COLLEGES and sixth forms had much to celebrate as achievements of students were consolidated with another year of solid results.

With ever-increasing pressures on budgets many further education bosses are having to make difficult choices surrounding the delivery of courses in the face of reduced Government funding.

Barry Hicks, principal at Itchen College in Southampton, said although they continued to perform well at A-level they were most pleased with vocational results which showed significant improvement.

He added that they had also made the decision to increase teaching time on their A-level course in an effort to improve the results even further.

Barton Peveril principal Jonathan Prest said: “The performance table results are a tribute to our teachers and the hard work of students who have performed extremely well over the past 12 months.

“The most important performance indicators for assessing the quality – rather than quantity – of grades our students achieve have climbed steadily over the past three years.”

Stephen Carville, principal of Peter Symonds College, said he was “delighted” with their performance, adding: “This year 570 of our students took up places at the prestigious Russell Group universities.”

Daily Echo:

Daily Echo:

Along with a new-look £16m campus, Fareham students are making their mark in the classrooms too with almost a 100 per cent pass rate for all vocational students achieving their qualifications.

A spokesman said: “This trend of significant achievements came at an exciting time for the Fareham College group.

The modern learning environments which facilitated the achievement of such impressive results will soon be even more impressive with the addition the £16m development to redesign the Bishopsfield Road campus, following on from the opening of CEMAST in September.”

Eastleigh College bosses pointed out that their average point score per vocational entry is based on fewer than 20 per cent of their students with the bulk of results not meas- ured in the league tables.

As a General Further Education College they celebrated high success rates across all course areas and levels.

MORE STORIES