Sheffield Hallam University

Initial Teacher Education inspection report

Provider address City Campus Howard Street Sheffield S1 1WB

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Initial Teacher Education inspection report

Unique reference number Inspection number Inspection dates Lead inspector 19–23 March 2012 Robert Lovett 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. Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied.

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Initial Teacher Education inspection report

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . 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. www.ofsted.gov.uk Reference no. 080190

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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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Explanation of terms used in this report

Attainment is defined as the standard reached by a trainee at the end of their training. Progress is judged in terms of how well a trainee has developed professionally from their starting point to the standard reached at the time of the inspection or at a suitable review point. Achievement is judged in terms of the progress made and the standard reached by a trainee at the time of the inspection or at a recent assessment review point.

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The provider

3. Sheffield Hallam University works in partnership with 293 primary schools and 166 secondary schools to provide initial teacher education (ITE) leading to qualified teacher status (QTS). Further education (FE) teacher education is offered through the university’s partnership with two colleges of FE and the South Yorkshire Police. The university is a leading provider of continuing professional development with over 600 teachers engaged on its Masters programme. The university is actively engaged in a range of innovative initiatives and partnerships to enhance its capacity as a leading provider of ITE. The university trains about 25% of all newly qualified teachers in Yorkshire and Humberside.

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The provider

4. The university works closely with three neighbouring authorities: Derbyshire, Rotherham and Sheffield. It has a strong relationship with a number of local organisations and is a strategic partner with all five of the local Teaching School Alliances, including the Sheffield Teaching School Alliance. Teacher education is based at the centrally located City Campus.

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A commentary on the provision

5. The following are particular features of the provider and its initial teacher training programmes:  effective selection and recruitment procedures producing consistently high quality, responsive and reflective trainees  the process of quality assurance through the designation of school placements is very effective in promoting improvements in school-based training  the strong commitment of early years settings, primary and secondary schools and colleges to the partnership  trainees are of high quality and develop into reflective and committed practitioners.

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A commentary on the provision

6. The particularly effective feature of the primary, secondary and employment based ITT (EBITT) provision that underpins the provider’s capacity to improve is:  the partnership is exceptionally forward looking and eager to engage with change in a dynamic and responsive way in order to meet the developing needs of trainees and partnership schools.

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A commentary on the provision

7. The following recommendation should be considered to improve the quality of the outcomes for trainees:  in order to raise attainment further, improve the consistency of training across all settings through rigorous quality assurance so that it is more consistently outstanding.

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A commentary on the provision

8. The following recommendation should be considered to improve the quality of the outcomes for trainees in the primary, secondary and EBITT provision:  improve the use of target setting for trainees and the rigorous following-up and recording of progress against the targets.

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Context

9 . The primary phase consists of two full-time routes and one part-time undergraduate route. Each route has primary and early years options. In 2010/11, 77 primary trainees and 25 early years trainees were enrolled on the postgraduate route. There are 14 trainees currently enrolled on the part-time BA Teaching and Learning route. On the undergraduate route, 120 primary trainees and 42 early years trainees achieved qualified teacher status (QTS) in 2011. There are 273 primary schools actively involved in the partnership. A number of schools are teaching schools and staff in two schools are designated national leaders in education.

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Key strengths

10. The key strengths are: the primary partnership’s excellent response to a range of local and national initiatives, particularly in relation to the quality of training in behaviour management and teaching disabled pupils and those with special educational needs, which ensure trainees are well prepared to teach the committed, reflective, strongly motivated and high-calibre trainees who proactively seek opportunities for professional development, demonstrate a range of classroom skills and achieve high rates of employment the innovative ways in which schools are being used for specialist placements the partnership’s investment in human resources to support trainees which leads to very effective pastoral support and high completion rates for trainees good recruitment and selection procedures which result in the recruitment of good quality, reflective trainees with the potential to become good teachers.

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Recommendations

11. In order to improve trainees’ progress and attainment, the provider/partnership should: monitor and improve the quality of mentoring to ensure greater consistency in trainees’ written subject-specific feedback and personalised targets for development.

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Recommendations

12. In order to improve the capacity for improvement, the partnership should: share formal evaluations of the effectiveness of training with partnership schools in order to promote greater consistency across the partnership.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

13. According to the provider’s self-evaluation document, overall effectiveness is outstanding. However, inspectors judged this and all related aspects, including the quality of the provision, to be good. Most trainees meet the QTS Standards at a good or better level by the end of their training. There is, however, some variation in the attainment of different groups of trainees. Whereas the attainment of trainees on the recently introduced part-time undergraduate primary programme and the primary undergraduate full-time route is outstanding, it remains good for undergraduate early years trainees and the two postgraduate programmes.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

14. Trainees become highly reflective, self-motivated practitioners who take responsibility for their own professional development. They are keen to meet their development targets and respond quickly to advice. Trainees are committed to teaching and building effective relationships with pupils and the adults they work with in schools. Most of the trainees demonstrate good levels of understanding and well developed academic and study skills. This is because of the good emphasis on researching the topics they teach, the way they take responsibility for the development of their own professional knowledge and their careful preparation of appropriate resources to use in the classroom. Trainees on the undergraduate Teaching and Learning programme demonstrate good levels of knowledge about how schools work because the programme builds on their previous experience as teaching assistants and/or their Early Years Professional Status (EYPS). These trainees exhibit good

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

personal qualities and balance their employment, personal responsibilities and programme commitments very effectively.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

15. Although the large majority of trainees have good subject knowledge for teaching, some weaker trainees are less secure in their understanding of primary English and mathematics. These trainees also find it difficult to plan their teaching to meet the needs of all their pupils and to check and assess progress in their pupils’ learning, particularly when dealing with higher- achieving pupils.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

16. Recruitment and selection are good. The primary programmes recruit good quality, reflective trainees with the potential to become good teachers. The proportion of male trainees recruited overall is below sector norms and varies between programmes. The proportion of trainees from minority ethnic backgrounds is also below sector norms. The partnership is working hard to ensure applicants from minority ethnic backgrounds are fully supported. They have access to a professionally designed introduction to teaching course prior to interview. This approach has helped to ensure greater numbers of trainees from under-represented groups are recruited to ITE programmes and has also improved the retention of minority ethnic trainees on the programmes.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

17. Completion rates on almost all routes are high and employability rates are above sector norms. Well designed selection procedures at interview identify candidates’ key qualities and test for a number of personal attributes, including resilience. The process includes tests in English and mathematics. Individualised feedback is given to successful candidates with suggested pre- course reading to strengthen their subject knowledge. Inspection evidence indicates that inaccuracies in trainees’ use of English are not always picked up at interview. Although trainees’ strengths and areas for development are identified at interview, they are not always routinely used to personalise the training received to ensure trainees make rapid progress from the outset. There is greater tailoring of training on the postgraduate programmes where trainees attend a pre-course day during which subject auditing is undertaken for the

