Cheshire East SCITT

Cheshire East SCITT Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School, Selkirk Drive, Holmes Chapel CW4 7DX

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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 provider?

The strong and professional relationships that trainees forge with SCITT leaders, mentors and subject experts across this partnership are pivotal to their success. Each week, trainees engage in constructive, professional learning conversations with their subject mentors, which enable them to develop into reflective practitioners. Trainees appreciate how well leaders, subject experts and mentors listen to any worries that they may have.

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

Leaders are extremely committed to trainees’ well-being. As a result, leaders ensure that trainees have access to professional mentors who have been trained as mental health and well-being first aiders. Trainees unanimously said that their workload and well-being are a top priority for all partners. Trainees explained that, because of the care, guidance and support that they receive, they would highly recommend the Cheshire East SCITT to other prospective trainee teachers.

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

The centre- and school-based training curriculums are suitably designed to provide trainees with the knowledge and skills that they require to become successful early career teachers. The SCITT’s trainees are sought after in the local area and they are valued by employers. Many trainees quickly go on to take leadership responsibilities in their employing schools.

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

Trainees benefit from conferences about how to adapt the delivery of their specialist subject curriculum for pupils with additional learning needs, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They learn the importance of making the secondary national curriculum accessible to pupils who speak English as an additional language. Trainees debate how to remove barriers to learning for disadvantaged pupils. Trainees think carefully about how to make teaching resources that reflect modern British society. For example, they discuss how to raise the profile of females and minority ethnic groups in their teaching. They experience being a form tutor in at least two key stages.

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

Trainees are suitably knowledgeable about how to safeguard pupils and themselves. They learn how to recognise the signs that pupils may be at risk of harm through their everyday interactions with them. Trainees are well prepared to manage pupils’ behaviour.

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Information about this ITE provider

◼ The Cheshire East School-Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) partnership was established in 2014. It began providing initial teacher education (ITE) in September 2015. ◼ The SCITT is based at Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School. It provides secondary age-phase training programmes in the 11 to 16 age range. ◼ In the 2022/23 academic year, there were 24 trainees enrolled onto the partnership’s ITE programmes. Trainees were preparing to teach the following subjects: art and design, business studies, chemistry, computing, English, geography, history, mathematics, physics and social sciences. ◼ The partnership works with Manchester Metropolitan University for those trainees who wish to follow the postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) route. ◼ Those trainees who successfully complete their training are awarded qualified teacher status. ◼ In 2022/23, the provider was working with 14 secondary schools across three local

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Information about this ITE provider

authorities. ◼ The partnership schools which work with the SCITT have been judged as outstanding, good and inadequate by Ofsted. Currently, there are no partner schools graded as requires improvement.

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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 met with the director of the SCITT and the accounting officer. The lead inspector met with representatives of the board of governors, including the chair of the governing body. ◼ An inspector met with a representative of Manchester Metropolitan University to discuss the PGCE element of the training programme. ◼ An inspector observed a subject training session in English, which was attended by five trainees. ◼ Inspectors carried out focused reviews in English, mathematics, science (chemistry and physics), geography and social sciences. Inspectors also examined the curriculum in some other subjects, including history. ◼ Inspectors spoke with 20 trainees individually or in small groups to discuss their experiences of the training programme. ◼ Inspectors met with nine early career teachers who had previously completed their

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Information about this inspection

teacher training with the provider. ◼ Inspectors visited five schools as part of the inspection. On school visits, inspectors spoke with professional mentors, trainees, subject mentors and some headteachers. ◼ Inspectors considered the responses to Ofsted’s online survey for trainees and staff.

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better?

Trainees are exposed to a rich and varied training curriculum at the Cheshire East SCITT. Overall, each element of the training curriculum is ambitious in design. Leaders deliver the core components of the training curriculum in a logical order. For example, the centre- based training sessions, which focus on generic subject pedagogy for teaching, including behaviour management and adaptive teaching, are well thought out. Trainees value these sessions. They engage in mature, professional learning conversations with subject mentors about how well they are implementing this training on their school-based placements. Leaders have a strong oversight of the quality and impact of the generic pedagogy sessions. They also quality assure the professional studies training curriculum very well.

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better?

Subject experts are carefully recruited by SCITT leaders to design and deliver subject- specific training sessions. Trainees learn a great deal of subject knowledge from these subject specialists, who are experts in their field. However, a minority of subject experts do not provide leaders, trainees and mentors with sufficient information about the exact content of the subject sessions that they deliver. This hinders how well some mentors and trainees set subject-specific targets. It also prevents leaders from carrying out rigorous quality assurance checks on the effectiveness of this aspect of the training curriculum. This is because, in these subjects, leaders are not fully aware of all the essential knowledge that trainees must learn, nor are they fully in tune with how this knowledge will be delivered. Despite this weakness, trainees achieve well and they are well prepared to embark on their journey as an early career teacher.

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better?

