Annual Report 2012 - Highbury College

Priority 4
Reputation
We will maintain our reputation for an outstanding approach
to educational and social inclusion, strong employer
engagement, partnership working and skills development.
Our outstanding qualification success rates, entry to
university level programmes, world-class facilities and
innovative learning environments with the use of technology
as a distinguishing feature will underpin the further
development of our reputation.
In 2012:
• An Ofsted Good Practice report published in April praised
our highly inclusive atmosphere and student-focused
approach, which ensures that Highbury is a ‘college for
everyone’.
• We achieved the Investors in People Gold Award,
demonstrating our excellence in developing and
supporting staff.
• Highbury’s Five Ways to Wellbeing initiative won the
Health and Wellbeing category at the Leading the Learner
Voice Awards, hosted by The Learning and Skills
Improvement Service (LSIS) and the National Union of
Students (NUS).
• The College continued to maintain excellent relationships
with over 700 employers, including EADS Astrium, IBM,
Rolls-Royce and Veolia.
• We partnered with Mayfield School in Portsmouth to
jointly develop a new Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics (STEM) Centre of Excellence to inspire
young people and demonstrate the potential of STEM
subjects and careers across the City.
• Our partnership working with Highbury Primary School
included linking the school to the College's network
resulting in significant improvements in their IT facilities.
We also delivered theatre workshops as well as SATS
boosters for pupils at risk of not fulfilling their potential.
• More than 100 secondary school girls attended a Women
in Business and IT day hosted by Highbury in April, to
hear from women entrepreneurs and women working
for a range of companies including L'Oreal and IBM.
• John Hayes MP, the Minister of State for Further
Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, acknowledged
Highbury’s success in international education at an
Association of Colleges (AoC) International Conference
in May.
• The quality of our provision for international students was
confirmed when we became the first further education
college in the South East to receive the Association of
College’s (AoC) Charter for International Excellence. The
prestigious award was presented to Highbury at the AoC
conference in November.
• We were successful in our fourth reaccreditation for the
Matrix Standard, demonstrating our strengths in the
effective delivery of information, advice and guidance on
learning and work.
• The College was highly commended in the Hampshire
Business Awards in the sustainability category, sponsored
by legal firm Blake Lapthorne.
• Chief (Barr.) Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, Honourable Minister
of State for Education in Nigeria, led a delegation of
government officials to Highbury in January to see how
young people in the UK are trained in vocational skills.
• For the second year in a row, Highbury hosted regional
competitions for WorldSkills UK in two areas, web design
and construction skills.
• A lecturer from the Computing, Business &
Professional Studies department was selected to be a
professional development tutor for WorldSkills UK and
is now part of the official training team.
• In a survey of 157 Group colleges in September,
Highbury topped the list for Facebook engagement
for users.
• For the second year in a row, Highbury’s NCTJ Diploma
was named the best performing FE fast-track course in
the country by the National Council for the Training of
Journalists.
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