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

18. The quality of training and assessment is good. Progressive, carefully structured provision of school and centre-based training helps most trainees to make good progress. The large majority of trainees have secure subject knowledge because of the innovative and inspiring training they receive in the core subjects. Further strengths of the training include the additional workshops and short placements in early reading and phonics, training on meeting the needs of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs, and in some of the foundation subjects and religious education. Similarly, the enhanced diverse needs and inclusion modules have helped to improve trainees’ understanding of issues surrounding both inclusion and diversity. School practitioners make a valuable contribution to the training programme, for example, at the postgraduate literacy conference. The training is generally

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

appropriately structured to enable trainees progressively to address their identified development needs and become increasingly competent teachers.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

19. Schools are appropriate training placements. Trainees report that they are fully supported on school placements. Trainees begin each placement with sharply focused targets and there is a weekly process of target setting in place with their mentors. Most mentors build on these targets during placements to ensure trainees make good progress. However, some trainees report that the quality of mentoring received on different placements was variable. Inspection evidence indicates mentors often provide good oral advice and guidance but do not always provide the precise subject-specific, developmental written feedback and targets trainees need to achieve their potential. Trainees are fully supported by highly responsive academic tutors and university link tutors who visit clusters of schools. Link tutors successfully moderate assessments and support mentors in developing their role.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

20. Three-way moderation meetings between link tutors, mentors and trainees, introduced this year for final-year trainees, are helping school-based mentors to improve their assessment skills. Trainees are accurately graded against the QTS Standards. Assessment systems include a colour-coded tracking system to identify trainees whose progress is causing concern and swift interventions are made to help trainees make more rapid progress. Feedback on assignments indicates trainees’ strengths but it does not always explicitly identify what trainees could do to improve their work.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

21. Schools are aware of the national priorities for ITE. They share resources and practices with trainees to ensure they develop a good understanding of current effective primary practice. For example, training to teach disabled pupils and those with special educational needs has been strengthened through the use of compulsory and elective specialist-school placements. This has already resulted in four ex-trainees successfully gaining employment in local special schools. Trainees are fully aware of their responsibilities with regard to child protection policies and procedures. A discussion of the school’s safeguarding policies and procedures is an early priority for trainees when working in schools. Trainees are well versed in how to keep children safe and promote their well-being. The provider complies with all statutory requirements in respect of checking trainees’ suitability to work in schools.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

22. The effective and efficient deployment of available resources is good. Trainees have access to high quality central library resources, including teaching resource packs, laptops and tablet computers. They confidently use information and communication technology (ICT) and make good use of the well designed university’s virtual learning environment while on school placements. Recent investment in human resources has further strengthened the expertise and quality of the centre-based staff team. This means the primary partnership is increasingly able to make appropriate responses to initiatives in the core subjects as well as the ITE national priorities. Investment in conferences, forums and newsletters is beginning to impact on the quality of provision across the partnership. For example, the introduction of a behaviour newsletter has provided a significant and fresh impetus to helping schools and trainees

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

consider issues around the management of behaviour.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

23. The quality of the provision across the partnership is good. The university has a good knowledge of strengths within partnership schools and utilises its specialist expertise effectively to facilitate support for individual trainees and provide specialist placement opportunities. Schools are positive about their involvement with the partnership. They are committed, aware of systems and expectations, and understand their roles and responsibilities in training teachers in school. Mentors and tutors provide good, well integrated pastoral support. Groups of headteachers are actively involved in programme development and in addressing recommendations about mentoring and partnership that were raised at the last inspection. For example, the partnership now uses a ‘quality designation’ to indicate levels of expertise and good practice in schools. The designation process enables schools to identify strengths and areas for development with respect to school-based training.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

This self-evaluation process is beginning to be used effectively across the partnership. There is scope to enhance the university’s quality assurance systems to reduce variations in the quality of mentoring in schools and make better use of mentor training to address identified weaknesses.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

24. Trainees feel well prepared to promote almost all aspects of equality and diversity because of their practical experience in carefully selected placements and the visits that they make. A significant majority of all trainees value the effectiveness of training to teach pupils who speak English as an additional language. A few undergraduate trainees would value more opportunities for training in this respect. The diversity module is highly influential and is clearly impacting on the trainees’ ability to promote equality and diversity and on their critical thinking about inclusion issues. The part-time undergraduate course is specifically designed to address a local need and help trainees who aspire to become teachers to do so in a way which meets their employment and personal needs. Trainees feel fully supported with high levels of pastoral care from mentors and centre-based staff. A designated trainee-support tutor

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

provides additional support for trainees at risk who need more help with their academic work.

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Grade: 2

25. The partnership’s capacity to improve and sustain high quality outcomes is good. A range of internal and external data is effectively used as part of the university’s self-evaluation procedures but leaders and managers acknowledge this is an area in need of further development. Trainees’ evaluations are used to review and enhance module content and delivery. For example, the careful evaluation and analysis of primary mathematics provision has led to sharply targeted actions, resulting in improved satisfaction ratings. Good use is made of a tracking system to measure the progress trainees are making. In English and mathematics, centre-based trainers take careful account of trainees’ performance and evaluations to adapt and re-design programme content. Similarly, the partnership is very responsive to external evaluations. It undertakes a comprehensive analysis of identified strengths and weaknesses,

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Grade: 2

and addresses emerging issues through good quality action planning.

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Grade: 2

26. The provider’s own satisfaction surveys indicate an improving trend in trainees’ perceptions about the quality of their training. However, responses by ex- trainees to the Newly Qualified Teacher (NQT) Survey indicate the quality of the training they received overall is below sector norms. The partnership has taken prompt action in response to the NQT Survey findings, for example, in response to how well prepared NQTs felt they were to teach phonics and comprehension. Increased emphasis has been placed on the teaching of reading. All trainees have a highly valued three-day placement in a Leading Partners in Literacy School and are required to gain practical experience of teaching phonics. Top-up phonics workshops are available for trainees following their final placements to ensure they are confident about teaching phonics in their NQT year. Currently, these are not compulsory but trainees in need of extra sessions are directed to these workshops as appropriate.

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Grade: 2

27. The views of partnership schools are used successfully to guide primary partnership developments in terms of course content and how school-based training is delivered. The provider is viewed positively by schools who describe the university as open and communicative. Schools report that trainees complete end-of-placement evaluations but that they would like more information on how well training in their school compares with that of others across the partnership. Mentors feel that their effectiveness is confirmed through the good use of joint observations and moderation of judgement activities with tutors. There is scope, however, to improve the quality and consistency of school-based training further by making better use of formal evaluations to provide schools with feedback on the quality of what they provide. The university is working hard to ensure that a greater emphasis on the use of evaluation reduces variations in quality across the partnership.