Leaders have ensured that the training curriculum fully aligns with the Department for Education’s core content framework. Throughout the training programme, trainees are exposed to pertinent research. They enjoy discussing and debating relevant research articles with their peers, with their subject mentors and with their subject experts. However, very occasionally, trainees are exposed to some methods of teaching that are potentially contested in some of their school-based placements. This is because leaders have not fully ensured that all partners work in synergy with the SCITT’s established policies and procedures. Despite this, trainees recognise that there are a minority of potentially discredited methods that are being used in some schools. They discuss and debate these with subject experts and mentors. This helps them to make their own decisions about what is effective practice.

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better?

Leaders’ systems to assess trainees are well established. Leaders successfully use the ITE curriculum as the vehicle for assessing trainees’ ongoing progress. The teachers’ standards are appropriately used at the end of each school placement experience. Added to this, leaders’ arrangements to ensure the smooth handover of trainees between school placement A and placement B are a strength. This skilful handover of critical information enables trainees to get off to a flying start in their second school-based experience.

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better?

Overall, mentoring is of a high quality. Subject mentors and professional mentors receive high-quality and continually improving training. Typically, the targets that subject mentors and subject experts set for trainees are useful. They focus on what the trainee needs to do to improve their learning and practice. However, on occasions, some of the targets that mentors set lack subject specificity. Sometimes, they are too broad and too generic, or they are simply a task to complete. In these cases, targets can be unhelpful to trainees.

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better?

Leaders ensure that trainees have sufficient exposure to the primary and post-16 age- phases. All trainees undertake a valuable two-day placement in a special school. This helps them to learn more deeply about how to adapt the delivery of the curriculum for pupils with SEND. Trainees also benefit from learning about the primary national curriculum. However, the centre-based training does not cover how to teach reading in secondary schools in enough depth. Nevertheless, leaders have recognised this deficit. They have suitable plans in place to ensure that every trainee teacher is a teacher of reading.

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better?

Leaders take regular feedback about the quality of the training programme from trainees and other partners. They are outward facing and they collaborate well with other SCITTs to develop resources and to share experiences. For example, leaders are reprioritising how the personal, social and health education aspect of the training programme is delivered. This is due to the changing context of partner schools and the additional mental health and well-being needs of some pupils.

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better?

Leaders have a broadly accurate view of the strengths and areas for further development in relation to the quality of training that the SCITT provides. With this information, leaders formulate appropriate improvement plans. Nevertheless, in the spirit of continuous improvement, leaders are in the process of reflecting more closely on the impact of the ITE curriculum on trainees’ learning and development at an individual subject level. This is to sharpen their self-evaluation and their key priorities for improvement further still.

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better?

Partner schools are extremely complementary about the work of SCITT leaders. All partners, and trainee teachers, said that communication is excellent. They benefit from weekly newsletters and bulletins, as well as frequent contact with course leaders and subject experts. Staff are always on hand to help trainees out. Staff and trainees are unequivocally proud to be a part of this SCITT.

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(Information for the provider and appropriate authority)

◼ In a few subjects, leaders do not have sufficient oversight of what is taught in the subject-specific element of the centre-based training programme. This means that sometimes leaders do not know exactly what knowledge trainees are learning and to what depth. Leaders should ensure that they have an accurate and detailed overview of what is being delivered in the subject-specific curriculums. This is so that they can quality assure the content and delivery of this aspect of the training programme to ensure that it fully meets trainees’ learning needs. ◼ Very occasionally, some partner schools reinforce methods of teaching that fall out of kilter with current educational thinking. While trainees recognise that these practices may not be in the best interests of pupils, they continue to work in the way that their placement school expects. Sometimes, this hinders how well trainees progress through the curriculum. Leaders should ensure that all partners have a secure

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(Information for the provider and appropriate authority)

understanding of exactly how leaders expect them to deliver the curriculum to trainees. Leaders should establish the non-negotiable aspects of the training provision and ensure that all partners have fidelity to those methods. ◼ Leaders do not use all the information that they have about the effectiveness of target setting to improve the quality of trainees’ targets so that they are consistently of a high standard. This means that, on occasions, some of the targets that trainees are set are too generic, or they are simply actions for trainees to complete. Leaders should ensure that they use the information that they have about the quality of target setting to improve mentors’ practice. They should ensure that mentors routinely set targets which enable trainees to progress through the ITE curriculum.

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compliance criteria?

◼ The provider meets the DfE statutory compliance criteria.

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ITE provider details

Unique reference number 70351 Inspection number 10283761

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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 Secondary Dates of previous inspection 19 June and 27 November 2017

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Inspection team

Jonathan Smart, Lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Annex: Schools

Inspectors visited the following settings, schools and colleges as part of this inspection:

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Name URN ITE phase

Alsager School 140108 Secondary Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School 137449 Secondary Malbank School 111419 Secondary Sandbach High School 136340 Secondary The Oaks Academy 147654 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 phase

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Name URN ITE phase

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Name URN ITE phase

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