MID Cheshire College principal Richard Hollywood has decided to step down from his role.

The news came at lunchtime today from the college following a call from the Guardian, which understood that Mr Hollywood was stepping down.

“Richard Hollywood has decided to step down from his position as principal of Mid Cheshire College,” said a college spokesman.

“The governors would like to thank Richard for his service and dedication to the college over the last 10 years.

“They are now seeking to appoint a new principal who will be charged with taking the college forward.

"A process is taking place to appoint an interim principal as soon as possible, and an announcement will be made in due course."

Saundra Middleton, chairman of the governors said: “Our focus is on ensuring our learners achieve the best possible results to aid their journey into the world of work or to continue on with their learning.”

Mr Hollywood was appointed principal in February 2013 following the retirement of John Reilly, who led the college for 11 years.

His early career was spent at London’s CBS recording studios as a sound engineer.

In 1994 he started teaching at City College Manchester, where he held a number of management roles before joining Mid Cheshire College in 2006 as assistant principal for art, design and performance studies. He became vice principal in 2010.

The college achieved the top Ofsted rating of outstanding in all areas following an inspection in November 2008.

However that rating has fallen to inadequate, the lowest of the four ratings, in all but one of the areas looked at by Ofsted, following an inspection in January.

Mid Cheshire College has sites at Hartford and Winsford, and caters for about 2,600 students, two-thirds of who are full-time 16 to 19-year-olds.

The areas Ofsted focused on in January were the effectiveness of the leadership and management, quality of teaching, learning and assessment, personal development, behaviour and welfare, outcomes for learners, 16 to 19 and study programmes and adult learning programmes.

They were all classed as inadequate, with the college earning a rating of good for the other area looked at, apprenticeships.

Mr Hollywood said following the publication of the latest Ofsted report: “Nearly 90 per cent of our students progress on to further learning, go on to an apprenticeship or into work after leaving Mid Cheshire College, and 94 per cent of our learners say they would recommend us to their friends.

“Prior to inspection we were already bringing about positive change through an Improvement Plan and Ofsted recognised this during their visit.

“Ofsted also recognised the excellent work we do with employers, especially through the apprenticeship delivery, with the report stating ‘Apprenticeship provision is extensive and meets learner and employer needs well.’

“We now look forward to working with Ofsted to bring about further improvements and are confident that Mid Cheshire College will continue on the journey to be one of the very best specialist vocational colleges in the region.”

The Ofsted report said the overall effectiveness of the college was inadequate, and outlined a series of measures it says the college needs to implement to improve.

The report said too many students left their courses before completing their qualifications, and senior leaders had allowed the quality of provision to fall to ‘unacceptably low standards’.

“Senior leaders and governors have identified many key areas where the college needs to improve, but have not acted quickly enough to raise the quality of provision so that all learners make good progress and achieve positive outcomes,” said the report.