Wednesday October 30 | 2019
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OF TONBRIDGE
Green Party team with award; (back row, l-r) Denis Buckley, Steve Jackson, Robert Oliver, Mark Hood, Jackie Liddard; (front) Paul Stepto, Ralph Ruge, April Clark & Fran Long
West Kent makes the grade with boost from Ofsted report By Andy Tong andy@timesoftonbridge.co.uk WEST KENT College has received a boost after a monitoring visit by Ofsted found that it was making progress – a year after it was told it had to improve. The college on Brook Street is part of the embattled Hadlow Group, though it is in the process of being taken over by North Kent College. West Kent and Ashford College [WKAC] asked to be placed in educational administration in August, and its application was accepted by a High Court judge. The move came after its sister site, Hadlow College, became the first
college in the country to go down that route in May. WKAC underwent a full inspection last year, when two aspects of its service were said to ‘require improvement’ – outcomes for learners and
Watchdog found that the college had made ‘reasonable progress’ apprenticeships – although it was rated ‘good’ in six other areas. The watchdog returned last month and found that the college had made ‘reasonable progress’ in all areas under scrutiny.
The Hadlow Group has been investigated by the Further Education [FE] Commissioner and the Education and Skills Funding Agency about financial irregularities. The FE Commissioner Richard Atkins visited Hadlow College earlier this year and was ‘genuinely shocked’ to find it had ‘completely run out of money’. The Hadlow Group’s then principal, Paul Hannan, and his deputy Mark Lumsdon-Taylor were both suspended in February. The chair of the board of governors for West Kent, Paul Dubrow, resigned along with the vice-chair, other external board members and the clerk.
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Greens in town are recognised for ‘inspirational vote campaign’ THE Green Party in Tonbridge & Malling have received the Inspirational Election Campaign Award from the national party. The accolade was in recognition of their outstanding result in Judd ward at the local elections in May, where they turned a 13 per cent vote share in 2015 into 79 per cent. The landslide saw the appointment in Tonbridge of the first two Green councillors in West Kent, April Clark and Mark Hood. “We are delighted that the hard work of all our members and supporters has been recognised by our party nationally,” said Cllr Hood. “We have worked extremely hard to
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