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Grade: 2

28. The leadership’s capacity to anticipate and respond to change is outstanding. The partnership is making increasingly innovative use of schools to develop specialist placements for trainees. These include the use of hub schools with specialist expertise in special educational needs and disabilities. The partnership is also beginning to work with headteachers involved in the Sheffield Teaching Schools Alliance to develop further aspects of the partnership. The Headteachers’ Consultation Group has been directly involved with the re-validation of the primary and early years provision and improvement planning is shared across the partnership. Leaders and managers of the primary programmes have responded very effectively to developments in curriculum and national policy including the ITE implementation plan. All trainees and ex-trainees interviewed during the inspection indicated they are confident in their understanding of the national priority areas and how they can

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Grade: 2

be applied in the classroom context. Cross-phase working and strategic initiatives such as the Quality in Initial Teacher Training committee are significant strengths of the partnership.

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Grade: 2

29. Improvement planning and actions are beginning to lead to improvements in the outcomes for trainees. Completion and employment rates are high but there remain some inconsistencies across the primary programmes in terms of trainees’ levels of attainment. Improvement plans make use of some quantifiable success criteria to indicate expected improvements in outcomes for trainees but these could be enhanced to ensure success criteria are always measurable and focus sharply on trainees’ outcomes. Some improvement planning lacks the detail required in terms of how it will be monitored and evaluated and the specific timeframes in which developments will be implemented.

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Context

30. Sheffield Hallam University offers undergraduate and postgraduate routes into secondary teaching. Full-time postgraduate routes are available in 12 different subjects: business education, chemistry, design and technology, design and technology (food technology), design and technology (textiles), information and communication technology (ICT), engineering, English, mathematics, modern foreign languages, physical education, physics and religious education. In addition, the provider offers part-time flexible postgraduate courses in citizenship and mathematics. Undergraduate courses (either two-year or three- year) are available in design and technology with education, mathematics with education, and science with education. The professional training element of the undergraduate courses takes place in the trainees’ final year. All postgraduate and undergraduate routes offer training in the 11 to 16 age range with post-16

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Context

enhancements, except for the postgraduate course in business education where training is in the 14 to 19 age range.

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Context

31. Postgraduate routes lead to either a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) or a professional graduate certificate in education (ProfGCE), both with qualified teacher status (QTS). Undergraduate courses also lead to trainees gaining QTS. Subject knowledge enhancement courses are available in design and technology, mathematics, modern languages (Spanish) and science. These courses enable potential candidates to gain the necessary breadth and depth of subject knowledge prior to starting to train as a teacher in these shortage areas.

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Context

32. At the time of the inspection, there were 310 trainees on the postgraduate programme; 205 trainees were on the undergraduate programme, of whom 55 were in their final year.

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Key strengths

33. The key strengths are: the provider’s ability to make improvements in targeted areas, involving contributions from across the partnership where appropriate trainees’ commitment and ability to take responsibility for their own professional development the rigorous selection procedure that has contributed to improved retention rates the provider’s involvement in a range of national and local initiatives that contribute to improved provision the strong support provided to schools in developing their practice, such as through the rigorous designation process.

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Recommendations

34. In order to improve trainees’ progress and attainment, the provider should: develop further the consistency of training across the partnership provide trainees with more targets that relate to subject-specific pedagogy ensure that trainees and mentors make full use of the targets for trainees set at the end of their first placement during the early weeks in their second placement school.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

35. The overall effectiveness of the provider in securing high quality outcomes is good.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

36. Inspectors agree with the provider’s judgement that trainees’ attainment is good. Trainees are fully committed and quickly develop high levels of skill in reflecting on their own abilities and progress. They form strong professional relationships with pupils and staff and respond well to advice. They have a good understanding of key aspects of safeguarding, including bullying and abuse. Stronger trainees show good skills in planning and questioning. They have excellent subject knowledge that enables them to ensure progression in learning and anticipate likely areas of difficulty. The small number of weaker trainees do not plan sufficiently for a range of abilities in the class and they teach lessons that sometimes lack pace. The use of the university’s structured pro-forma enhances the quality of trainees’ written evaluations and helps trainees to focus not only on teaching but also on pupils’ learning. All groups

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

show good attainment. However, a greater proportion of females than males gain the highest attainment grade and the attainment of minority ethnic trainees is generally weaker than other groups.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

37. Most trainees make good progress. Courses are well organised and supported by extensive documentation that trainees find helpful. However, courses are also flexible enough to cater for trainees’ individual needs, such as through providing additional experiences or additional training. The course is coherent: elements of centre-based training are effectively combined with school-based training. For example, in one example of excellent practice the school-based senior mentor coordinator gives trainees a research-based project which contributes to a professional studies assignment; the research is presented to senior staff in the school and the findings placed on the school’s intranet for others to access. Some trainees, particularly the most-able, could benefit from additional teaching time in the final school placement.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

38. School-based training has an appropriate focus on helping trainees to attain the QTS Standards. Trainees’ records of weekly meetings with their mentors indicate that mentors use the QTS Standards to review progress and set new targets. While targets are relevant and useful, too few focus on employing a wider range of teaching and learning strategies or on aspects of teaching that are subject specific. In an example of good practice, one mentor clearly identified and exemplified pupil-centred activities to promote independent learning as a target for development.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

39. Current trainees speak positively about their training, both in the university and in schools. The most recent Newly Qualified Teacher (NQT) survey showed that trainees’ satisfaction with their training overall was in line with national averages. However, in some aspects, including training in managing behaviour, trainees’ satisfaction was below average. The provider responded to the survey results and strengthened training in behaviour management, including through a two-day behaviour forum. As a result, current trainees feel that training in behaviour management at least matches the good quality of their training elsewhere.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

40. As a result of the good training that they receive, trainees have a broad understanding of key misconceptions in their subject area; they can explain how to teach a topic and why they have chosen one particular method rather than another. They have a good understanding of what constitute barriers to learning, including social factors and educational factors such as poor literacy or numeracy. They also know how to adapt lessons to accommodate the needs of weak readers or those with poor number skills. English trainees have a good understanding of phonics but at the time of the inspection, other trainees were unfamiliar with the ideas underpinning the teaching of reading.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

41. Criteria for assessing trainees’ performance are understood fully across the partnership. A grid that details criteria for satisfactory, good and outstanding performance in a number of areas, enables trainees to record their progress effectively. However, it is less effective in monitoring the rate of progress or showing where trainees have regressed.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

42. Excellent relationships exist across the partnership. School-based mentors feel that university tutors are very accessible and supportive. University link tutors are instrumental in building relationships, helping mentors to improve their practice and are raising the level of consistency between schools. The designation process, where schools self-assess against set criteria, is providing excellent guidance on how schools’ contribution to teacher training can be evaluated and how it can be enhanced.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

43. In schools, the senior mentor coordinators provide carefully planned programmes of training. Overall assessments of trainees are accurate but written records vary in quality: some are very sharp but others are over- descriptive and without clear targets. Some mentors report a mismatch between the summative report from the trainee’s first placement and their own assessments at the beginning of the second placement.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

