Bromley Schools’ Collegiate Partnership

ITE inspection report October 2015 This inspection was carried out by Her Majesty’s Inspectors, in accordance with the ‘Initial teacher education inspection handbook’. This handbook sets out the statutory basis and framework for initial teacher education (ITE) inspections in England from April 2015.

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The inspection draws on evidence from within the ITE partnership to make judgements against all parts of the evaluation schedule. Inspectors focused on the overall effectiveness of the ITE partnership in securing high-quality outcomes for trainees.

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Inspection judgements

Key to judgements: Grade 1 is outstanding; grade 2 is good; grade 3 is requires improvement; grade 4 is inadequate

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Inspection judgements

Primary and Secondary QTS Overall effectiveness How well does the partnership secure consistently high quality outcomes for trainees? The outcomes for trainees 1

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Inspection judgements

The quality of training across the partnership The quality of leadership and management across the partnership Bromley Schools’ Collegiate Partnership Initial teacher education inspection report Inspection dates Stage 1: 8–10 June 2015 Stage 2: 28–30 September 2015 ITE inspection report October 2015

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Information about this ITE partnership

 Bromley Schools’ Collegiate is a partnership of 13 schools, including four Teaching School Alliances, located in Bromley and Tunbridge Wells. It provides School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) in the 4 – 11 and 11 – 18 age ranges. It offers general training in the primary phase. In the secondary phase, it offers training in English, geography, history, computer science, mathematics, modern foreign languages, religious education, biology, chemistry, physics, physical education, and art and design. At the time of the inspection, there were 62 secondary and 47 primary trainees on the course.  The partnership also offers routes to qualified teacher status through the ‘assessment only’ route. Chislehurst School for Girls is the lead school. Many features of the two training routes are similar and they share the same leadership and management.  Central training consists of weekly training sessions running throughout

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Information about this ITE partnership

the year; this includes general professional studies and phase- or subject- specific sessions.

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Information about the primary and secondary ITE inspection

 Inspectors observed the teaching by eight trainees, in seven schools, during Stage 1 of the inspection, and the teaching of six newly qualified teachers (NQTs), in four schools during Stage 2. At Stage 1, inspectors met with a further 18 trainees in schools and in Stage 2 a further 13 NQTs. They also met with mentors, senior mentors, headteachers, partnership managers and members of the partnership management committee.  Inspectors considered a wide range of evidence, including trainees’ files, course handbooks, development plans, data on progress, completion rates and employment rates of trainees, and evidence of the partnership’s self- evaluation. Inspectors reviewed a wide range of documentary evidence including information on recruitment and selection, statutory safeguarding and compliance with the initial teacher training criteria, tracking, assessment and summary reports, records of trainees’ teaching and

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Information about the primary and secondary ITE inspection

evidence of how well trainees’ teaching meets the teachers’ standards.  Inspectors took account of responses to recent NQT surveys and to Ofsted’s online questionnaire. Inspectors also reviewed the partnership’s own trainees’ evaluations of the programme. ITE inspection report October 2015

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Inspection team

Adrian Lyons, Her Majesty’s Inspector: lead inspector Hilary MacDonald, Her Majesty’s Inspector: assistant lead inspector

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The key strengths of the primary and secondary partnership are:

 Trainees’ strong progress leading to outcomes that are high, resulting from consistently high-quality training, including mentoring. Trainers and the central team are highly responsive to the individual needs of trainees and schools.  Employment rates. These are consistently high because trainees from the partnership are keenly sought by local schools. The strategic and operational leadership provided by local headteachers ensures that the programme meets the needs of local schools.  The effective quality assurance of training and assessment. New participants in the partnership, whether new mentors or headteachers, receive effective training.  The recent expansion into the primary sector in response to local demand. This has maintained the high quality of training for which the partnership is known.  Very regular communication, meetings and quality assurance activity ensures consistency of approach across subjects and across schools.

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The key strengths of the primary and secondary partnership are:

 The partnership’s very strong capacity for continual improvement. Additional work on subject knowledge and improved evaluations of trainees’ preparedness to teach pupils from different backgrounds since the previous inspection provide good examples of this.

