Leeds SCITT

Initial Teacher Education inspection report

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Provider address Brownberrie Lane Horsforth Leeds LS18 5HD

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Inspection dates Lead inspector 15 - 19 June 2009 Katrina Gueli HMI achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work- based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It rates council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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If you would like a copy of this report in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 08456 404040, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk

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You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way.

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Royal Exchange Buildings St Ann’s Square Manchester, M2 7LA

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T: 08456 404040 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Introduction

1. This inspection was carried out by Her Majesty’s Inspectors supported by a team of specialist inspectors in accordance with the Framework for the Inspection of Initial Teacher Education (2008-11).

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Introduction

2. The inspection draws upon evidence from all aspects of the provision to make judgements against all parts of the inspection evaluation schedule in the framework. Inspectors focused on the overall effectiveness of the training in supporting high quality outcomes for trainees and the capacity of the partnership to bring about further improvements. A summary of the grades awarded is included at the end of this report.

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Key to inspection grades

Grade 1 Outstanding Grade 2 Good Grade 3 Satisfactory Grade 4 Inadequate

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The provider

3. The Leeds SCITT arose to support the development of initial teacher training in shortage subjects in the Leeds area. The partnership has expanded since it was originally established and currently involves four lead and eight associate schools working in conjunction with Leeds Trinity and All Saints College. The SCITT offers an 11- 16 Professional Graduate Certificate in Education with Qualified Teacher Status in the subjects of science, music, design and technology or information and communication technology (ICT). The qualification is validated by the University of Leeds. The SCITT includes schools which are denominational and non- denominational, inner city, suburban and semi-rural across the age ranges 11- 16 and 11- 19.

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Key strengths

 trainees’ very strong professional attributes, especially their relationships with students and colleagues

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Key strengths

 the very good leadership and good training provided by the lead subject tutors leading to trainees’ good understanding of their subject knowledge for teaching

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Key strengths

 the high levels of commitment across the partnership, ensuring good quality outcomes for trainees  the course meeting local recruitment needs well in the subjects provided.

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Key strengths

 the strong common sense of purpose across the whole partnership, supported by excellent communication

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Required actions

5. In order to improve trainees’ progress and attainment the partnership must:

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Required actions

 improve the systems to assess trainees’ attainment and track their progress.

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Recommendations

6. In order to improve trainees’ progress and attainment the partnership should:

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Recommendations

 develop the ability of mentors to make accurate judgments about trainees’ capability

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Recommendations

 ensure a greater emphasis on the impact of trainees’ teaching on learners’ progress in lesson observation feedback

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Recommendations

 focus success criteria in action plans more sharply on improving outcomes for trainees.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

7. Outcomes for trainees are good because the course is well designed, training and support is of a good quality and placements are carefully chosen to meet trainees’ individual development needs. Trainees plan lessons in detail incorporating a broad range of activities to engage learners and support their progress towards meeting the learning objectives well. Their personal attributes are well developed, in particular their very positive relationships with students and the colleagues with whom they work. Trainees demonstrate that they have developed secure subject knowledge, a clear picture of progression in relation to the topics that they have taught and a good awareness of potential student misconceptions. They are also aware of strategies to support students who have English as an additional language or learning difficulties and/or disabilities. Many, but not all trainees, benefit from placements that ensure they are well prepared for teaching in a culturally diverse

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

society. The ‘running record’ that trainees complete for one of their teaching groups confirms their ability to reflect on the impact of their teaching on students’ learning and they are keen to take responsibility for their own professional development. However, some less skilled trainees do not always incorporate activities or questions with an appropriate degree of challenge in their teaching and their lesson endings are not always used effectively to check or consolidate student learning. In addition, their ability to apply a range of strategies to manage low level behaviour issues is often weak. 8. The majority of trainees achieve well relative to their starting points. Lead subject tutors have a good understanding of the individual learning needs of their trainees drawn from recruitment information, entry profiles and detailed subject knowledge audits. Trainers make effective links between the subjects and the

