CARMEL College has retained its Outstanding status after a recent Ofsted inspection.

The college, which teaches around 2,300 students, including 300 Higher Education students, is consistently ranked in the top 10 colleges nationally for the amount of progress students make.

In 2016, Carmel was ranked #1 in the country for A Level progress as judged by the A Level Performance System (ALPS) which measures student progress over three years.

Most recently, Carmel College has once again been graded Outstanding by Ofsted following their visit in April 2019.

The college was graded outstanding when it was previously inspected in 2007.

This makes Carmel the only Outstanding Sixth Form College nationally, that has retained its outstanding grade over the last seven years.

The report said: “Students strive to achieve the very high standards their teachers set. They make excellent progress, achieve their qualifications and progress to aspirational destinations.

“Students are proud to study at the college. They value and respond positively to the very high expectations and aspirations teachers have of them. They take great pride in their work, which is of an exceptional standard.”

“Highly committed, skilled and enthusiastic teachers inspire and motivate students to achieve their very best.”

The college attracts applications from more than 90 high schools across St Helens and neighbouring boroughs.

Carmel College Principal Mike Hill, said: “We are extremely happy with the Ofsted report and proud that we continue to be an Outstanding College.

“This is a fitting reward for the hard work of the whole staff at Carmel, both academic and support, who strive to uphold the college mission and ensure the best outcome for every individual student.

“The commitment and dedication of our fantastic students, who we are blessed to serve, also rightly received considerable praise from the Inspectors.

“We hope that Carmel’s success can also support and nurture the continued improvement in education across St Helens and help inspire younger students to perform at their very best.”

Last year, more than 98 per cent of students made a positive progression from Carmel to university, further education, apprenticeships or employment.

Carmel also work with universities to provide higher education offers, including: daytime and evening degree courses with Liverpool Hope University and Year 0 degree programmes with The University of Liverpool such as medicine, dentistry and veterinary sciences.