South Gloucestershire & Stroud (SGS) College celebrates Ofsted inspection

SGS College is celebrating the result of a recent Ofsted inspection, which saw the college receive an overall rating of good with outstanding judgements for personal development and adult provision.

South Gloucestershire and Stroud college (SGS) was formed from the merger of Filton and Stroud colleges in 2012. The college has six main campuses. The Filton and WISE campuses in North Bristol, the nearby SGS Horizon campus opened in 2023 to provide specialist construction facilities for apprentices. The Queens Road campus in central Bristol specializing in art, plus the Stroud campus in Gloucestershire providing a range of vocational education programmes and the new SGS Create facility for learners aged 14 to 16, many ofwhom have social, emotional or mental health difficulties. There is also SGS Berkeley Green based within the Gloucestershire Science and Technology Park. 

SGS was judged as having a clear and ambitious vision for providing education and training that contributes strongly to meeting the needs of local and national employers. It was felt by Ofsted that the College considers carefully their local communities and demographics, designing and building provision that aims to empower learners and apprentices, enabling social mobility and improved life chances.

This was especially true with the new SGS Create, based at the Stroud Campus. Ofsted stated that the College had been courageous in their development of new full-time provision for learners aged 14 to 16 in Gloucestershire, committing substantial resources, time and research into developing the curriculum, to ensure that it meets the needs of these young learners extremely well.

Ousted also said it was evident SGS works highly collaboratively with local authorities, the West of England Combined Authority, Job Centre Plus, Business West - the largest regional Employer Representative Body in the country, and more than 1,500 employers, including many small medium and large organisations, such as the NHS and Amazon. 

Sara-Jane Watkins, Principal of SGS College, said: ‘We are really proud of the judgements that Ofsted have made of SGS.  They recognise the excellent work that staff across the College have made in their commitment and enthusiasm in delivering great education and learning for all of our learners.  We are especially proud of the recognition that Ofsted has made of our many initiatives that we have developed in order to help so many of those disadvantaged in society.  

"We want to make a positive difference to the lives of all of those we support.  Having the great work we do with employers recognised is also pleasing as we have put so much energy into ensuring that our curriculum offer meets local needs and that we are seen as one of the main providers of local talent and are really supporting the region with their workforce for the future."

Matt Atkinson, Chair of Governors at SGS College, added: "The board of governors are absolutely delighted with our recent inspection outcome. This is a real testament to the hard work of our dedicated staff and fantastic students. The inspectorate highlighted our many strengths and we now have a clear roadmap to become absolutely fantastic in everything we do. Colleges are at the heart of the UK’s economy and I am delighted that the strong contribution we make to driving skills has been recognised in this report."