44. All staff contributing to the training have appropriate expertise. The allocation of resources is flexible and responsive to needs, as shown in the setting up of the recent behaviour forum. Funding for university link tutors has helped schools to understand their role and how they can play a more effective role in training teachers. The Consultative Schools Group has a substantial resource allocation that has helped leaders and managers to be more responsive to views from partnership schools. Appropriate additional resources are provided when a weaker trainee is in need of support.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

45. Trainees undertake placements in well resourced schools and have access to high quality resources in the university. Trainees appreciate not only the long opening hours of the library but also the range of information and communication technology resources that support their training. For example, mathematics trainees benefit from the opportunity to practise their skills in using interactive whiteboard technology in an informal setting. Trainees also appreciate opportunities to make use of resources posted by former trainees or share resources with their fellow trainees. In some subjects, tutors could do more to direct trainees to appropriate books and materials.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

46. Inspectors found no evidence of trainees experiencing discrimination or harassment. Trainees feel fully supported by university tutors and by mentors in schools and appreciate that help and advice are readily accessible. University link tutors monitor the range of trainees’ experience carefully and highlight where trainees may need visits to other placement schools. As a result, trainees broaden their experience where necessary, for example, where schools form pairs or clusters to facilitate short-term exchanges. Trainees have a good understanding of the different special educational needs and disabilities that they may encounter in school. Current trainees feel well trained in teaching such pupils and most are beginning to broaden their experience. For example, one trainee arranged with the school’s special educational needs coordinator to work with small groups of identified pupils to develop their literacy and

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

47. Rigorous selection procedures ensure that appropriate people are recruited to the programme. The selection process is comprehensive and typically involves a range of activities including a formal assessment of subject knowledge, a group task and an assessment of literacy. An individual interview with subject specialists enables tutors to assess candidates’ knowledge of education and their reasons for wanting to teach.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

48. Trainees have appropriate qualifications and, where appropriate, they are provided with opportunities to enhance their subject knowledge before starting the course. The provider meets its recruitment targets, including high target numbers in shortage subjects. PGCE trainees who join the programme have higher qualifications than is the norm. In recent years, completion rates have been broadly average. However, for 2010/11 the provider strengthened selection and monitoring and this contributed to a substantially higher completion rate for that year, including for targeted groups. Employment rates are average. There are no clear differences in either completion or employment rates for trainees on the PGCE and those on the final year of the BSc.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

49. Completion and employment rates in English and physical education are particularly high. In 2010/11, completion rates in modern foreign languages were lower than other subjects and lower than national averages. The provider successfully meets local needs with the majority of successful trainees gaining appointments in the region and a third of trainees taking up posts in partner schools.

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Grade: 1

50. The partnership has outstanding capacity to secure continuous improvement and/or sustain high quality outcomes.

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Grade: 1

51. Since the last inspection, there have been clear improvements in both provision and outcomes. Designation of schools helps to drive improvement in school- based training. In addition, the university can show that more trainees are undertaking placements in schools that are fully committed to the partnership and demonstrate high levels of expertise. Trainees’ attainment has risen and completion rates have risen substantially. Although they remain below average in some areas, NQT survey ratings are improving strongly. Internal evaluations indicate improvements in trainees’ rating of their training, including the key area of behaviour management.

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Grade: 1

52. Leaders and managers identify accurately where provision and outcomes are strong and where there are areas for development. The views of senior coordinating mentors, tutors and trainees contribute to course evaluations, which relate to all aspects of the provision. Leaders and managers make changes in provision in response to external views and views of former trainees. Evaluations are comprehensive and shared across the partnership. Because managers use an electronic method for collecting trainees’ evaluations of their placement schools, they are able to analyse the responses in a detailed way. As a result, they extract a broad range of information and feed back to schools where appropriate. Repeated application of the same survey helps managers to monitor trainees’ views over time.

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Grade: 1

53. Link tutors provide an effective channel for school-based mentors to contribute their views. More formal management committees include the Quality in Initial Teacher Training committee, on which school representatives have a strong presence. Mentors feel fully involved in the partnership. For example, the summer conference was attended by over 60 senior coordinating mentors. They found it to be a valuable experience in helping them to improve their practice. External examiners provide support as part of the university’s quality assurance, although the quality and usefulness of their reports vary.

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Grade: 1

54. Improvement planning is very strong and has an excellent focus on outcomes. Plans make reference to sources so that it is clear why a particular item appears on the development plan. Typically, the plan includes responses to internal evaluations, previous inspections, external surveys and national priorities for initial teacher training. In addition to the formal partnership systems, many senior mentor coordinators evaluate the training provision in their schools internally. As a result, trainees feel that their training is responsive to their needs and keeps up to date with changes nationally. Senior mentor coordinators are aware of course innovations, such as the revised assessment arrangements for trainees and the behaviour forum, but are less aware of the university’s other priorities for development.

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Grade: 1

55. The provider has made good progress on each of the areas for improvement identified at the last inspection. Strengthened recruitment procedures and support structures have contributed to a big reduction in withdrawals from the secondary programmes. The newly devised grade descriptors are in use, carefully monitored by the provider and fully understood by mentors.

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Grade: 1

56. The university is at the forefront of many developments in teacher education. For example, the university supported all the local schools that were successful in their bids to become teaching schools and is a partner with each of them. It retains a strong relationship with all of the Teaching School Alliances in Sheffield, Rotherham and the wider area. Expertise from the university’s research centre is used to evaluate elements of the training, such as the behaviour forum. The university is playing a leading role in developing the capacity of schools to be involved in educational research, such as that involving pupils with special needs in physical education lessons. Innovative models of training, such as where up to eight trainees in a subject undertake their main placement in one school, are enhancing understanding of what constitutes effective training. A further example of innovation to strengthen

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Grade: 1

training is where schools get together in a cluster to make use of different expertise or different contexts.

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Context

57. The Yorkshire and Derbyshire Training Partnership offers employment-based initial teacher training, mainly based in schools in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire, although it also provides support for a very small number of trainees from farther afield. Training is usually for one year. Sheffield Hallam University acts as lead partner and manages and administers the provision in partnership with Derbyshire, Rotherham and Sheffield local authorities. The partnership provides training for suitable candidates on an Assessment Only (AO) route, the Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP), the Registered Teacher Programme (RTP) and the Overseas-trained teacher programme (OTTP). Training in secondary subjects leads to the award of qualified teacher status (QTS) in the 11 to 16 age range, except for Business Studies and Psychology, where training is in the 14 to 19 age range. The primary course leads to QTS in either the 5 to 9 or 7 to 11

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Context

age range. At the time of the inspection, there was a total of 113 trainees following the GTP, comprising 29 primary trainees and 84 secondary trainees following a wide range of subjects, some with as few as one trainee and often with fewer than five. The small number of trainees on the RTP did not form part of this inspection. There were no trainees on the OTTP.

