Education Partnership North East (EPNE) has been named the region’s top performing college group for16-18-year-olds for the second successive year. 

Sunderland College, Northumberland College, and Hartlepool Sixth Form College, all part of EPNE, also ranked third nationally in the latest National Achievement Rate Tables (NARTs) for 16-18-year-old students, published by the Department for Education (DfE) in March 2024. 

The national tables, which are released annually, ranked over 200 sixth forms and colleges across the country, with EPNE’s 16-18 further education students gaining an overall achievement rate of 90.7% for the 2022-23 academic year. 

It was also announced that Northumberland College’s Kirkley Hall in Ponteland is once again the leading specialist land-based college for student achievement. 

The group also ranked number one for Information and Communications Technology (second nationally) and Languages, Literature and Culture programmes in the region, as well as second for Retail and Commercial courses and third for Social Sciences. 

Toni Rhodes, Deputy Chief Executive at EPNE said: “It is amazing that our results for the second year in a row puts us amongst the top performing colleges nationally and number one in the North East.  

“I am always immensely proud of how hard staff work to make a difference to the lives of our young people.”