Filton College

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Filton College is a further education college in Filton, Bristol, England. The main site lies on the A38 just south of Filton Aerodrome. A second major campus, dedicated to performing arts, fine art and sport, and known as WISE (West of England Institute of Specialist Education), opened in 2005 adjacent to Filton High School, near Bristol Parkway station. The college also runs the Bristol School of Art in Clifton, and teaches courses at other sites around Bristol and South Gloucestershire.

Filton provides for a number of qualifications, including GCSEs and A-levels, as well as a number of vocational courses leading to BTEC First and National Diplomas and other similar qualifications, and some higher education courses leading to HNDs and Foundation Degrees. It also runs EFL programmes for non-native speakers of English.

The College is a Centre of Vocational Excellence in gas engineering in partnership with Centrica plc and is a partner in a CoVE in aeronautical engineering led by City of Bristol College.

[edit] The Campus

A-level Students attend classes at the main A-level Block (A-Block), adjacent to the main campus or in classrooms within the main site. At the A-level Block there is a small cafe selling hot drinks and a few hot meals.

BTEC/National Diploma students attend classes in the main block or in the Arts block (F-Block).

Media/Photography Students attend classes in F-Block, which is across the car park from the main site or at WISE.

Sports/academy Students attend classes at WISE campus

The main site has a refectory where hot food is served, a small sweet shop, and a Student Centre.

[edit] Ofsted reports

The College was most recently inspected by Ofsted and the Adult Learning Inspectorate in November 2003. They found that:

"The overall quality of the provision is satisfactory: of the eleven areas of learning inspected, eight were judged to be satisfactory and three, good. The work-based learning in childcare was judged to be good, as was the professional management provision in business administration, management and professional."

Key strengths identified by the report were:

• strong and effective leadership by the principal
• clear strategic direction provided by governors
• high pass rates on most courses
• a responsive range of provision for the wider community
• effective strategies to promote social inclusion
• very good relationships.

Areas identified for improvement were:

• the consistency of course management
• the monitoring of teaching and learning
• the rigour of course reviews and self-assessment reports
• students' attendance
• the monitoring of student support services
• the use of information and learning technology (ILT) in teaching and learning.

[edit] External links

• Filton College website
• Ofsted/ALI report, November 2003