Principal Peter Mayne said:

“Paston has always been a good college but in the past five years we have set out to become outstanding. We were confident that Ofsted would recognise that we are well on the away to achieving that objective."

"This is, by any standard, a very good report, but we are far from resting on our laurels. Just as we are ambitious for our students, we are ambitious to convert many of those ‘good’ grades into ‘outstanding’ grades. This is our vision for the college and for the achievement of our students.”

The inspectors judged English, modern foreign languages and the visual and performing arts as “outstanding”. They also praised the progress and standards achieved by students right across the college.

The report noted:

Students received good individual and academic support, which they rated highly, and courses were well managed.

They enjoyed their lessons.

Inspectors said that Paston had strong and clear leadership and the management and governance of the college were good.

Inspectors praised outstanding student achievement and progress with very high success rates in the visual and performing arts departments. “All teaching in these curriculum areas was good or outstanding.”

In English and modern foreign languages, also praised as outstanding , inspectors again found that the high success rates were the result of very good teaching and learning and “dynamic curriculum management”.

Inspectors said that maths and science were satisfactory but with “standards improving quickly … and high success rates in A Level chemistry, physics, mathematics and psychology.”

Peter Mayne said:

“Paston’s success in recent years is down to several factors, including our ability to recruit excellent teachers who are specialists in their subjects and can get the best out of students aged 16-19."

"We have very high expectations for our students and we back this up with quality support both in and out of the classroom."

"The inspection found that our students have clear and challenging targets and know how to achieve them."

"They also found that the most able students are provided with an excellent level of challenge which encouraged them to achieve high grades."

"I am very proud of Ofsted’s verdict that Paston is a good sixth form college with many outstanding features. As sixth form colleges are the highest performing type of sixth form nationally, we are judged against a very high standard.”