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improve further?

The partnership should:  continue to consolidate the capacity and sustain the outstanding practice across all aspects of the provision, while developing new areas of work. ITE inspection report October 2015

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Inspection judgements

1. The partnership has a mission to provide good teachers for schools in the London Borough of Bromley. It is highly successful in accomplishing this mission. Employment rates are very high and in recent years all trainees wanting a teaching post have secured one. The majority of trainees become NQTs in schools which are members of the partnership. This is the first step in a policy of ‘growing your own’ with the partnership continuing to provide training and supervision of professional development through the NQT year. Leaders and managers have developed a deep understanding of and influence on local, regional and national requirements for teacher training.

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Inspection judgements

2. Consistently, over several years, almost all trainees complete the course and exceed the teachers’ standards to at least a good and very often outstanding level. The small number who interrupt their studies, for a variety of reasons, invariably return to complete their courses and achieve qualified teacher status. Assessment of trainees is regular, rigorous and accurate. Inspectors agreed with judgements made about the attainment of trainees, showing that around three quarters of secondary trainees complete their training at an ‘outstanding’ level. There is no significant variation in the outcomes for different groups of trainees in terms of gender, age or ethnicity. All outcomes for trainees, including employment and completion rates exceed the national average.

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Inspection judgements

3. The ‘assessment only’ route is addressed with equal rigour. The applicants’ needs are assessed and bespoke training programmes put in place. This enables candidates to provide the evidence needed to demonstrate that they exceed the requirements of the teachers’ standards.

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Inspection judgements

4. Trainees and NQTs are very confident classroom practitioners whose teaching promotes very good behaviour and positive attitudes to learning. They each have excellent knowledge of their subject. This is combined with a strong understanding of why, and how, to choose effective strategies to enable pupils to make good progress in lessons. They have high expectations of themselves and of their students’ achievement. Trainees and NQTs plan and teach well-structured lessons and sequences of lessons. Schools demonstrate confidence in NQTs’ teaching ability by often putting them in charge of classes, the success of which is critical to both the achievement of pupils and the accountability of the school. As one headteacher put it, ‘The quality of training the NQTs come in with brings something very important to the school.’ ITE inspection report October 2015 5. Trainees and NQTs teach lessons characterised by a strong focus on

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Inspection judgements

meeting the needs of different pupils in the class. Trainees, and even NQTs in their first few lessons, know their pupils and their needs well and plan accordingly. This was seen in lessons with a particular emphasis, for example, on targeted questioning which was then built on by targeting higher-attaining students for answers requiring deeper thinking. The quality of marking in all cases seen was always strong and, sometimes, very effective indeed. All trainees had a very good understanding of the use of assessment for different purposes. All were confident in using information about pupils’ progress and ability in their planning.

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Inspection judgements

6. Behaviour was at least good in all the lessons observed. Trainees were able to reflect on how their experience in schools where behaviour was more challenging had given them the opportunity to develop skills so that behaviour management during the inspection appeared to be effortless.

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Inspection judgements

7. Leaders in the schools visited by inspectors were extremely positive about the training and the high quality of trainees. They are keen to employ Bromley Collegiate NQTs because they know they will teach consistently good lessons and enhance the quality of education in the school. One reason for this confidence is that headteachers are exceptionally well involved in the strategic leadership of the partnership. For example, recently appointed headteachers reported how one of their first tasks on taking up their headship was to attend central training to be inducted into the workings of the partnership and subsequently attend partnership management meetings. The model for strategic leadership across the partnership ensures that all stakeholders are intrinsically involved in the future direction of all aspects of the provision.

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Inspection judgements

8. The sense of shared responsibility across the partnership for training its future workforce ensures that initial teacher training has a high status within the schools involved. Headteachers are both passionate about teacher training and heavily involved in the strategic leadership of the partnership.

