To find out more about St. Vincent College including details of job opportunities, please click here

Richard Taunton is based in Southampton and aspires to be an outstanding, high achieving college which challenges young people to be the best that they can be.

We set high expectations and standards in all our work and offer excellent learning and individual support. Our staff are a key to success, and we provide outstanding development opportunities. We support and respect all who we work with and maintain close partnerships with families, schools, and employers.

Our values underpin and form the very fabric of the college.

The Lighthouse Learning Trust employs 375 staff and comprises two sixth form colleges – Richard Taunton College in Southampton and St Vincent College in Gosport. We are proud of our colleges, both of which have been praised by Ofsted and rated as ‘Good’.

The Trust is strongly committed to the principle of inclusion – we hold a firm belief that every young person should be offered an equal opportunity to succeed no matter what their starting point may be. Our aim is to provide welcoming, safe, and supportive institutions that will offer the best possible learning experience. We will always seek to find the right pathway for every learner.

Of course, we could not achieve any of this without the professionalism and dedication of our excellent people. The Lighthouse Learning Trust encourages all members of our staff to work closely together as a supportive community of teaching and learning professionals. Together, we share a culture that always places our students at the centre of our decision-making and thinking.

The Lighthouse Learning Trust has strong leadership, excellent governance, and a belief in its ability to deliver positive change and enhance opportunities for all our stakeholders.

Richard Taunton is a community united by our desire to make a positive difference to each and every one of our students. We focus on providing strong teaching and learning, complimented by fantastic student support.

We have a dedicated provision for gifted and talented students in and also provide specialist support for talented musicians in our School of Music, and for high-performing sportspeople through our Talented Athlete Scheme.

Richard Taunton is a great place to learn and develop: our students will tell you that. Come and check us out by attending one of our Open Evenings – you’ll get the chance to look around the college, speak to our students and staff and find out why we’re a great place to work.

Richard Taunton’s is a vibrant Sixth Form College in the West of Southampton. Our core business is to provide full time education to 16-19 year olds (currently around 1000) but we also offer part-time adult education courses and provide facilities for a wide range of other community-based activities (including the Open University) in the evenings and at weekends. The College is firmly rooted in its community and it is our vision to be the sixth form of choice for all our community, an outstanding, high achieving college which inspires and challenges young people to be the best that they can be.   

We are working in close partnership with primary and secondary schools and colleges, with our local universities and with the local authority in Southampton, to raise standards and increase post-16 participation and progression. We work with our partners to make Southampton’s schools and colleges irresistible to the families who live in Southampton and in the surrounding area. We also champion positive progression beyond college to Higher Education or into robust employment-related training schemes.

The College takes partnership and collaboration very seriously. We are members of the national Association of Colleges and the Sixth Form Colleges’ Association.  More locally, we are part of the Wessex Group of Sixth Form Colleges, and work closely with the 9 other colleges in Hampshire, Southampton and Portsmouth to provide the best development opportunities for staff and to enhance the experience and success of our students.   We are also active members of the Solent Colleges’ Innovation Partnership which links the six Sixth Form Colleges which sit in urban communities across the coastal area of the Solent.

Making a Difference

Richard Taunton’s staff and governors are united by a desire to make a difference to young people’s life chances. There is a strong focus on providing high quality teaching, learning and assessment complemented by outstanding individual support. We set out to meet the needs of a wide range of students so we have a full range of academic and vocational courses at Levels 1 to 3.  

Tutorial, Support for Students and 'Prep'

Almost all teaching staff act as a personal tutor to groups of about 20 students who they also teach. As a personal tutor, the teacher’s prime role is to be a learning mentor, monitoring progress, intervening proactively to support improvement, helping individuals to develop positive study habits and achieve the right balance between paid employment and college work.   Tutors are required to meet with their tutees not only as a group, but on a 1:1 basis as well.  Tutors are tasked with tracking individual progress, identifying problems at an early stage and acting upon this information as appropriate.  This may mean offering advice on a higher education application or career path, liaising with other subject staff or organising additional subject support. We have developed an innovative approach whereby the focus of tutorial work is developed in a weekly 45 minute session called ‘Prep’.  In this session, as well as carrying out 1 to 1 conversations about progress, the tutor works with the group to develop a culture of independent study and mutual support.   Parents are encouraged to be involved in the progress of their children and regular consultation events are held.

Student Voice & Extra Curricular Activities

The College also takes learner involvement and learner voice very seriously and actively seeks to engage students in the consultation and decision-making processes in the College. There is a Student Union with an elected committee, whose main officers have regular meetings with College managers and also serve as Student Governors. Students organised their own social activities and are actively involved in promoting the College. There is also a high level of commitment from staff to providing extra-curricular opportunities for our students.

A great place to work and a great place to learn

If you are an individual with a passion for education, a commitment to lifelong learning and a desire to make a difference to young people of all abilities and backgrounds, you will thrive here.   We are highly committed to the development of our staff, providing annual opportunities to access management training programmes run by the Wessex Group and an extensive range of curriculum specific networks and exam board training.   We also play a very active part in the local school and college network in Southampton which links our staff with colleagues in our local institutions and provides opportunity to get involved in outreach work with schools to support successful transition to college.