Northern Lights SCITT

Northern Lights SCITT Skipton Girls’ High School, Gargrave Road, Skipton BD23 1QL

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Inspection judgements

Primary and secondary age-phase combined

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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 Good

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

Trainees on Northern Lights school-centred initial teacher training (SCITT) programme find it to be caring, warm and welcoming. This is the case both at the centre and while on placement. The pastoral support that trainees receive is a strength of the partnership. Many feel that it is like a family. Trainees’ confidence in leaders is well placed. Workload is well considered by leaders without lowering expectations of trainees.

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

Trainees have a good understanding of their responsibilities around safeguarding and managing behaviour. Course leaders plan these aspects effectively into the curriculum and ensure that school placements provide trainees with a variety of experiences. There are clear systems for communication between the partnership, mentors and trainees. This ensures that the aims and curriculum of the SCITT programme are well understood by all stakeholders. It ensures that rapid support can be put in place for trainees if needed.

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

Leaders help trainees to develop a clear understanding of the pedagogies and practice that are the most helpful in the classroom for the phases they will teach. This is underpinned by the effective use of recent research. This helps them to be prepared for the real-life demands of being a teacher. For example, trainees have a good understanding of how to adapt their teaching to meet the needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The curriculum also helps trainees to understand how to use assessment to check what pupils have learned and to adjust planning accordingly.

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Information about this ITE partnership

◼ Trainees train to teach secondary-age (11 to 16 years, with a post-16 enhancement) or primary-age (five to 11 years) pupils. ◼ All trainees complete a Postgraduate Certificate in Education with Leeds Trinity University. ◼ At the time of the inspection 21 trainees were on the course. All trainees follow the SCITT route. Leaders of the partnership offer a School Direct (salaried) route, but there are currently no trainees following this route into teaching. ◼ The partnership is based at Skipton Girls’ High School, which is part of Northern Star Academies Trust. The chief executive officer (CEO) of the trust is the accounting officer of the SCITT. ◼ The SCITT is currently in partnership with eight primary schools and nine secondary schools. Of the primary schools, seven were graded good at their most recent inspection and one was graded outstanding. Of the secondary schools, five were graded outstanding at their most recent inspection and four were graded good.

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Information about this ITE partnership

◼ The course director and course deputy director both took up post in September 2021.

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Information about this inspection

◼ The inspection was conducted by three of Her Majesty’s Inspectors and one Ofsted Inspector. ◼ Inspectors met with the course director and deputy director, as well as the leader with strategic oversight of the course. Inspectors also spoke with the CEO of Northern Star Academies Trust and several headteachers who have employed previous trainees from the course. ◼ The inspection team conducted focused reviews in early reading, history and English. They met with the subject experts or leads, scrutinised course documents and visited six schools to talk with trainees, mentors and senior leaders. They looked at evidence of trainees’ learning and observed them teaching the subject being reviewed. ◼ Inspectors spoke with all 21 trainees, either in their schools, in virtual meetings, or at in-person meetings at the partnership. ◼ Inspectors took account of 21 responses to Ofsted’s online survey for trainees and

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Information about this inspection

34 responses to the online survey for staff.

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better?

Northern Lights SCITT partnership attracts trainees with varying levels of previous experience in schools. The location of the partnership and its good reputation attract many applicants. There is clear oversight of the SCITT curriculum at strategic and operational levels. Leaders ensure that colleagues from outside the partnership are involved in designing and contributing to the course. Leaders seek, and act on, the views of trainees. Trainees value the opportunity to feed back. Leaders use this information, for example by improving the guidance that trainees are given regarding employment. Trainees are well prepared by the course for a career in teaching.

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better?

Trainees who have recently completed the course told inspectors that they had benefited from the close alignment of placement-based training and SCITT-based training. For example, they are able to learn about adapting teaching for pupils with SEND through training and assignments delivered by SCITT leaders. Trainees then observe expert colleagues in schools before applying what they have learned.

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better?

