North West SCITT

Fylde Coast SCITT c/o Blackpool Sixth Form College, Blackpool Old Road, Blackpool, Lancashire FY3 7LR

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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 Outstanding

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

Leaders are exceptionally ambitious for every trainee at this partnership. They are well on the way to providing an excellent standard of ITE training across the primary- and secondary-age phases for trainees.

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

Trainees are enthused by the momentum that leaders have created. For example, trainees are capitalising on learning from passionate subject and age-phase experts. Trainees are also benefiting from leaders who are quickly getting to grips with the new requirements of teacher training.

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

Trainees’ well-being lies at the heart of the ITE programmes. They are taught to develop effective practices which help them to manage their workload. Trainees speak highly of the academic and pastoral support that they receive throughout their ITE training programmes, including into employment.

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

Trainees appreciate, and benefit from, school placements which are suitably matched to their individual learning and developmental needs. Trainees across both age phases benefit from carefully designed centre-based training. They gain a strong understanding of the pedagogy and practice required to teach in the primary- and secondary-age phases.

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

During centre-based training sessions, trainees explore and debate important themes such as pupils’ additional learning needs. They also learn about how to safeguard pupils and the factors that may affect pupils’ behaviour. Trainees value the well-crafted opportunities that leaders provide to understand the similarities and differences across their respective age phases. Trainees are expertly introduced to the specific theory and practice that is distinct to their phase and/or subject. Primary trainees are well trained to teach early reading, including systematic synthetic phonics. They are also exceptionally well trained to teach the full range of primary national curriculum subjects. Secondary trainees learn what is unique about their subject specialism.

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

Trainees in both age phases benefit from consistently effective mentoring. This helps trainees to understand, reflect on and strengthen the quality of their teaching practice. Leaders ensure that trainees benefit from highly effective communication between trainees, mentors and course tutors.

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Information about this ITE provider

◼ The Fylde Coast SCITT is a School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) provider. ◼ The SCITT has been providing teacher training in the secondary-age phase since September 2015, and in the primary-age phase since September 2018. ◼ In the 2022/23 academic year, there were 33 trainees enrolled on the SCITT’s programmes. This included 14 primary- and 19 secondary-age phase trainees. ◼ Trainees who follow the primary programmes are trained to teach the three to seven or five to 11 age phases. Trainees on secondary programmes are trained to teach the 11 to 16, 11 to 18 or 14 to 18 age phases. ◼ Secondary trainees choose from the following subject specialisms: art and design, biology, business studies, chemistry, computing, design and technology, drama, English, geography, history, mathematics, modern foreign languages, physics, physical education or religious studies. ◼ All trainees gain qualified teacher status (QTS). Since September 2022, the SCITT has

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Information about this ITE provider

been working in partnership with Sheffield Hallam University for trainees who wish to complete a postgraduate certificate in education. ◼ The partnership includes 13 primary schools and 15 secondary schools across five local authorities. ◼ Five schools in the partnership are currently judged as requires improvement by Ofsted. There are no inadequate schools and all other schools are judged to be good or outstanding.

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Information about this inspection

◼ This inspection was carried out by one of His Majesty’s Inspectors and two Ofsted Inspectors. ◼ Inspectors spoke with a range of SCITT leaders, staff and partners, including the head of the SCITT. Inspectors met with members of the SCITT’s governing body. ◼ Inspectors sampled a wide range of documentation relating to the ITE training programmes. This included: subject and phase curriculum plans; trainees’ assignments and their records of target-setting and mentoring; and information relating to the Department for Education’s (DfE’s) ITE criteria and supporting advice. ◼ Inspectors also reviewed a wide range of documentation relating to the leadership and management of the partnership. This information included leaders’ self-evaluation and improvement planning documents. ◼ Inspectors considered the responses to Ofsted’s online trainee survey. Inspectors also considered the responses to Ofsted’s staff survey.

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Information about this inspection

◼ The inspection was carried out through face-to-face meetings, virtual meetings and on- site visits to partner schools. ◼ During the inspection, inspectors visited five schools across the primary- and secondary-age phases. ◼ In the primary-age phase, inspectors spoke with 10 trainees, four early career teachers (ECTs) and eight mentors, either face to face or remotely. ◼ In the secondary-age phase, inspectors spoke with 11 trainees, four ECTs and 14 mentors, either face to face or remotely. ◼ In the primary-age phase, inspectors carried out focused reviews in early reading and the foundation subjects. ◼ In the secondary-age phase, inspectors carried out focused reviews in history, mathematics and science.

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better?

Leaders and governors have exceedingly high aspirations for trainees in the primary- and secondary-age phases at the Fylde Coast SCITT. Only the very best teacher training is acceptable in this partnership. As a result, leaders have designed ambitious ITE programmes that go well beyond the requirements of the DfE’s ITT core content framework. Leaders’ vision and aims are extremely well communicated. They are accepted and embraced by all partners. Leaders are quick to act when they find any weaknesses in trainees’ experiences. Consequently, trainees’ education and training are strong in many areas and rapidly improving elsewhere.

