Coulsdon Sixth Form College has grown by nearly 200 students this year; an increase of more than 20% in student numbers – no College last year grew by more than 15%. A level pass rates have been over 99% for the last two years and staff and students alike tell us it’s a great place to be.
How did we do it? That’s a question the Department of Education, Ofsted and just about every other College in the country has asked of Steve Oxlade the Executive Principal of Reigate and Coulsdon Colleges. Mr Oxlade said “Running a successful College is really quite simple; there are only three things you have to get right – teaching, systems and relationships. Everything flows from these three fundamentals. We have tackled all three at once using the Reigate College blueprint, so being a student at Coulsdon is now a very similar experience to being at Reigate. “
Following the “remarkable transformation” reported by Ofsted in November 2013 and Coulsdon College’s full inspection in February 2014, the college has continued to go from strength-to-strength.
Brett Freeman, Principal at Coulsdon commented: “We’ve all worked so hard to achieve such significant improvements in such a short amount of time and now we can say with absolute confidence that there is nowhere else locally that provides the range of courses at the quality we guarantee at Coulsdon. What we all must remember though is that the College’s progress is down to students raising the bar with their coursework and examinations and generally aspiring to better outcomes. Our job is to continue to create a supportive culture in which all of our students feel good about being here and are accepting of the need to work hard every single day.”
Steve Oxlade added, “Coulsdon College is now the only sixth form in the whole borough that offers a broad enough curriculum to attract aspiring doctors, dentists, vets and lawyers as well as nurses, travel agents and sports therapists – and just about everything in between! We use one word to describe our approach to being the best – relentless – and it continues to serve us well.”