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Key strengths

58. The key strengths are: the partnership’s significant success in working with schools and local authorities to meet a pressing need for high quality teachers and the impact this has had on improving the life chances of pupils and students high quality selection and recruitment procedures which enable the partnership to recruit committed, reflective and high quality trainees with the potential to become excellent teachers the partnership’s responsiveness to change as exemplified by the revised course structure, with a greater focus on key priorities such as subject knowledge for teaching and behaviour for learning the commitment to engage in a proactive and innovative way with a wide range of partners in relation to emerging local and national developments in ITE in order to improve outcomes for trainees the willingness of trainees to engage in reflective and critical dialogue with regard to their practice and pedagogy

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Key strengths

strong relationships which underpin the high quality pastoral and academic support for trainees and their high levels of attainment.

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Recommendations

59. In order to improve trainees’ progress and attainment, the provider/partnership should: improve the consistency of school-based training through more rigorous quality assurance procedures in order to accelerate further the progress trainees make make more consistent use of subject-specific feedback in relation to summary reports and trainees’ weekly meetings with mentors in order to improve pedagogy ensure that targets which are set for trainees are rigorously followed up and that the success in meeting these targets is consistently recorded.

p.19

Grade: 2

60. The overall effectiveness of the provider in securing high quality outcomes is good.

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Grade: 2

61. Inspectors agree with the provider’s judgement that trainees’ attainment is outstanding. This is in part because many trainees benefit from significant amounts of prior experience in early years settings and in schools. Training and assessment are good because a higher proportion of trainees than currently, achieve the highest grade have the capacity to be outstanding. In 2011, a majority of trainees were judged to be outstanding and most were judged to be good or better. No trainees have been judged inadequate in the last three years.

p.19

Grade: 2

62. The quality of the provider’s recruitment and selection procedures was recognised as a key strength at the time of the last inspection. This strength has been built on. The high esteem in which the course is held is reflected in the high number of applicants, with over 650 candidates applying for fewer than 120 training places available for 2012. The provider has met its recruitment targets even in subjects where it is sometimes difficult to recruit. All partners play an active part in the very rigorous selection and recruitment process. Schools and local authorities are eager contributors, ensuring that the whole process is aimed at meeting the pressing need to recruit high quality trainees. Trainees say that the recruitment process is rigorous but that they feel fully supported. Valuable, constructive feedback for unsuccessful candidates is readily available so that many successfully re-apply, having

p.19

Grade: 2

gained additional experience and expertise. Interviews include a skills audit, which is used to identify trainees’ particular strengths and areas of weakness. The audit is used to inform pre-course tasks and is reflected in trainees’ individual training plans. Trainees say that they value the early and rigorous assessment of their grammar and punctuation as it gives them an early opportunity to address weaknesses. Because high-calibre trainees are recruited there are high quality outcomes for trainees.

p.19

Grade: 2

63. There are high levels of employment for successful trainees and high levels of retention in teaching, with most of those trainees completing in the last three years still employed in schools. Targeted recruitment has resulted in a significant increase in the recruitment of men onto the primary course. Of the current cohort, almost 40% are men, which is more than twice the national average. The proportion of minority ethnic trainees recruited across primary and secondary phases rose in 2011 but remains close to the national average. The provider is committed to increasing the representation of minority ethnic trainees. All minority ethnic applicants are guaranteed an interview. The provider is proactive in targeting recruitment and continues to offer ‘taster’ sessions to high priority groups. The rationale underlying the recruitment processes is to meet pressing local needs. This is both clear and clearly met. A

p.19

Grade: 2

very large majority of trainees gain employment in partner local authority schools. Overall completion rates are high. The partnership is particularly effective in respect of providing training for trainees in distant locations and where no alternative ITE provision exists, such as in drama and the teaching of classics. In this way, it makes a significant contribution to local recruitment needs and to the recruitment of specialist subject teachers.

p.20

Grade: 2

64. Trainees say they are thoroughly prepared to teach and to develop positive attitudes to learning in their pupils and students. They have a very good knowledge of strategies to ensure positive behaviour for learning. These high expectations were clearly visible in a range of lessons observed, including the teaching of letters and sounds in Year 2, literacy in Year 4, and rock-climbing to BTEC students. Primary trainees say they are thoroughly prepared to teach numeracy and phonics. Secondary trainees were observed making meaningful links to key literacy skills within the context of their own specialist subject teaching.

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Grade: 2

65. While the quality of training is good, the use of targets to accelerate trainees’ progress is not consistent across all placements. Targets are not always sufficiently tightly focused on subject-specific elements of practice even where the comment boxes specifically invite subject-specific feedback, as with the end-of-block placement summary reports. Written feedback and developmental areas for improvement are not always rigorously followed-up. For example, targets arising from lesson observations refer to the QTS Standards but often merely reflect the wording of the Standard with some examples. The best targets are clear and achievable in the next lesson. These next-steps targets are not rigorously followed-up or progress against them recorded.

p.20

Grade: 2

66. The provider is very responsive to feedback from trainees. This has resulted in rapid improvements in trainees’ confidence and capacity to teach phonics, and to work with pupils and students with disabilities and special educational needs and those with English as an additional language. The revised structure of pre- professional studies and subject-day tasks followed by high quality central training and carefully structured school-based learning is proving very effective in ensuring improved cohesion between theory and practice and enhancing secondary trainees’ subject knowledge for teaching. While trainees say they would welcome even more opportunities to work with subject-based colleagues and peers, they recognise the practical difficulties this might present. A particular strength of the route is the immediacy with which trainees can apply new knowledge and skills. As one said at a secondary

p.20

Grade: 2

professional studies day, ‘I’ll use these ideas in my science lesson tomorrow’. While the academic profile of trainees is similar to that of trainees on other programmes, they bring with them significant experience of educational settings together with life experiences not always found on other routes within the faculty. More consistently outstanding school-based provision is required to ensure that all trainees make accelerated progress and attainment rises further.

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Grade: 2

67. Central resources are excellent and readily available both online and in the Adsetts Learning Centre. Education-based publications are on a single floor, readily accessible through extended opening hours and complemented by packs of practical resources and folders. Trainees say they particularly welcome the opportunity to order publications online and to collect and return them outside the usual library opening hours. The virtual learning environment is mostly used to catch-up on missed sessions and as a repository for resources. Trainees have access to very well qualified staff who make a significant contribution to the progress of trainees and to the wider world of ITE. Trainees say that centrally-based staff are very accessible and always willing to listen and provide help so that they feel fully supported. University staff offer a valuable interface between schools, the partnership and trainees. As one

p.21

Grade: 2

trainee said, ‘They act as mediators as well as moderators’. The university deploys resources particularly effectively to ensure it is a proactive partner in responding to and anticipating change.