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

school-based professional studies training and ensure key elements such as ‘assessment for learning’ and ‘pupils’ errors and misconceptions’ are delivered in a timely way. Consequently trainees have good subject knowledge for teaching and are well prepared for their teaching experiences. Similarly, the framework for school- based training during stages two and three is adapted well by most schools to bring increased relevance and coherence for trainees. However, there is less coherence between school experiences and the professional studies programme delivered at Leeds Trinity and All Saints and not all trainees experience some of the wide range of experiences that the partnership has to offer. The quality of mentoring is good overall and at its best the use of sharply focused targets supports trainees’ improvement well. Most trainees receive developmental verbal and written feedback regularly so they are aware of the strengths and areas for development in their

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

teaching. Discussions regarding the impact of their teaching on the quality of students’ learning are much less frequent and this element of the training is underdeveloped. Trainees’ attainment is assessed throughout the course with thorough reviews at key points but the interpretation of the levelled assessment criteria varies across the partnership. While assessment at the pass/fail borderline is secure there is some variation in the interpretation of the assessment criteria and occasionally this is contributing to some over-grading of trainees’ attainments at assessment points during the course.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

9. Recruitment and selection arrangements contribute well to ensuring that trainees completing the programme have the appropriate skills and personal qualities to be successful teachers. There is a clear rationale for the course and the subjects offered by the SCITT both complement those of Trinity and All Saints College and meet local recruitment needs well. The progression of trainees into employment at the end of the course is high, with a large majority gaining employment within partnership schools or the local authority. Systems to ensure the consistency and equality of selection procedures are well embedded and successful recruitment drives have significantly increased the number of applicants to the programme. However, despite these increases the SCITT has not been able to meet recruitment targets for the shortage subjects of ICT or science in last three years. The recruitment of trainees from a minority ethnic heritage is broadly in line with

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

sector averages but the SCITT is being proactive in building wider partnerships to increase the recruitment of minority ethnic trainees in the longer term.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

10. The use of resources is good. There is transparency in the allocation of resources to fund placements and the high expectations of schools in relation to trainees’ entitlements are set out clearly in the partnership agreement. Additional resources are thoughtfully allocated to meet the individual needs of trainees who have an identified learning difficulty and/or disability. An annual rolling programme of subject-specific funding has ensured that three of the lead schools have very good quality dedicated SCITT training rooms which are well equipped with key texts and ICT resources. However, key texts are not available in all placement schools and the facilities for music trainees in the lead school are currently less well developed. 11. The partnership promotes equality and diversity well. The broad range of schools in the partnership provides trainees with a useful range of opportunities to work with students from diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. The lead

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

subject tutors and the vast majority of other school-based colleagues are highly committed to the partnership and to ensuring the care and welfare of trainees. Communication between the lead subject tutors and trainees is very effective, timely and supportive. Trainees report no incidences of unlawful discrimination or harassment and feel confident that any reported incidences would be dealt with quickly and effectively. Mentors are well supported by the lead tutors and there is good take up of the mentor training provided by the partnership. Mentor training sessions are effective in promoting clarity about generic systems and procedures and ensuring that roles and responsibilities are clearly understood. The use of these meetings to contribute to mentors’ professional development, however, is less effective and some inconsistencies remain in the quality of mentoring and how systems of assessment are applied. The involvement of Trinity and All Saints

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

College in the partnership provides trainees with the additional opportunity to undertake Catholic education training if they choose.

