Itchen College

Overview

Itchen College is a sixth-form college in Southampton that serves many students from deprived backgrounds with lower prior attainment. The inspection found that leaders and staff create a "very purposeful and welcoming learning environment" where students develop resilience and ambition. The college is highly effective at supporting social mobility and meeting local skills needs through strong employer partnerships.

Strengths

• Staff create a "caring, nurturing and supportive culture" where students "behave impeccably" and enjoy their learning.
• Teachers use initial assessments to plan learning that recognises students’ "often low starting points," helping them build knowledge in "fluency and complexity."
• The college makes a "reasonable contribution to meeting skills needs" by working closely with stakeholders to identify and respond to local employment gaps.
• Students with high needs make "outstanding progress" due to "highly ambitious and progressive pathways" and expert coordination of support.
• Leaders are "passionate about promoting social mobility" and work tirelessly to "break down barriers to learning" for disadvantaged students.

Areas to improve

• Too few students can recall the content of training on the risks of radicalisation and extremism.
• A small minority of learners cannot participate in enrichment activities due to the demands of their timetabled lessons.
• The involvement of stakeholders in the design and implementation of all programmes of learning is not yet consistently established.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, and students "rightly feel very safe at college" knowing that staff do not tolerate bullying and harassment.