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Grade: 2

68. The promotion of equality of opportunity and valuing diversity is outstanding. Trainees are very confident in working with learners from a range of backgrounds and they differentiate learning to meet the individual needs of learners exceptionally successfully. The centrally-taught elements of the course combine very effectively with the school placements to provide excellent preparation for trainees to teach learners with disabilities and special educational needs. While opportunities to work with learners from a range of linguistic and cultural backgrounds on extended school placements may be limited, trainees, schools and the provider are highly proactive in ensuring that trainees have a broad range of experiences. All trainees spoken to say they feel confident and thoroughly prepared. This confidence is reflected in the most recent NQT survey. Trainees plan very effectively to meet the individual needs

p.21

Grade: 2

of all learners. Where planning is less effective, they receive very good feedback from mentors and other school-based specialists such as special educational needs coordinators and inclusion managers. Trainees are also confident in supporting more-able, gifted and talented learners. Trainees have a very good understanding of safeguarding requirements and of the different forms of bullying. They are proactive in addressing stereotyping, as when a secondary trainee challenged students’ assumptions about sexuality when teaching poetry. Training in this aspect of the course is of high quality and is fully reinforced in schools, on core professional studies days and in subject- specific training.

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Grade: 1

69. The partnership has outstanding capacity to secure continuous improvement and/or sustain high quality outcomes.

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Grade: 1

70. Self-evaluation is generally accurate, particularly in respect of its overall effectiveness and the quality of training and assessment. The analysis of outcomes for trainees is rigorous and accurate. The views of trainees on the strengths and weaknesses of the course, together with their evaluations, are fully considered. They have been quickly acted upon to improve provision and outcomes for trainees in important areas such as the development of positive attitudes to learning and subject knowledge for teaching. Recent evaluations by trainees indicate increased levels of satisfaction with almost all aspects of their training, particularly those related to professional studies. All partners are fully involved in the process of self-evaluation and in improvement planning. The Management Board is an effective body for monitoring the work of the partnership, holding it to account and promoting improvement. It includes

p.22

Grade: 1

representatives from three local authorities, the university, partner primary and secondary schools, and recently qualified teachers. Representation, role and function are clearly outlined in a range of documents, including guidance for trainees, mentors and moderators. Communication is good across the partnership, including with trainees, although they would welcome early feedback on how their individual training plans are used to modify the course. There are high completion rates.

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Grade: 1

71. The partnership’s effectiveness in anticipating change, and preparing for and responding to local and national initiatives is outstanding and is a significant strength of the provider. The partnership has introduced some highly innovative practice which is beginning to impact on the attainment and practice of trainees and on the quality of education provided at partner schools. The partnership has further refined the formal assessment and designation of schools in order to make it clearer what represents best practice and over time move more schools to become Leadership Schools. A close and highly valued relationship with Teaching Schools enables best practice to be identified and disseminated across the partnership. There is close collaboration between Sheffield Hallam University and the Sheffield Teaching Schools Alliance, with the university represented on the Alliance’s management group. The

p.22

Grade: 1

partnership enjoys a well developed research partnership with schools and the use of the resulting expertise in teacher education greatly enhances training. There is a very good range of planned core professional studies days and tasks which cover areas such as Behaviour for Learning, Inclusion, and Special Educational Needs and Disability. These are enhanced through school-based tasks, the identification of additional school-based training activities and a range of opportunities for enhanced learning through additional professional studies days in areas such as English as an additional language, sports activities for non-specialists, and more detailed study of areas such as autism and dyslexia. Secondary trainees have the opportunity to visit an early years provider. Course publications such as the Professional Review Profile are clear, well structured and of high quality. Trainees and mentors say they find these

p.22

Grade: 1

very helpful and easy to use. The partnership enjoys a very close relationship with the three partner local authorities, intended to increase the supply of high quality NQTs locally.

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Grade: 1

72. The provider is exceptionally clearly focused on national and local initiatives. It is proactive at anticipating change. It is planning to ensure it is strategically placed to work with a range of partners to secure the best outcomes for trainees and for learners in the schools and local authorities with whom it works. Trainees’ needs are identified early and individual personalised plans ensure all trainees have the support and guidance they need to succeed. NQT responses to questions regarding national priorities are positive and improving strongly. Trainees’ responses regarding the overall quality of their course are above average and improving significantly. The partnership has had a clear focus on increasing secondary trainees’ subject knowledge for teaching. In the 2011 NQT survey, there was a significant improvement in the proportion of trainees who felt thoroughly prepared in respect of relevant subject knowledge

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Grade: 1

for teaching. This continues to be a high priority and the most recent trainee evaluations indicate a further strong rise in trainees’ confidence. Trainees have a good understanding of phonics and other national priorities and are fully prepared to teach. Primary trainees are positive and increasingly confident in respect of a range of national priorities. They feel much better prepared to work with disabled learners and those with special educational needs, and to teach phonics. Communications are very effective with leaders, keeping partners informed about the outcomes of evaluations and subsequent actions to improve provision.

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Grade: 1

73. Improvement planning is drawn up in consultation with a wide range of partners. School representatives have a strong presence on the Quality in Initial Teacher Training committee. Improvement planning has a sharp focus on the partnership’s key priorities, such as strengthening subject knowledge for teaching and reducing further the proportion of students graded as satisfactory, with the allocation of appropriate resources and timescales. Headteachers, moderators and mentors were clear about the partnership’s priorities and a wide range of partners are fully and enthusiastically engaged with planning for and securing improvement. The partnership has evidenced clear improvement since it was last inspected. For example, secondary trainees now have a thorough understanding of high quality pedagogic theory and practice, often underpinned by excellent and detailed feedback and dialogue following lesson observations. The quality of course materials has improved. In

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Grade: 1

both phases, revised publications such as the new Professional Review Profile and the Guidance are detailed, very useful and highly regarded by trainees, mentors and moderators. Schools say this is a significant improvement on previous documents. The partnership has had particular success in working with schools and local authorities to meet the need for high quality teachers in partner schools. This in turn has had a significant impact on improving the life chances of pupils and students.

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Grade: 1

74. The partnership has planned very effectively for the future and is in a very good position to make further significant improvements.

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Context

75. Initial teacher training within the Learning and Skills Sector at Sheffield Hallam University was established in 1990 as a collaborative partnership, meeting the needs of in-service tutors. The provision has subsequently developed to meet the needs of a diverse market and now offers full-time pre-service and part-time in-service undergraduate and postgraduate awards at the university and in- service undergraduate and postgraduate awards at four partner centres. The full award is mapped to the Diploma in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector. Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector and the Certificate in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector are staged awards within the full qualification. Integrated routes for literacy, numeracy and ESOL specialists are also offere d. The qualifications meet the statutory requirements. They were endorsed by Standards Verification UK and are registered on the Institute for

p.24

Context

Learning Initial Teacher Training/Education Qualifications Register.

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Context

76. At the time of the inspection there were 42 trainees following the full-time route and 124 following the part-time route.

