Ofsted's Chief Inspector visits after top rating

His Majesty’s Chief Inspector has visited EKC Ashford College this week, shortly after the education watchdog awarded the East Kent Colleges Group Outstanding in its recent Ofsted Inspection. 

Amanda Spielman visited the College to meet with Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC) who are learning English on-site. During the visit she also got to see a range of other provision in action, taking a short tour around the campus and seeing teaching taking place.

Ofsted Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman said: “I’d like to thank everyone at East Kent Colleges Group for the warm welcome today and congratulate them on their recent outstanding judgement. 

“It was a pleasure to hear from staff and learners about their experiences, and particularly the work being done to help unaccompanied asylum seekers adapt to college life.

“The Group is playing a vital role equipping learners across east Kent with the skills and training needed for their chosen career.”

The visit by Ms Spielman comes just over a week after East Kent Colleges Group was awarded an overall ‘Outstanding’ grading by Ofsted, achieving the highest rating in all assessed factors. This success has seen the Group become the first General Further Education provider to achieve Outstanding across all areas of its provision since Ofsted’s new enhanced framework was introduced last year.

Graham Razey, Chief Executive Officer at East Kent Colleges Group, said: “As an inclusive provider we are absolutely committed to ensuring that there are opportunities for everyone within the communities we serve. This includes those young people who come to our country as unaccompanied asylum seekers, and I was incredibly proud to be able to show Amanda Spielman what the Group was doing to help them settle and prosper within their new communities. 

“It was wonderful to host the Chief Inspector and get to showcase our Ofsted Outstanding provision and even more fantastic to do it at EKC Ashford College which is currently undergoing a significant expansion with our Phase 2 capital development that will welcome an even larger proportion of the community into it when it is completed.”

EKC Ashford College itself has been the subject of two recent Ofsted inspections, with the Group’s recent Outstanding alongside a monitoring visit last year that saw it achieve the best possible result following its acquisition by the Group.