TRURO and Penwith College has been downgraded from “outstanding” to “good” in its latest Ofsted report.

Its provision for learners with high needs also “requires improvement”.

The college was rated “outstanding” in 2016, including for its provision for high-needs learners. Following a four-day visit in December 2024, inspectors said students on progression pathway programmes do not always receive “the same high levels of support or personalised learning to meet their individual needs” as their peers on vocational and academic programmes.

Their teachers, meanwhile, “do not use effective teaching strategies” and "do not always set ambitious goals for students or plan lessons to meet individual students’ needs well enough”.

The report continues: “Too often, teachers fail to build on students’ prior knowledge, making it difficult for students to learn or apply new concepts. They do not always challenge students sufficiently, which limits their academic and personal development.”

The college caters for 4,900 students across campuses in Truro, Penzance and Bodmin. The small Tregye campus near Truro offers specialist provision for high-needs students.

Truro and Penwith College retained its outstanding grading in three categories, including apprenticeships; and was rated “good” in three more.

Principal Martin Tucker said the college was “working on improvements to our offer for our small bespoke centre of High Needs provision ... which Ofsted found to be requiring some improvement”.

He added he was “immensely proud” Ofsted had judged 90 per cent of the college’s work to be outstanding. “The current Ofsted framework stipulates that a college cannot be graded as overall outstanding if one area/provision type requires improvement,” he said.

“Our diverse and large college has therefore been graded as overall good, despite the exceptional feedback from inspectors and the overwhelming majority of our work being graded as outstanding.”

He added that Ofsted’s overall effectiveness single-grade judgement will be replaced by report card grades this summer.