will rise to £1.1 million by 24 April 2020, plus a further £1 million for four property agents, three law firms and a specialist insurer.

The college even owes Ofsted £1,561 for an annual routine fee for the inspection of the college’s residential provision.

Beforehand though, there is the small matter of a £5 million secured loan from Barclays Bank which the college needs to pay back.

Were this a normal administration, property could be sold to pay back creditors; however, education administration carries a “learner projection objective”. 

This means that BDO believes it is “uncertain” whether creditors will be paid back, as “the majority of the assets of the college are designated to be for educational purposes”.

One debt which is not affected by education administration is the £9 million debt to the pension scheme, the second largest creditor on the books.

BDO has said that it has been “advised that staff accrued pension rights will be unaffected” by the administration process and any subsequent sale.

A spokesperson for BDO declined to comment on the specific claims of creditors but said it was working with the college’s interim principal Graham Morley and his team to “ensure the college continues to operate as normal”.

 

Morley was brought in to run both Hadlow and sister college West Kent and Ashford College, which is also in administration, after principal Paul Hannan and deputy principal Mark Lumsdon-Taylor resigned.

The Insolvency Service confirmed this week that it was investigating the “conduct of relevant personnel in the period leading up to the onset of insolvency”.

This would probably include Hannan, Lumsdon-Taylor and former chair Theresa Bruton, who left around the same time.

The FE Commissioner report published in May said that Hannan and Lumsdon-Taylor “regularly made decisions themselves outside of executive and any open discussion –
and reacted strongly to questioning or challenge”.

Among a number of concerns with data and land transactions, it has also been alleged that Lumsdon-Taylor doctored emails from the Education and Skills Funding Agency to prove that he was entitled to claim extra funding, which he said had been agreed when Hadlow College adopted West Kent and Ashford College from K College.

The first college to receive a grade one rating under Ofsted’s new inspection framework is Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group.

Inspectors graded the college ‘outstanding’ across the board, in a glowing report published this morning.

Principal Karen Dobson (pictured) said while the inspection was “intense”, getting the top grade was “absolutely brilliant” and a testament to the “hard work, talent and total commitment of our staff team”.

She paid tribute to the students, apprentices, governors and employer partners, without whom “we wouldn’t have been able to achieve this result”.

This is the first full inspection of the group since it was formed from a merger of Newcastle College and Stafford College in 2016. The latter was rated as ‘inadequate’ at its previous inspection in February 2016.

Dobson said that at the point of merger between Newcastle-under-Lyme College and Stafford College, their ambition was to make NSCG “one of the top colleges in the country and ultimately a great place to study and work”.

And she looks to have succeeded after Ofsted found leaders and managers have integrated the two campuses “rapidly” and set high expectations for both staff and learners.

Plaudits have already been coming in for the college, with the Sixth Form Colleges Association chief executive Bill Watkin saying: “To secure this judgement under an exacting new framework, and only three years on from a merger, makes its success even more remarkable.”

The report itself records NSCG’s 6,808 learners “thrive in a positive, stimulating and safe learning environment”, while also noting they enjoy their time at college very much.

And inspectors were particularly impressed by the clear, supportive and challenging direction by senior leaders at NSCG, which meant staff feel highly motivated and able to deliver an outstanding learning experience.

Teachers and trainers design a curriculum so learners and apprentices develop the specific knowledge and skills employers demand.

“For example, during a real-life project, care learners gained a deep empathy and appreciation for their clients’ needs when trying on a body suit to replicate the experience of a pregnant woman and an elderly person,” the report said.

Governors, through close scrutiny of the college’s work and the provision by 11 subcontractors, “have a clear understanding of its strengths and weaknesses and provide very effective support to leaders”.

There is “high-quality” and “unbiased” careers information, advice and guidance on offer to learners and apprentices throughout their time at college, which allows them to make informed choices about their course and future career options.

Ofsted also found there was a strong culture of safeguarding at the college, where vulnerable learners are identified quickly and ensure they are supported from harm and can continue their studies.

Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group is the first general FE college to receive a grade one in two years – the last was Fareham College in November 2017.

This latest positive result for the college sector comes after FE Week analysis, published last month, revealed 78 per cent of general FE colleges are now rated either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ – a record high.

And while this is the first grade one under the new framework, several other colleges such as Tyne Coast and Bedford have already earned a grade two since the inspectorate changed reports in September.

A Manchester sixth form college has become the sector’s latest cyber-attack victim, after criminals hacked a teacher’s email to say it would be attacked by Israel.

This was included in a series of messages to learners at Loreto College received late last night and early this morning, according to the Manchester Evening News.

The hackers wrote the college would be closed today due to a gas leak and later followed that up with an email claiming Adolf Hitler would be visiting.

The email read: “Hi students, in the upcoming week we will be receiving a visit from the man himself, Hitler.

“This is why we emailed as a gas leak, as we are unsure of his mental status, as a precaution. Please bring a gas mask in, just in case he tried anything dodgy, thank you. Sincerely, Blue Power Ranger.”

Another message said because of a visit to the college from Palestinian representatives, Israel had designated the Roman Catholic institution “part of a terrorist premises” and “an attack is imminent”.

The college has since released a statement saying: “The college is aware that overnight, emails have been sent to students from a currently unknown source.

“We are working with the police and college network team to identify the source and address the situation.

“We apologise for any distress or upset this may have caused. Please be reassured that we are taking this situation very seriously. College is open as normal.”

Greater Manchester Police has been contacted for comment.

This is the latest in a string of cyber-crimes committed against colleges: In September, criminals accessed the details of students and staff of Swindon College; which led to the college’s website and phone going offline.

That same month, South Staffordshire College’s IT system was successfully targeted by an “ethical hacker” who sent out internal emails which had allegedly been doctored to include a racist word.

Fraudsters hacked into the email of Lakes College principal Chris Nattress to try and trick people into transferring money, in what is known as a phishing scam.

The problem became so bad the ESFA put out cybercrime advice in August telling providers to employ firewalls, data back-ups and to train staff in verifying email senders to protect themselves against cyber-attacks.

A member of the National Cyber Security Centre wrote in FE Week that “devastating” cybercrimes could be rendered less likely to succeed if providers lead from the top, support technical teams, and test their preparedness for a cyber incident.