Weymouth and Kingston Maurward College

Overview

Weymouth and Kingston Maurward College, formed in August 2024, is judged as “Good” across all inspection categories. The report highlights a successful merger that has established a “collaborative culture” placing learners at the forefront, with staff demonstrating “utmost integrity and resilience.”

Strengths

• Learners and apprentices “enjoy their time at college,” displaying high attendance, punctuality, and “respectful, polite and articulate” behaviour.
• Staff create a “calm and focused learning environment” and provide effective support for learners with high needs and SEND, ensuring they make progress in line with peers.
• Curriculums are “highly valued by employers” and designed in logical sequences, such as aligning equine studies assessments with seasonal competitions.
• The college makes a “strong contribution to meeting skills needs” through active collaboration with local stakeholders and regional decision-making bodies.
• Leaders have introduced targeted courses, such as a foundation diploma in agriculture, to support learners who need additional time to improve English and mathematics.

Areas to improve

• Provide all learners and apprentices with feedback that helps them to improve, rather than focusing merely on task completion or missing spelling errors.
• Ensure the apprenticeship curriculum integrates on- and off-the-job training well so that all apprentices make good progress and are ready for end tests.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, with suitable measures like security staff in place to help learners feel safe and confident in reporting concerns.