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Inspection judgements

9. Involvement in teacher training is built into the performance management of key staff in partnership schools and mentoring is seen as a career development opportunity. Continuity in mentoring is prioritised and as far as possible changes are managed well. The senior mentor role is central to maintaining the quality of training in partnership schools. Many key staff in the partnership’s secondary schools have a long and successful record of school-based teacher training. Subject leadership across the partnership is provided by expert subject leaders from partnership schools. They include national subject associations in the training so that NQTs are tied in to subject ITE inspection report October 2015 networks after their initial training. Subject mentors know their subjects very well, mentor their trainees very skilfully and are held rigorously to account by senior mentors. The skills observed in lesson

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Inspection judgements

observation feedback are strong, diagnostic and rooted firmly in coaching and the development of subject pedagogy.

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Inspection judgements

10. The leadership and management of both the primary and the secondary phases of the Bromley Collegiate are outstanding. High- quality training has been established and, as a result, outcomes for trainees are excellent. NQTs are confident and skilled practitioners. They agree that the training has equipped them to teach well. Inspection evidence, including observations, support this assertion. The teachers’ standards are thoroughly known and understood. Assessments routinely relate to these standards.

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Inspection judgements

11. Schools across the partnership are deeply committed to ensuring that trainees become good and outstanding teachers, not least because they are all seen as potential employees. The partnership mentors and school leaders know the trainees very well. This knowledge ensures that trainees receive personalised support and challenge, make good progress and are exceptionally well prepared at the start of their NQT year. Partnership schools are highly committed to the success of the course. The partnership management committee provides effective strategic oversight and challenge. It regularly reviews how well the partnership is doing, and contributes well to course evaluations and revision.

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Inspection judgements

12. Training takes place mainly, but not exclusively, in schools within the London Borough of Bromley. Within this context, the partnership maximises opportunities to enable trainees to teach in diverse socio- economic, ethnic and gender contexts. Inspectors explored with NQTs the extent to which they felt prepared to teach anywhere. They responded that the fact that they had applied for jobs outside the borough, for example in inner London, showed that they felt prepared to teach anywhere. Contrasting placements are used very well so that several trainees spoke of how their first placement had given them opportunities to develop an understanding of special educational needs and then the second placement had focused on challenge for the most able. This was the result of excellent communication between trainers.

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Inspection judgements

13. NQTs understand the importance of professional conduct. This is conveyed through their training and reinforced during school placements. Trainees and NQTs understand that good teaching leads to pupils who are interested in their work, are happy in their learning and consequently behave well. Employing schools are very positive about NQTs’ professionalism. They are good role models for their pupils and enthusiastically engage in the life of the school. ITE inspection report October 2015 14. The partnership’s training embeds reflection as a key aspect of training and tool for learning. NQTs and trainees reflect honestly, frequently and in depth about their own teaching and the impact this has on the learning of their pupils. NQTs report that this aspect of training has been critical in their development as ambitious teachers. The good routines of self-reflection developed during the training become second

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Inspection judgements

nature and so naturally continue in the NQT year. NQTs are well equipped with the skills they need to develop further as professionals.

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Inspection judgements

15. High-quality training in mathematics and phonics enables primary trainees to develop excellent subject knowledge and teach these subjects and skills well. High-quality training is not limited to phonics and mathematics or to the primary phase. In both primary and secondary, subject-specific training and wider topics such as behaviour, teaching pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities, pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, and their appreciation of fundamental British values strengthen both trainees’ confidence and competence in supporting pupils and promoting good behaviour. As a result, primary NQTs are confident to teach across the curriculum, including in primary physical education . Secondary NQTs speak highly of the central training (‘fantastic session on what it is like to be a form tutor’). They explained how this, together with school-based attachments to form groups has prepared

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Inspection judgements

them extremely well for their role in the school beyond subject teaching.

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Inspection judgements

16. As many of the trainees are employed as NQTs in partnership schools, they continue to be trained and supported by the Bromley Collegiate through their NQT year. Mentors and trainees together choose from a menu of centrally delivered after-school sessions. NQTs told inspectors that the training year had prepared them ‘very well for now’, meaning the start of the NQT year. They said that this was partly because they felt like teachers last year. Additionally they said that they are able to manage the current workload as a result of the training year teaching them to organise and manage their time.