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Key strengths

77. The key strengths are: outstanding physical, human and electronic learning resources which are fully used and contribute to the high quality of learning outcomes excellent targeted support for the learning and development of trainees and mentors the high quality of teaching and training across the partnership producing confident and competent trainees robust recruitment and selection procedures resulting in early target setting and support for trainees quality assurance across the partnership that is good and improving effective sharing of best practice in cross-phase working.

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Recommendations

78. In order to improve trainees’ progress and attainment, the provider/partnership should: review partnership arrangements to ensure they are fit for purpose for learners encourage in-service trainees to develop a broader experience of teaching in the sector engage in more systematic continuing professional development for, and sharing of good practice by, tutors and mentors across the partnership.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

79. The overall effectiveness of the provider in securing high quality outcomes is good.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

80. Inspectors agree with the provider’s judgement that trainees’ attainment is good. Overall, a large majority of trainees were graded at least good in 2010/11 with a large majority of full-time trainees and most part-time trainees graded good or better. There was better attainment by in-service trainees than pre-service trainees at the university. The university believes it could have been under-assessing full-time trainees. The university has used good practice from another provider to develop a grading pilot. It is anticipated that there will now be more consistency across pre-service and in-service attainment rates. Assessment judgements by external examiners confirmed the accuracy of the provider’s assessment and inspectors agreed with the assessment of the provider in all cases which gives them confidence in the provider’s grading.

p.25

Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

81. Trainees have a good classroom presence with confident performance, and they create and maintain a good rapport with learners. Trainees have a clear understanding of their current achievement and which areas of practice they need to develop and show application of theory in their practice. Trainees are very confident and enthusiastic about discussing their training and how it has improved their practice as teachers. They demonstrate effective use of questions and answers, including directed questioning to engage learners and effective use of active learning methodology. Trainees are well prepared to teach numeracy and literacy skills across the curriculum. One trainee gave an input on the technical language used in the identification of plants through genus and species. This was followed by allocating learners to groups and providing each group with a cutting. Learners were then asked to research

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

and identify the type of plant they had been given. Learners used a variety of reference materials, including a visit to the learning resource centre. Trainees have good subject knowledge, vocational and professional knowledge, and experience. Their written work is of a high standard, showing evidence of reading and research. Trainees are well versed in strategies to encourage positive attitudes to learning and good behaviour, and they apply these strategies effectively. Reflection by trainees on their practice leads to development in their teaching. The best trainees are well organised, demonstrating the ability to set and plan to achieve learning outcomes through the delivery of lessons. Trainees make effective use of differentiated tasks to meet individual learning needs through learning activities. They are effective at target setting and action planning. There is good use of available resources including information and communication technology. Some in-

p.25

Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

service trainees work in small, restricted settings or in narrow curriculum areas and the programme should encourage them to develop a broader experience of teaching in the sector. 82. Recruitment and selection are good. Detailed data on trainees’ outcomes have been developed since the last inspection. The provider is able to show that success rates for all trainees have improved, with full-time success rates higher than part-time rates. The outcomes for trainees are analysed for individuals and identifiable groups. Destination surveys are carried out for full- time and part-time trainees. Interview procedures are rigorous and robust. The provider has implemented procedures such as risk assessment, grading of characteristics and consideration of educational history at interview. Trainees are advised to secure additional support if agreed as appropriate at interview. If unsuccessful at interview, trainees are given advisory interviews and

p.25

Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

informed what they can do to maximise their future chances of a successful application. These measures have been introduced to address issues such as lower success rates and outcomes for minority ethnic trainees. Research and analysis carried out suggest that minority ethnic trainees educated overseas improve more quickly than those educated in the United Kingdom. There is timely assessment of the literacy, numeracy, and information and communication technology skills of trainees leading to early identification of needs. Employers are involved in interviewing pre-service applicants.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

83. Training and assessment are good. A team of outreach mentors who are highly experienced practitioners support at-risk mentors or trainees or both. They have used the quality agreement with partners effectively in their visits to mentors. There is excellent practice working with hard-to-reach mentors who may be employed outside of a large FE college, for example, in a small or medium enterprise or voluntary organisation. Full-time trainees describe their mentoring as excellent saying that they have been guided not led. However, a few mentors claimed there is a lack of clarity in the mentors’ role and they were unsure of their responsibilities. These mentors had not seen the mentors’ guide. There has been excellent support from core teaching teams at the university and all centres and trainees say that tutorial support gives them confidence and aids progression. Where the first teaching practice observation

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

is carried out by the teacher training team and the second by the mentor, this can mean the mentor observation is too late for subsequent intervention. Full- time trainees have appreciated the fractional placement. They commented that, ‘Being a learner keeps you in touch with learning and your own learners’. At one college, where trainees transfer to the university after the first year, some trainees found this transition difficult. Assignment feedback gives good clear action points for further development and there is good annotation of scripts which encourages trainees to engage in reflective practice. There is good developmental feedback after observations by mentors and tutors and clear evidence of individual target setting and action planning. This stretches trainees and encourages reflection. It is particularly effective, along with situational analysis, after teaching practice observations. Criteria not met

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

during teaching practice observations are carried over to future observations.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

84. The use of resources is outstanding. There are well qualified and effective staff teams at the university and at all centres. All trainees have good working relationships with tutors, maintained in a variety of ways, and value their support as the key driver of their own development on the programme. Outreach mentors are key sources of support for mentors and trainees. The partnership and placement lead has partly an academic and partly a strategic and operational role. This strengthens her capacity to work effectively. At the university, the learning resource centre offers an excellent learning environment and facilities, space for group work and access to hard-copy and e-books. It has extensive opening hours. The post-compulsory education curriculum area is fully resourced with books and journals. Laptops can be borrowed and personal computers booked and accessed. There were no queues at helpdesks in a very busy centre which suggests the centre was

p.26

Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

operating effectively. Part-time trainees particularly welcome easy access to the library and the use of e-books. There are extensive subject-specific texts to support trainees develop their subject knowledge. Learning hubs offer learning support and opportunities for practising the use of resources such as interactive whiteboards. Current graduate trainees who had taken first degrees at other universities compared the university’s resources very favourably with those at the other universities. At one partner college, trainees can access all key texts in a small but well-equipped learning resource centre. All trainees have access to the university’s virtual learning environment (VLE), although some trainees prefer to use their own college’s VLE because of its layout. Former trainees thought resources excellent and praised the good support they had received from tutors. For example, university staff go out to give mentor training on site. An interpreter had been

p.27

Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

provided for a deaf trainee through additional learning support.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

85. The quality of provision across the partnership is good. The university has developed a large pool of trained mentors over six years, numbering in the region of 300 trained mentors who are able to offer trainees effective support. Tutors from the university and partner centres work effectively together but continuing professional development and the sharing of good practice is not always systematically planned. Link tutors and academic tutors are becoming more proactive in leading on module and curriculum development. The standardisation of curriculum development and programme delivery is not always carried out systematically across the partnership. The process of ‘quality designation’ enables the university to quality assure the suitability of full-time placements, a procedure which uses good practice from other phases. The effective academic tutors carry out placement visits which the partnership and placement lead may follow-up. Trainees contribute well to the

p.27

Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

evaluations of their own placements. Internal moderation events ensure consistency of grading and allow for sharing of best practice. The quality assurance of mentors is carried out through joint observations and academic mentors identify at-risk mentors from their marking of work on the Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector module. Some mentors feel they are not as involved in the self-evaluation and quality assurance processes as they might be. Partnership agreements are different for one of the partners which had a negative impact on the access to the VLE resources for some trainees during their first year of the programme.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

