King Edward's Consortium

King Edward’s Consortium King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls, Vicarage Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham, West Midlands B14 7QJ

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education and training Good

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Overall effectiveness Good

Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Outstanding

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What is it like to be a trainee at this ITE partnership?

Partnership leaders say that you can ‘tell a King Edward’s Consortium trainee a mile off’. They are right. Trainees are highly professional, reflective and dedicated. They embody the partnership’s vision of excellence. Leaders have made sure that trainees learn the right things in the right order and at the right time. Trainees engage with pertinent research. They consider how they can apply this in their lessons. This means that they are suitably prepared for the practical challenges of teaching.

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What is it like to be a trainee at this ITE partnership?

Communication across the partnership is highly effective. All staff know and understand their roles. Partnership leaders ensure that staff have the expertise and knowledge to carry out their roles well. Staff model the values and professionalism expected of trainees.

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What is it like to be a trainee at this ITE partnership?

The partnership promotes equality, diversity and inclusion. Leaders have threaded this through all aspects of trainees’ learning. Consequently, trainees strive to meet the needs of all pupils that they teach. For example, trainees learn how to provide effective support for pupils who speak English as an additional language.

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What is it like to be a trainee at this ITE partnership?

Staff provide high-quality support and know each trainee well. Trainees value and appreciate this. Staff listen to trainees. They teach them how to manage their workload while maintaining high standards. Leaders care about the well-being of trainees. They are quick to offer further support when needed.

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Information about this ITE partnership

◼ The partnership currently has 30 trainees in the secondary phase. ◼ The partnership contains 21 schools, and two more plan to join in September 2021. ◼ Trainees follow one of two routes. These are postgraduate (provider led) and School Direct (salaried). Trainees completing the postgraduate route are awarded the postgraduate diploma in education with qualified teacher status. ◼ The partnership contains a mixture of schools, including comprehensive, independent and selective schools.

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Information about this inspection

◼ This inspection was carried out by two of Her Majesty’s Inspectors. Due to COVID- 19 (coronavirus), some discussions were carried out via online meetings. ◼ Inspectors met with the chair of the partnership, the director of initial teacher training (ITT), the King Edward’s Consortium (KEC) professional and academic tutor and the KEC coach. ◼ Inspectors spoke with headteachers, professional trainers, subject leaders and subjects trainers. ◼ Inspectors considered 30 responses to Ofsted’s online trainee survey and 64 responses to its online staff survey. ◼ Inspectors spoke or communicated with six placement schools and spoke with 17 trainees. Inspectors also had discussions with nine former trainees. ◼ An inspector met with members of the strategic partnership group, which included the chief executive officer. ◼ Inspectors conducted focused reviews of English, classics, modern foreign languages, science and humanities.

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better?

Leaders are relentless in their pursuit of excellence. They lead the partnership with determination, dedication and integrity. They are not afraid to make difficult decisions that are in the best interests of trainees. Subject leaders, subject trainers and professional trainers are rightly proud of the trainees they support. Partnership leaders have developed a curriculum that is ambitious and thorough. They are rigorous in their decisions about what trainees learn and when they learn it. Leaders use current research about the science of learning as the basis for centre-based teaching. Leaders complement this by teaching trainees the practical professional behaviours of effective teachers. Subject leaders and subject trainers provide the necessary detail that helps trainees apply generic principles to their subject. As a result, the curriculum goes well beyond the scope of the ITT core content framework.

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better?

Leaders have made sure that all aspects of the curriculum work in harmony. Leaders coordinate centre-based learning, trainee assignments and placement learning very effectively. This means that trainees benefit from a coherent learning experience. Leaders know the importance of trainees learning about inclusion. The concept of adaptive teaching is woven through the initial teacher education (ITE) curriculum. Meeting the needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities lies at the heart of this. This is highly effective. Leaders see subject trainers as ‘teacher educators’. They are selected judiciously, trained well and are diligent and committed. Leaders and professional trainers check the quality of their work. Subject trainers have access to the centre-based learning to use with trainees. Many subject trainers use this well. This leads to in-depth discussions that enable trainees

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better?

to explore their learning. However, in a few instances, subject trainers do not have the depth of knowledge of the content of the centre-based learning that they should. They are reliant on trainees to communicate the detail of what they have learned. In these instances, discussions between trainees and subject trainers do not draw on the centre- based learning as well as they could. Leaders’ processes for recruiting trainees are robust. They check applicants’ motivation for wanting to become a teacher carefully. Successful applicants complete a detailed subject- knowledge audit to check their subject expertise. When appropriate, leaders then provide trainees with effective support. As a result, all trainees are well placed to succeed. Some staff and trainees see formative assessment as being set against the teachers’ standards, not the knowledge set out in the ITE curriculum. In a few cases, this lessens a

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better?

sharpness in assessing the extent to which trainees learn the intended curriculum. This is manifest in some of the identified strengths and targets that are set for trainees. At times, these are overly broad and lack subject specificity. That said, there is much strong practice where detailed targets help trainees improve.

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(Information for the partnership and appropriate authority)

◼ Leaders have constructed an ITE curriculum based on up-to-date and pertinent research. Centre-based learning provides trainees with a strong insight to the science of learning and the traditions and practices of their subject. Many subject trainers use their knowledge of this aspect of the curriculum to enhance their work with trainees. However, this is not consistently so. Leaders should ensure that all subject trainers have an in-depth knowledge of the detail of the content of the centre-based learning so that they can use this in their work with trainees. ◼ Leaders have moved away from using the teachers’ standards to formatively assess trainees. However, some staff and trainees are still overly reliant on these standards. As a result, targets set for some trainees are not sufficiently precise. In these instances, subject trainers and trainees set targets against high-level generic descriptors. Leaders should ensure that trainees’ targets consistently draw on their

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(Information for the partnership and appropriate authority)

learning and focus sharply on the curriculum content to be mastered and the specific expertise to be developed.

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compliance criteria?

◼ The partnership meets the DfE statutory compliance criteria.

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ITE partnership details

Unique reference number 70209 Inspection number 10195329

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ITE partnership details

This inspection was carried out by Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMIs) in accordance with the ‘Initial teacher education inspection framework and handbook’. This framework and handbook sets out the statutory basis and framework for initial teacher education (ITE) inspections in England from September 2020.

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ITE partnership details

Type of ITE partnership SCITT Phases provided Secondary Date of previous inspection 12–15 November 2012

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Inspection team

Ian Tustian, Lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Mark Sims Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Annex: Partnership settings, schools and colleges

Inspectors contacted trainees and staff at the following schools, as part of this inspection:

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grade

King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys 137045 Secondary September 2004 Outstanding

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King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls 137044 Secondary September 2004 Outstanding

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King Edward VI High School for Girls 103585 Secondary September 2004 Not applicable

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King Edward’s School 103584 Secondary September 2004 Not applicable Swanshurst School 103514 Secondary September 2004 Outstanding Yardleys School 139994 Secondary September 2015 Outstanding guidance ‘Raising concerns and making a complaint about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-about-ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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