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Grade: 2

12. Self-evaluation involves all partners and is regular and rigorous. Information is gathered from a wide variety of sources including trainee feedback, annual subject reviews, link tutor visits and school evaluations. In addition, this internal monitoring and evaluation is supplemented by reports from external examiners and the application of other Trinity and All Saints quality assurance procedures. This broad evidence base helps the provider to form an accurate view of the partnership’s current strengths and areas for development. Any issues regarding the course, individual schools or trainees are quickly identified and successfully addressed. For example, in response to trainees’ evaluations in 2007/2008, the course has been developed this year to improve trainees’ understanding of pupils’ differences and individual needs. Link tutors play a key role in the quality assurance of school-based training and moderation. For example, they monitor provision and attainment for all

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Grade: 2

trainees in a particular school during stage two of the training. Where potential concerns arise about the accuracy of a school’s judgment or the security of a trainee’s evidence in relation to the standards then moderation is undertaken involving other partnership colleagues. However, this moderation is not yet ensuring the consistently accurate judgment of trainees’ attainment in relation to criteria for satisfactory, good and outstanding trainees at different times in the course.

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Grade: 2

13. There is an effective working relationship between the college-based training manager and other leaders within the partnership. Since the time of the last inspection the SCITT partnership has developed and there has been a significant increase in the role of subject lead tutors in driving change and improvement. For example, their leadership of course developments is ensuring that national priorities are well embedded in the training. Both current and former trainees report that their training prepared them well in relation to national initiatives. This has been achieved through the effective use of generic and subject specific training sessions, inputs from high quality practitioners, including many Advanced Skills Teachers, and opportunities for trainees to see cutting edge approaches to teaching and assessment during their school placements. Significant changes within the partnership including the introduction of a new lead school for ICT have been well

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Grade: 2

managed through careful succession planning and the effective professional development of school-based colleagues. The partnership has also been successful in fulfilling identified needs in the local area seen for example in the introduction of food technology as a specific design and technology subject.

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Grade: 2

14. Improvement planning is good. Leaders and managers have a clear vision for further SCITT developments. Detailed short and long term action plans are in place reflecting the priorities identified from evaluation and the actions to be taken in relation to each priority are clear. For some priorities, success criteria are focused sharply on improvements to trainees’ outcomes but this is not a common feature throughout the plans that are currently in place. Action plans do not always include the resources needed to address each area for improvement, but other evidence confirms that the targeting of resources has brought about improvements to training facilities and increased trainees’ access to interactive learning technologies. Action plans are regularly reviewed and many of the points for action and consideration identified at the previous inspection have been addressed well. For example, provision in music has been improved and trainees’ evaluations regarding the quality

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Grade: 2

of training in music are more positive. Similarly, trainees now regularly demonstrate that they can teach lessons that incorporate a range of activities to hold students’ interest, and the role of lead tutors has developed significantly. This track record of improvement demonstrates the partnership’s good capacity to secure further developments and improve further the outcomes for trainees.

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Summary of inspection grades 1

Key to judgements: grade 1 is outstanding; grade 2 is good; grade 3 is satisfactory; grade 4 is inadequate.

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Overall effectiveness

How effective is the provision in securing high quality outcomes for trainees? 2 Trainees’ attainment How well do trainees attain?

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Overall effectiveness

Factors contributing to trainees’ attainment To what extent do recruitment / selection arrangements support high quality outcomes? To what extent does the training and assessment ensure that all trainees progress to fulfil their potential given their ability and starting points? To what extent are available resources used effectively and efficiently?

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Overall effectiveness

The quality of the provision To what extent is the provision across the partnership of consistently high quality? Promoting equalities and diversity To what extent does the provision promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and eliminate harassment and unlawful discrimination? 2

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Capacity to improve further and/or sustain high quality

Secondary To what extent do the leadership and management at all levels have the capacity to secure further improvements and/or to sustain high quality outcomes? How effectively does the management at all levels assess performance in order to improve or sustain high quality? How well does the leadership at all levels anticipate change, and prepare for and respond to national and local initiatives?

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Capacity to improve further and/or sustain high quality

How effectively does the provider plan and take action for improvement? 2

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Capacity to improve further and/or sustain high quality

1 The criteria for making these graded judgements are in the Grade criteria for the inspection of ITE 2008-11; Ofsted July 2008; Reference no: 080128. set out in the guidance ‘Complaints about school inspection’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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