The sixth-form college is looking to merge with another Newham establishment, reports Noah Enahoro

A view of NewVic college — NewVic Photo: Google Street View

NewVic College is to pursue a merger with Newham College of Further Education. Its staff, assets, and liabilities will transfer to the control of Newham College, whose last Ofsted report was ‘Good.’

The merger comes after NewVic became the only sixth-form college in the country to receive an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted verdict following its inspection this year.

NewVic has since been put into formal intervention by the government. If successful, the merger would be completed by the end of this calendar year.

The proposal comes in the wake of a reported tumultuous period that disrupted students’ experiences and resulted in many leaving without qualifications last year. This is not the first time NewVic has struggled with internal difficulties.

Past editions of Newham Voices have detailed teaching strikes and the impact that management changes in the college have had on NewVic’s teachers. Staff cuts and an increasing workload were the key stress points between the college’s staff and senior management (who were also graded as inadequate).

The Ofsted Report stated that, “learners are keen to study, but for too many, their time at the college does not match their expectations. They experience disruption to their education due to staffing issues, ineffective teaching, and administrative errors regarding their examinations. In the previous academic year, this led to a significant proportion of learners not achieving their qualifications and making poor progress relative to their prior knowledge and attainment.”

Whilst the report acknowledged that NewVic’s 90 students with special needs ‘achieve well’, and that ‘improvements have been made since September’, prevailing issues impacting NewVic have not been ‘fully resolved.’

A long-term employee of Newham College for Further Education told Newham Voices under anonymity, “as long as it’s beneficial for students, doesn’t add workload for already overworked teachers, doesn’t lead to fewer subject choices for students, and doesn’t result in an overall funding cut, then this is something worth exploring. There’s a lot of expertise in the teaching staff of NewVic College and Newham College, and merging both can only be a good thing.”

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