86. The extent to which the provision promotes equality of opportunity, values diversity and eliminates harassment and unlawful discrimination is good. 87. Equality and diversity are embedded in the curriculum, for example in the Supporting Learners module, and reinforced in mentor training, and observed and promoted in teaching practice observations. Trainees are able to talk confidently about the embedding of equality and diversity in their curriculum areas and how their awareness has been raised through attending university lectures and also by practices in their own colleges. Former trainees commented that their personal knowledge of equality and diversity is better than their colleagues in their work environment. The Equality Handbook in the Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector module is an example of good practice in equality and diversity. Widening participation is extensive and

p.27

Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

is promoted through links to minority ethnic organisations, mentor support, academic tutor visits and strategic interventions such as enabling one trainee struggling on the full-time programme to switch to the part-time programme. Support for full-time trainees is strengthened through quality management of partners, discussion with trainees about their placement and by trainees’ own evaluation of their placements. For disabled trainees and those with special educational needs there is signposting to the university support services and electronic resources. Well-being is supported by academic tutors and the additional support co-ordinator. Training of, and support for, mentors is effective. Training input from a police trainer on ethical practice was a demonstration to trainees of the importance of equality and diversity in a major public-sector organisation and by implication in organisations in which

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Grade: 2

88. The partnership has good capacity to secure continuous improvement and/or sustain high-quality outcomes. The effectiveness with which the management at all levels evaluates performance in order to improve or sustain high quality is good. The university has invested extensively in providing detailed, accurate data which has allowed post-compulsory education and training to analyse rigorously and accurately the strengths and areas of development in its provision. Course committee meetings, in which trainee representatives participate, are held bi-annually and full-time trainees evaluate their placements at two points in the year. Each module is evaluated by trainees and tutors on completion. There are regular internal moderations hosted by different members of the partnership, the outcomes of which are clear and helpful moderation reports. External examiners’ reports are detailed and developmental, and their role has now been enhanced with visits to centres

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Grade: 2

involving joint observations with tutors and mentors. The role of university centre-link tutors has been strengthened and they are now more proactively involved in the operation of programmes at centres. The university, in conjunction with centres, produces an Annual Quality Report. This comprises an extremely detailed evaluation of the operation of the programme at the centres. At department and university level, this evaluation feeds into a Department Annual Quality Report and a Faculty Annual Quality Report which are considered by the university’s academic board. Programme committee groups are involved in developing the phase self-evaluation document and tutors at centres value this involvement. Tutors carefully monitor trainees’ own self-assessment documentation.

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Grade: 2

89. The extent to which leadership at all levels anticipates change, and prepares for and responds to national and local initiatives, is good. There is sharing of good practice across the department. The primary phase revalidation is being informed by the experience of post-compulsory education and training of fractional, as opposed to block, placement on the full-time course. Other phases are considering using outreach mentoring as the post-compulsory education and training phase does. Post-compulsory English for speakers of other languages staff have given department staff training in English as an additional language. Post-compulsory education and training has adopted quality designation of partners, and implemented recruitment and selection grading and testing of trainees at interview. Interview panels include external stakeholders. Its trainees benefited from a Behaviour Forum held by the department. The phase lead has both a department and faculty marketing

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Grade: 2

and recruitment role. Staff are members of key internal groups such as the teacher education leadership group and the course leader is a member of the equality and diversity committee. Six external examinerships are held by post- compulsory education and training staff which is an outward-facing phase with membership of key national teacher education groups such as the Association of Partners in Teacher Education and the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers. The effective operation of the strategic management group, involving higher-level partner representatives and the partnership management group as well as the very effective Quality Initial Teacher Group, ensure sharing of best practice internally and within the partnership. Link tutors are engaged in working with partners more than previously and there is better communication across the partnership with colleges feeling more included.

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Grade: 2

90. The extent to which the provider plans and takes action for improvement is good. Action plans are continuously reviewed and evaluated for their impact on improvement. The provider has responded positively to required actions and recommendations in the previous inspection report. Key performance indicators, by which the quality of provision at programme and partnership level can be probed and evaluated, have been developed and are prominent in self-evaluation and improvement planning. Accurate and reliable data on trainees’ outcomes are now available, enabling managers to make informed decisions about where improvements need to be made at both individual programme level and across the partnership as a whole. There is systematic evaluation of the extent to which provision and actions for improvement impact on outcomes for different groups of trainees and partners are fully engaged in this. Contributions made by mentors are now more formally part

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Grade: 2

of quality assurance processes and there is now greater consistency in the quality of mentoring, in particular for those trainees who are employed in the wider further education sector. The system for tracking progress is now embedded with trainees, mentors and tutors involved in this process. Trainees’ attainment is now systematically graded with all trainers clear about how they can guide trainees to become good or outstanding teachers. All trainees can access and benefit from the university’s learning resources, in particular the VLE. Post-compulsory education and training now draws on the exemplary practice that already exists in other phases of initial teacher training at the university and contributes its own best practice across other phases.

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Annex: Partnership colleges

The partnership includes the following providers:

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Annex: Partnership colleges

Chesterfield College South Yorkshire Police The Sheffield College

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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

Primary Secondary Employment- based routes ITE for FE

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Overall effectiveness

How effective is the provision in securing high quality outcomes for trainees? 2 2 2 2

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Overall effectiveness

Trainees’ attainment How well do trainees attain? 2 2 1 2 Factors contributing to trainees’ attainment To what extent do recruitment / selection arrangements support high quality outcomes? 2 2 1 2 To what extent does the training and assessment ensure that all trainees progress to fulfil their potential given their ability and starting points? 2 2 2 2

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Overall effectiveness

To what extent are available resources used effectively and efficiently? 2 2 2 1 The quality of the provision To what extent is the provision across the partnership of consistently high quality? 2 2 2 2

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Overall effectiveness

Promoting equalities and diversity To what extent does the provision promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and eliminate harassment and unlawful discrimination? 2 2 1 2

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Capacity to improve further and/or sustain high quality

Primary Secondary Employment- based routes ITE for FE

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Capacity to improve further and/or sustain high quality

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? 2 1 1 2

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Capacity to improve further and/or sustain high quality

How effectively does the management at all levels assess performance in order to improve or sustain high quality? 2 1 1 2 How well does the leadership at all levels anticipate change, and prepare for and respond to national and local initiatives? 1 1 1 2

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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 1 1 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 November 2009; 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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