ANOTHER OUTSTANDING YEAR FOR ESHER COLLEGE 

Esher College again maintained its outstanding success of recent years, performing excellently on all fronts.  The Government’s new assessment structure for post-16 education, entitled ‘Framework for Excellence’, awarded the College four ‘outstanding’ and three ‘good’ categorisations, clearly an impressive set of outcomes.  A variety of new policies were approved, covering a wide range of subjects including Admissions, Bullying/Harassment, Community Cohesion, Mental Health and Safeguarding. The College focus on issues associated with equality and diversity was further enhanced, as was learner involvement in College activities. A range of refurbishment and redecoration of the estate occurred, to keep the campus environment in top condition, and substantial investment in the College IT infrastructure, in accordance with the ILT Strategic Plan 2007-2010, was achieved. Overall, the College was governed and managed very well.

The main source of funding for the College was the Learning and Skills Council, administered by their Surrey office in Woking, which set enrolment targets for our funded students.  Both full-time and part-time enrolment targets were exceeded, with the latter recording 706 individuals enrolling for 1,007 courses. The part-time enrolments represent a healthy level of enrolment to our adult education provision.

The examination pass rates for Level 3 courses (primarily GCE AS and A levels) and high grades (A or B) were considerably above national averages. The success rate (achievement x retention) for all Level 3 courses was a very healthy 88%.  The 724 College leavers at the end of the academic year considerably improved their university point scores compared with the previous year, with an average of 806 points per student and 218.5 points per entry. The top 250 students averaged 1,017 points, with the top 50 averaging 1,177 points. 93.5% of second year leavers were planning to go on to university or other forms of continuing education, with another 4.4% going directly into employment.

The College continued to be proactive in developing partnership and collaborative activities with other organisations, particularly involving the S7 Consortium of Surrey Sixth Form Colleges, the Elmbridge 14-19 Consortium and the Elmbridge Schools Partnership. Cross-institution benchmarking and interactive activities were enhanced, particularly with the other four Surrey sixth form colleges and the Elmbridge secondary schools, and College management was encouraged by the Board to contribute proactively to developments and initiatives appropriate to the College mission. The Principal continued to be involved at a national level on the Sixth Form Colleges’ Forum Curriculum Committee and joined the newly formed Association of Colleges (AoC) 14-19 Portfolio Committee, which reports directly to the AoC board.  He also met with a number of Government ministers and officials, other politicians and relevant educational agencies, to offer advice and opinion and he was awarded an OBE in the 2009 Queen’s New Year Honours List.  Other staff were involved in local, regional and national initiatives across a range of subject areas and activities, relevant to their expertise, including being on the national development groups for the new Diplomas.  Links with HE institutions, located both locally and further afield, remained strong and our contribution to teacher training courses with the London Institute of Education and South-West London Teacher Education Consortium (SWELTEC) continued to be highly valued. 

The Corporation continued to operate successfully within its statutory Instrument & Articles of Government and its committee structure continued to fully satisfy the needs of the College.  A total of 20 meetings of the Corporation were held during the year, including 4 full board meetings.  All financial and strategic aspects of College operations were actively monitored by the Corporation, which considered that it had at its disposal sufficient and adequate operational details to allow it to make informed decisions on the continued successful progress of the College.   Excellent audit reports were received from both the internal and external College auditors, an ‘outstanding’ top grade was achieved for the Financial Management and Control Evaluation inspection of finance and governance and the overall financial position of the College was externally assessed as ‘good’.  The terms of office of two parent and two student governors came to an end during the year, and new governors were elected.  One external governor retired after two terms of office and a replacement was appointed immediately.

The Corporation is highly appreciative of the service and provision that the management and staff afford to the students and wider community and are intent on supporting the College to maintain the enviable position that it has generated for itself.  Whilst the future will undoubtedly pose significant challenges, Esher College Corporation looks forward to it positively.