Who we are / What we do

• Hartlepool Sixth Form College is the only specialist sixth form college in the area. It is one of the most successful colleges of its type in the country and is currently, per head of population, one of the fastest-growing colleges in the North-East. The College attracts increasing numbers of students from each of the local contributory schools and the College is recruiting strongly from the former pit villages to the north and from Billingham, south of Hartlepool. Although the local school demographic shows a falling population of 16-19 year-olds to 2008, the local schools are performing very well in terms of increasing the GCSE pass rate at grades C and above, enabling a greater proportion of a declining population to qualify for courses at Hartlepool Sixth Form College. Our marketing information, which has proved itself repeatedly over recent years, forecasts a steady increase in student numbers to 2011/12.

• Hartlepool Sixth Form College’s success rests upon our local reputation for quality and service. We are widely recognised as the town’s leading provider of academic education at AS, A and Applied level. We offer a limited range of GCSEs and BTEC courses that are attracting students in increasing numbers, a factor that also helps account for our growth. We have an outstanding (Ofsted grade 1) Childcare department offering certificate and diploma courses. We are unique among sixth form colleges in offering the first year of a qualifying Law degree and a foundation Law degree (in partnership with the University of Sunderland) and therefore satisfied the stringent conditions imposed by both the Law Society and Bar Council. This experience has placed us in an enviable position in terms of developing new Level 4 courses with the University of Sunderland or our local University - Teesside.

• We offer our students excellent enrichment opportunities in addition to superior initial advice and guidance. These elements of our provision were clearly highly regarded by Ofsted, who used key words in the designation ‘Outstanding’ to describe these contributory elements to our inspection grade for student support and guidance (Grade 2). We have a Rugby Academy in partnership with West Hartlepool Rugby Club and intend to develop a football academy associated with Hartlepool FC in the next two years.

Constitution
The framework for the current organisation of further education in England was established under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. The effect of the Act was to create a number of independent colleges funded mainly by the public purse through, initially the Further Education Funding Council and currently the Learning and Skills Council.

What we spend and how we spend it
Financial information relating to projected and actual income and expenditure, tendering, procurement and contracts is available on request.

What are priorities are and how we are doing
http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/oxedu_providers/full/(urn)/130568