New College Stamford

New College Stamford

Established	1967
Principal	Andrew Patience
Location	Drift Road Stamford Lincolnshire PE9 1XA England
DfE URN	130760
Ofsted	Reports
Gender	Coeducational
Ages	16+
Website	website

Coordinates: 52°39′30″N 0°28′15″W / 52.6583°N 0.4707°W / 52.6583; -0.4707

New College Stamford is a Further Education college on Drift Road in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England.

College

Stamford Technical College was opened in 1967. It is now a general further education college providing full-time and part-time academic and vocational courses. The College has recently broadened its curriculum offer to meet the needs of the community, local and national priorities. This includes entertaining, music, dance, drama, broadcasting, TV, radio, journalism, land-based, science, medicine, nursing, dentistry, forensic, fashion, textiles, crafts, traditional, trowel trades, carpentry and joinery and motor vehicle courses.

The College has plans to develop and increase employer engagement opportunities to address identified skills gaps, in such areas as business services retail/distribution services, health and social care, construction, hairdressing and travel and tourism. The College is financially sound (LSC Grade A) and sustains a strong position in its market area. The following were listed as 'key strengths' in the report from the last full Ofsted inspection^[1] carried out in November 2006:

• "very clear vision and dynamic leadership" • "good and improving success rates" • "highly effective arrangements for monitoring and promoting equality and diversity" • "outstanding additional learning support" • "extremely thorough monitoring of learners’ progress" • "good provision for enrichment and the development of learners’ key skills"

Additionally, the PFA judgements for governance and financial management were “outstanding” in the 2006 inspection. In January and February 2006, the College took part in Ofsted surveys of Health and Social Care and Additional Learning Support, and included in a local LSC review of LLDD provision. The feedback from all three was “very positive”, confirming that the College continues to perform significantly above average.

The College also delivers a range of Higher Education courses in partnership with the University of Lincoln,^[2] The University of Northampton^[3] and Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln.^[4] In 2006 the college established new partnerships with three universities in the surrounding counties and as a result of these partnerships the college is now able to offer university level qualifications.

The college was awarded an AoC beacon Award in 2009.^[5]

The college offers a wide variety of courses from childcare, computing, sport and arts etc. The college also provides a selection of higher education (DipHE) courses associated with Universities (including the University of Lincoln). There were plans for a large leisure complex to be built next to the site, but these were rejected in 2003 by SKDC's planning committee as being a potential nuisance for nearby residents.^[6]

In February 2008 New College Stamford became the only Further Education College in the area to provide AS and A2 levels, when Peterborough Regional College announced that they would be refocusing to a vocational college more than academic. (This increased the application to NCS threefold).

Positives

The Government inspectorate Ofsted rated the College as “GOOD” overall at its last inspection in 2006. It was graded as follows; Effectiveness of provision Good: grade 2 Capacity to improve Good: grade 2 Achievements and standards Good: grade 2 Quality of provision Good: grade 2 Leadership and management Good: grade 2^[7]

In 2008 College developed a Sixth Form Academy, making A-Level study much more effective and timetabling that suits the students. The college is one of the only education providers in Lincolnshire provides a full range of progression opportunities. For example; A-Level, BTEC, NVQ, DipHE and BSc(Hons).

For those students that previously attended the college for Further Education, a £1000 bursary is applied to your tuition fees if students progress on to study Higher Education at Stamford. Students still need to apply through UCAS and pay the full fee amount via the Student Loans Company or self-payment. The bursary is provided in two sums of £500, one for completion of semester 1 and the other for completion of semester 2.

Negatives

Ofsted identified some key areas for improvement. They noted that quality improvement plans are linked appropriately to strengths and areas for improvement be identified in self-assessment reports. In many cases, however, the college recognises that milestones towards completion of targets are not specific enough, nor are they linked to quantifiable indicators to enable a clear and detailed view of progress.^[8]

Ofsted recognised that the College needed to improve retention rates on a few two year vocational programmes in 2004/05, improve the planning for, and development of, learning and improve the quality of self-assessment.^[9]

Since the last Ofsted Inspection these issues have since been rectified at the annual assessment visit in 2007.^[10]

Courses

Further education

New College Stamford provides A-Level, BTEC and NVQ qualifications. A whole range of courses are available in Computing, Multimedia, Health and Social Care, Pre-Uniform Services (NCFE), Sciences, Arts, Construction, Sports, Animal Care, Hair and Beauty, Catering and more (See E-Prospectus for more details).

Higher education

Since September 2007 the college has been aiming to provide more higher education subjects. Currently the college offers DipHE Web Technology, DipHE Multimedia Technology, Administration, Art and Design, Fine Art, Graphic Design, DipHE Business and Education–PGCE courses (correct as of Dec. 2008).

The college is in association with Lincoln University, Bishop Grosseteste University College, University of Northampton and Leeds Met University who all provide validation for the higher education courses offered at NCS.

Extra learning and Support

Key Skills levels 1 - 3 in Application of Number, Information Technology and Communication. Wider Key Skills (Tutorial) cover communication, writing, presenting, team building and learning some important life aspects including sexually transmitted infections. Value Added Time (VATs) is where a student sees their course leader on a one-to-one basis every so often. Course progress etc are discussed here. Tutorial (apart from covering Wider Key Skills) is where learning groups receive pastoral support away from the normal working environment.

Future Developments

The college is continually looking to increase the amount of Higher Education courses it can offer, giving students the choice to remain at college rather than going to University.

One major development is the new build in 2010.^[11] The current building will be demolished in the near future once the new building has been developed behind the Drift Road campus. The new building will mainly be underground, with the main floor being visible. Glass flooring will allow some working areas to be visible to visitors, students and parents. Natural sunlight will be reflected the floors below via some form of shaft. The new build will be very modern and will allow the college to extend its courses even more.

With the removal of the main "tower" building one of the main landmarks of the town will be removed and a shadow over the surrounding residential homes removed also.

Long term plans

New College Stamford aims to "evolve into a small University" in a few years time,^[12] offering a full course of study in qualifications like the BSc (Hons) rather than doing two years at Stamford (DipHE) and the final 3rd year at Lincoln (BSc (Hons) for example.

References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ [2]
3. ^ [3]
4. ^ [4]
5. ^ [5]
6. ^ [6]
7. ^ [7]
8. ^ [8]
9. ^ [9]
10. ^ [10]
11. ^ [11]
12. ^ [12]

External links

• College Website
• College Webmail
• College VLE (DigitalBrain)
• College YouTube Channel