Bracknell and Woking-ham College’s principal says it is on course to gain ‘an outstanding’ Ofsted rating, after an improved grading in its latest inspection.

The college has been awarded a ‘good ’ rating by the education watchdog – up from its previous ‘satisfactory’ grading .

Principal Campbell Christie said the college was on track to gain Ofsted’s top grade of ‘outstanding’ by his target date of 2016.

He said: “This Ofsted report reflects the significant progress staff and governors have made over the last couple of years and indicates we are well on our way to achieving our goal of becoming a world-class, outstanding college.” Robin Cops, chairman of the college’s corporation (board of governors), added: “The result is brilliant and keeps us on track to become the best in Berkshire and achieve an ‘outstanding’ rating in the future. That’s a tribute to all our staff and students and reflects what we have been trying to achieve to meet our mission to fulfil the potential of all students.” The Ofsted inspectors were particularly impressed by the focus on making learning relevant to employment practices, with students improving their broader skills as well as gaining qualifications.

The report, published last week, said students do better at the college “than might be anticipated from their previous results”.

Students told inspectors – who visited the college for a week in November – that they enjoy their learning at the college because their teachers motivate them to succeed in their studies.

Samir Chouki, 23, from Ascot, was one of those who spoke to the inspectors, explaining how the college uses a computer system to update students’ results so they can compare them with their predicted grades.

The first-year Sport student said: “I am pleased that we have jumped up a grade – I have experienced high levels of teaching in the past and that is what we get here.

In the individual categories within the latest Ofsted inspection, the college was rated ‘good’ for quality of teaching, learning and assessment, and also foreffectiveness of leadership and management.

Highlights of the report included: l Learners gain the qualifications they want l Teaching, learning and assessment is good l Students are assessed well so that teaching meets their needs l Staff carefully plot learners’ starting points and make sure they are fully aware of their target grades l Leaders and managers are enthusiastically raising standards However, the ‘outcomes for learners’ category was judged by Ofsted as ‘requiring improvement’.

Inspectors said the achievements of some groups of learners was not as high as it should be and pointed to the drop-out rate on many of the college’s subject areas.