A college principal says he has taken rapid action after Ofsted raised a number of health and safety concerns during a visit that led to an inadequate grade.

Moulton College, a specialist further education college with a focus on land-based subjects, sports, and construction, was last inspected in April 2016 when it was found to require improvement.

Ofsted inspectors visited most recently in February and found that not all students and apprentices were safe when undertaking activities at the college in Northamptonshire.

‘A number of health and safety concerns’

Commenting on the report, college principal Stephen Davies said he was “naturally extremely disappointed” by the results of the inspection.

“Ofsted raised a number of health and safety concerns that had a significant impact on the college’s grading. We would want to take this opportunity to stress that the college remains a safe place to work and study.

“However, we accept Ofsted’s inspection findings and have taken rapid and decisive action to address their concerns” and “teachers’ expectations of students are too low.”

The report also found that much teaching “is not good enough, and managers’ actions to improve it have had little impact.” Mr Davies addressed this, saying there is “a lot of work to do”. “While the report does not reflect the progress that has been made in recent years in terms of teaching quality, we must accept that Ofsted did not see enough good teaching and that more work must be done to embed improvements in this area.

‘A lot of work to do’

“Our fantastic staff are dedicated and diligent and our students work hard to progress in their studies or into their chosen careers and it is regrettable that the report does not reflect that,” Mr Davies added.

The chair of governors Robin Thompson said he was pleased Ofsted noted strengths “in a range of areas”. “In particular employability and work-related training, our commercial links with employers, what they described as our excellent range of specialist facilities and teacher expertise.

“We have a proud history of serving this community and region - and the agricultural and horticultural sectors across the UK. For almost a century and during that time we have prided ourselves as much on our pastoral care as our educational impact.”

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