Leaders have designed an ambitious, well-sequenced curriculum underpinned by current research. It is well understood by trainees and communicated clearly to mentors. Leaders have assessed what they consider to be the most important knowledge for trainees to acquire. For example, there is a focus on planning and designing sequences of lessons. They have designed the course to build this knowledge over time.

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better?

In most subjects, leaders have made sure that the key subject content knowledge that they want trainees to learn has been carefully mapped out. In some foundation subjects in the primary phase, this work has been hampered by the effects of the pandemic. In these subjects, the knowledge that trainees develop has been driven by placements rather than course leaders. Leaders know this. Plans are in place to develop planning in these subject areas.

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better?

Primary-phase trainees have a strong understanding of how to teach children to read because this is prominent in the SCITT curriculum. Trainees understand systematic synthetic phonics. They are given regular opportunities to revisit what they have learned about teaching pupils who are at the early stages of learning to read. Course leaders ensure that they adapt the trainees’ curriculum to account for gaps in knowledge in relation to teaching reading. This means that trainees are well prepared to teach pupils to read.

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better?

Mentors are carefully selected, and there are robust quality assurance systems in place. This helps to oversee the work of trainees on placement and ensures that there is a constant flow of information about trainees’ progress between mentors, subject leaders and university tutors. Owing to this, trainees are given the right support when an issue is identified. In some cases, there is variability in the quality of targets set by mentors. For example, some targets are too task focused and do not help trainees improve consistently well. Leaders have recognised this and improvements are already under way.

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better?

Assessment of trainees is thorough. Leaders have clearly linked assessment to the taught curriculum and are in the process of ensuring that mentors fully understand how to apply this assessment framework. Assessment of case studies and written tasks ensures that both theoretical and practical progress is considered when assessing trainees’ suitability to teach.

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better?

The input of senior leaders from schools across the partnership, training from subject experts and careful consideration of the early career framework help to ensure that there is variety in the training delivered. Trainees finish their training year with a good understanding of what teaching entails. Subject leaders and trainers who are part of the partnership have their expertise and qualifications carefully considered by course leaders, and trainees feel confident that they are learning from credible experts. Inspectors agree. For example, the quality of training can be seen in the trainees’ detailed understanding of assessment and how it might be used to inform lesson planning and preparation.

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(Information for the partnership and appropriate authority)

◼ The most important subject knowledge that trainees need in some of the primary foundation subjects is not clear enough. Course leaders should ensure that they continue to identify the most important subject knowledge that trainees need and plan for how this will be taught to trainees. ◼ Course leaders do not ensure that targets are precise enough to help trainees to improve their practice. Sometimes, targets set for trainees are not matched well enough to their next steps. Leaders should ensure that mentors set targets that help trainees improve. Course leaders should ensure that the quality of mentoring and target-setting is consistently strong across the partnership. ◼ The ITE curriculum is not yet sufficiently well planned in some subject areas. However, it is clear from leaders’ actions that they are in the process of bringing this about and are making any necessary amendments in response to the pandemic. For

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(Information for the partnership and appropriate authority)

this reason, the transitional arrangements have been applied.

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comply with the ITE compliance criteria?

◼ The partnership meets the DfE statutory compliance criteria.

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ITE partnership details

Unique reference number 70315 Inspection number 10212885

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ITE partnership details

This inspection was carried out by Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) and Ofsted Inspectors (OIs) in accordance with the ‘Initial teacher education inspection framework and handbook’. This framework and handbook set 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 Primary and secondary combined

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Date of previous inspection

Stage 1: 12 June 2017 Stage 2: 20 November 2017

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Inspection team

Matthew Vellensworth, Lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Marcus Newby Her Majesty’s Inspector Debbie Redshaw Her Majesty’s Inspector Lynne Selkirk Ofsted Inspector

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Annex: Partnership schools

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

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grade

Bingley Grammar School 107439 Secondary September 2016 Good Eastwood Community School 146223 Primary September 2016 Good Embsay Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School 121559 Primary September 2019 Good

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grade

Holycroft Primary School 143982 Primary September 2018 Good Skipton Girls’ High School 136664 Secondary September 2015 Outstanding South Craven School 136736 Secondary September 2019 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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