Kensington and Chelsea College


Kensington and Chelsea College is a provider of education and training in west London, United Kingdom.

Admissions

Kensington and Chelsea College is a further and higher education college with students from a wide range of cultures and ages. It offers a range of courses from full and part-time to Higher Education, work-based learning and Apprenticeships. The college's standard of teaching is rated as good by Ofsted following its April 2012 inspection, and it recently became an associate college member for The National Skills Academy for Creative & Cultural. The college also has a network of support services for students, including assistance in finding and preparing for jobs after completing a course. The college's partner organisations include the V&A, the National Portrait Gallery, the Science Museum, the Royal Opera House, Hampton Court Palace and the Tower of London.
Kensington and Chelsea College operates from two locations in west London with its two main sites being the Chelsea Centre, and the Kensington Centre in North Kensington. College sites and locations:

Sloane School

The Sloane School had about 500 boys and was a grammar school on Hortensia Road in Chelsea. It was named after Sir Hans Sloane after whom Sloane Square was named in 1771. The school library was opened on 25 November 1931 by Sir Hugh Walpole. It was administered by London County Council. From 1929 until 1961, the headmaster was Guy Boas who encouraged much-acclaimed productions of Shakespeare. The school magazine was The Cheynean.
Sloane School merged in 1970, with the nearby Carlyle School to become Pimlico Comprehensive School, and Pimlico Academy since 2008. The buildings became Chelsea Secondary School, then part of the college in 1990.

Carlyle School

This was the analogous female school of the Sloane School, a girls' grammar school, whose former buildings became the Sloane School, having been built in 1908. Its buildings were extended in 1937, being officially opened on 4 February 1938. It had a separate governing body from the Sloane School from 1961. It had around 350 girls.

Kensington and Chelsea College

The College was established in 1990, by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, from a merger of parts of two former institutions. It initially operated from the former Sloane and Carlyle School buildings in Chelsea and from centres in North Kensington, South Kensington and Notting Hill, together with an evening class programme in Holland Park School. In 1993, the College became an independent Further Education corporation, following implementation of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992.
The College's first three principals each made a distinctive contribution to its development. Michael Baber, the first principal, laid the foundations for its long term development. He successfully steered the transition from Local Authority College to freestanding Further Education Corporation, including negotiating freehold ownership of previously shared use sites while developing a strategic partnership with the Local Authority. Under his leadership the College tripled in size, received a positive inspection report and became the first College in inner London to achieve Investors in People recognition. The College's second Principal, Joanna Gaukroger, was the driving force behind the plan to build a flagship centre at the Chelsea site. part funded by sale of some of the existing College estate. She also used her previous experience as an inspector, to help the College achieve a successful inspection at a time when inspection criteria had become more rigorous, as well as expanding the College's vocational programme. Mike Jutsum, the College's third Principal, added a significant new dimension to its work by securing contracts to provide education in prisons and a young offenders institution in West London. This greatly expanded its educational role while also significantly increasing its income. Although the contract wasn't permanent it provided a valuable financial breathing space at a challenging economic time for Colleges nationally. It was during this period that the new Chelsea Centre, set in motion by his predecessor, was completed. The progress achieved in the College's formative years was clearly due to more than a few individuals, however influential they may have been, i.e. to many managers, lecturers and support staff across the College and over many years. The contribution of lecturers in particular is clear from the inspection reports cited above.

Organisation and courses

There are currently 350 staff employed by Kensington and Chelsea College. 15% of students are aged 16–18.
Kensington and Chelsea College offers full-time, part-time and evening courses in a variety of subjects: art, photography, teacher training, business and management, sport and Fitness, health care and childcare, craft and design, English and maths, humanities, ESOL, fashion and millinery, hairdressing and beauty therapy, multimedia, graphic design and video production.

Alumni

Sloane School