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Inspection judgements

17. Targets set at the end of training are communicated clearly to the employing school. They are quickly built on. For example, one NQT had a target to improve his approaches to ‘assessment for learning’. His file made it very clear that the employing school had devised a training programme around this. For example, in his first three weeks at the school, he had been taken on a tour by his mentor to observe and reflect on good practice from a number of teachers in a range of subjects. ITE inspection report October 2015 18. Trainees’ progress is very carefully tracked and regularly evaluated. The forensic analysis of training needs and frequent assessment points enable personalised and targeted support which leads to strong progress and outstanding outcomes over time. Inspectors met trainees and NQTs who were full of praise for the quality and effectiveness of the pastoral and academic support they had received or were currently

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Inspection judgements

receiving, saying that it enabled them to get back on track and achieve well. High-quality pastoral support is given by school staff and by central trainers and administrators in the central office who play an equally important role in providing personal support to trainees. NQTs are confident that support remains available to them. Indeed, the uniqueness of the partnership lies in providing training, from the initial training year to the most senior leadership posts.

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Inspection judgements

19. The vision for excellence is exceptionally strong and permeates the whole partnership. The provider has aspirations that all trainees will be outstanding by the end of the course and has put systems in place to support this. Schools are actively involved in course design and provide a seamless experience with NQTs being highly impressed with the way school-based and centre-based training complement one another each week. They regard both elements as of very high quality. The quality assurance of all aspects of training is comprehensive. Central training is delivered by school staff from across the partnership.

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Inspection judgements

20. There are rigorous systems to ensure that training is of the highest possible quality and that assessments of trainees’ achievements are accurate. There is regular joint monitoring and moderation and, where necessary, the involvement of external examiners. The positive impact of improvement planning is evident in that the aspects which were recommendations for improvement at the previous inspection, such as the development of subject knowledge and improved evaluations of trainees’ preparedness to teach pupils from different backgrounds, are now strengths. Similarly, building on the already excellent systems in primary provision, plans exist to develop the role of the phase leaders to reinforce quality assurance still further.

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Inspection judgements

21. Leaders are highly proactive in maintaining and building on already outstanding provision to meet the needs of local schools. One hugely important response has been the expansion of what, at the time of the previous inspection, was a secondary-only programme to now include training for primary school teachers. Inspectors questioned whether the long-established outstanding track record of secondary training would be replicated in the primary programme. Inspectors were reassured to discover that, while the programme has been adapted to reflect the differences in primary schools, the essential strengths that make the partnership’s provision outstanding are found in both secondary and primary routes. ITE inspection report October 2015 22. The partnership works closely with school colleagues to ensure that rigorous recruitment and selection procedures enable it to choose trainees with the high aspirations, academic ability and clear potential

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Inspection judgements

23. Appropriate safeguarding arrangements are in place. Trainees’ qualifications and their suitability to work with pupils are checked and recorded. The partnership fully complies with regulations regarding the recruitment of trainees.

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Annex: Partnership schools

The following schools were visited to observe trainees’ and former trainees’ teaching:

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Annex: Partnership schools

Allhallows Primary Academy, Medway Chislehurst School for Girls, Bromley Crofton Junior School, Bromley Darrick Wood School, Bromley Hayes Secondary School, Bromley Pickhurst Infant School, Bromley Pickhurst Junior School, Bromley Ravenswood School, Bromley Valley School, Bromley ITE inspection report October 2015

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ITE partnership details

Unique reference number Inspection number Inspection dates Stage 1 Stage 2 Lead inspector Type of ITE partnership Phases provided Date of previous inspection Previous inspection report

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ITE partnership details

Provider address 8 – 10 June 2015 28 – 30 September 2015 Adrian Lyons HMI SCITT Primary and secondary June 2009 https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/user

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ITE partnership details

Bromley Schools’ Collegiate, Chislehurst School for Girls, Beaverwood Road, Chislehurst, Kent, BR7 6HE 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 and 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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ITE partnership details

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

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