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better?

Leaders make skilful use of expert input to design high-quality core curriculums for the centre-based training in the primary- and secondary-age phases. They carefully identify the important topics that trainees should learn and in what order. Leaders ensure that there are plentiful opportunities to revisit essential learning across the duration of the ITE programmes. For example, trainees revisit and recap learning about pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language. Trainees thrive from opportunities to explore a broad range of theory and practice in depth. For example, trainees learn in-depth about the importance of pupils’ wider personal development. They gain additional qualifications relating to managing pupils’ behaviour and delivering personal, health, social and economic education.

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better?

Trainees benefit from phase and/or subject-specific training which builds purposefully on what they have previously learned. All trainees gain an understanding of the teaching of early reading. Trainees in the primary-age phase also explore the intricacies of how to teach the core and foundation subjects. Trainees in the secondary-age phase are introduced to practices that are unique to their specific subjects. Leaders ensure these parts of the programme are designed around important and ambitious content. However, in some parts of these primary and secondary phase-specific curriculums, leaders have not identified all of the essential knowledge that trainees must learn in enough detail. This prevents some trainees from learning all that they could.

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better?

Leaders ensure that all centre-based training, including that delivered by external partners, is congruent with the overall aims of their ITE curriculums. They make skilful use of carefully designed tasks and activities to help trainees to make strong connections between their centre- and school-based training. These activities help trainees to think deeply about their learning and how it should be applied to their school-based placements. Trainees are empowered to reflect regularly on their placement experiences. Leaders and trainers make deft use of this information to adapt the delivery of centre-based training so that it is responsive to trainees’ ongoing learning and development needs.

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better?

Leaders carefully select a broad range of partner schools to provide rich and contrasting experiences across the programmes in each age phase. They thoughtfully consider trainees’ experiences, learning needs and personal situations when making decisions about school-based experiences.

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better?

Leaders know and utilise the strengths of their partner schools extremely well. They work closely with schools to identify staff who are ready for the role of mentor. New mentors are carefully inducted to ensure that they have the knowledge and confidence to begin their phase-specific roles. Leaders skilfully communicate with mentors in ways that are considerate of their workload. Leaders ensure that mentors across both age phases securely understand the content of the centre-based ITE curriculum.

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better?

Mentors in both phases use carefully designed assessment systems to help trainees to understand their progress towards the key content of the ITE curriculums. Leaders understand the strengths and weaknesses of individual mentors. Many mentors are adept at using assessment systems to provide trainees with feedback that identifies and explains the reasons for strengths and weaknesses in their practice. However, inconsistencies in the detail of some aspects of the ITE curriculum mean that some mentors do not always identify gaps in trainees’ knowledge precisely enough. On occasions, this impacts the quality of targets that mentors set for trainees. Although leaders are tackling this well, there is a little way to go to see the full impact. Nevertheless, leaders have a strong track record of supporting mentors in both age phases to strengthen the quality of mentoring further.

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better?

Leaders skilfully ensure that summative assessment systems are rigorous. These systems capture a wealth of evidence about what trainees know and can do as a result of the ITE curriculum. Leaders ensure that recommendations for the award of QTS are carefully underpinned by a robust and independently moderated assessment against the teachers’ standards.

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(Information for the provider and appropriate authority)

◼ One or two parts of the ITE curriculums do not set out the component knowledge and skills that trainees must learn in sufficient detail. This means that some mentors in both age phases do not always have a detailed understanding of what trainees should know and master. As a result, some trainees are set targets that do not precisely identify gaps in their knowledge. Leaders should ensure that these parts of the ITE curriculum set out all of the component knowledge and skills that trainees are expected to know and practise. They should continue to support mentors to make effective use of this information so that they provide high-quality feedback to all trainees.

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comply with the ITE compliance criteria?

◼ The ITE provider meets the DfE statutory compliance criteria.

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ITE provider details

Unique reference number 70319 Inspection number 10250081

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ITE provider details

This inspection was carried out in accordance with the ‘Initial teacher education inspection framework and handbook’.

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ITE provider details

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 provider details

Type of ITE provider School-centred initial teacher training Phases provided Primary and secondary combined Date of previous inspection 19 June and 20 November 2017

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Inspection team

Michael Pennington, Lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector Vincent Ashworth Ofsted Inspector Paul Tomkow Ofsted Inspector

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Annex: Placement schools

Inspectors visited the following schools as part of this inspection:

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Name URN ITE phases

Christ The King Catholic Academy 141288 Primary Westminster Primary Academy 144945 Primary Montgomery Academy 137973 Secondary St Mary’s Catholic Academy 141257 Secondary Hodgson Academy 136717 Secondary 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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Name URN ITE phases

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Name URN ITE phases

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Name URN ITE phases

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Name URN ITE phases

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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