Bromley Schools' Collegiate

Bromley Schools’ Collegiate Hayes School, West Common Rd, Hayes, Kent BR2 7DB

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Inspection dates 24 April to 27 April 2023

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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?

Trainees feel that the Bromley Schools’ Collegiate is like a family. Mentors, senior mentors and subject tutors communicate particularly effectively across the provision. Trainees feel very well supported in their placement schools. They receive high levels of individual care and guidance from leaders at the centre and are very positive about their training.

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

The curriculum is ambitious and builds trainees’ professional and subject knowledge cumulatively over the duration of the course. The curriculum design for primary and secondary age-phases ensures that trainees regularly revisit key concepts and deepen their understanding as they progress through the course. They explore these concepts in their placement schools, particularly with highly experienced senior mentors. Primary age- phase trainees are well prepared to teach the full range of primary-age pupils, including children in the early years, as well as early reading and systematic synthetic phonics.

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

Trainees become increasingly skilled in creating positive classroom environments that support the learning of all pupils. Leaders prioritise safeguarding training from the start. Trainees learn how to adapt teaching to meet the needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities and how to support pupils who speak English as an additional language.

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Information about this ITE provider

◼ The provider currently has 22 primary age-phase trainees and 28 secondary age- phase trainees. ◼ The SCITT enables trainees to gain qualified teacher status through the School Direct (salaried and non-salaried) route and work towards the Postgraduate Certificate of Education. ◼ The provider also offers an assessment-only route into teaching for both primary age-phase and secondary age-phase candidates. At the time of inspection, there were no candidates enrolled on this route. ◼ The SCITT works in partnership with over 18 primary schools and 11 secondary schools.

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Information about this inspection

◼ The inspection was carried out by two His Majesty’s Inspectors and one Ofsted Inspector. ◼ Inspectors met with SCITT leaders, including leaders of the primary and secondary age-phases and members of the headteacher advisory board. ◼ Inspectors scrutinised the provider’s documents related to improvement planning and curriculum content. ◼ Inspectors reviewed the responses to online surveys of trainee and staff views. They spoke to 11 primary age-phase trainees and 13 secondary age-phase trainees. ◼ In the primary age-phase, inspectors conducted focused reviews in early reading, mathematics and geography. In the secondary age-phase, focused reviews were conducted in physical education, mathematics, combined science (comprising physics, biology and chemistry) and geography. ◼ As part of the inspection, inspectors visited five primary age-phase placement schools and five secondary age-phase placement schools. Inspectors met with

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Information about this inspection

trainees, mentors, early career teachers and leaders as part of each placement visit.

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better?

The curriculum covers the full requirements of the Department for Education’s core content framework and extends beyond this in several aspects. The curriculum gives trainees a thorough introduction to key principles and pedagogies. Leaders have sequenced the curriculum so that trainees come back to these concepts throughout the year as they gain more hands-on experience in the classroom. This supports trainees to deepen their understanding and build a rich conceptual framework of knowledge and skills. Placement-based training aligns with central training.

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better?

Trainees explore key themes further, including how children learn and the management of behaviour, through training at their placement schools. Expert senior mentors support trainees to think deeply about what they have learned within the context of the school and classes they teach. Mentors work closely with trainees to embed this learning in their classroom practice. In the primary age-phase, leaders prioritise building trainees’ knowledge of and confidence in teaching early mathematics and early reading, including phonics and decoding. Leaders ensure primary age-phase trainees gain knowledge of the early years foundation stage and first-hand experience of working with children in the early years. Primary age-phase trainees are well supported to develop their subject knowledge in the full range of other subjects.

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better?

Secondary age-phase trainees receive additional training to help them develop their understanding of the key pedagogical principles and knowledge in their specialist subjects. Audits of subject knowledge help to evaluate trainees’ confidence in teaching their specialist subject for the full secondary age range. At times, the secondary subject-specific curriculum is not as ambitious as references to up-to-date subject-specific research are limited. School-based secondary subject mentors have less awareness of the subject- specific curriculum than they do of the wider secondary age-phase training. This reduces the impact of the subject-specific part of the programme on secondary age-phase trainees’ classroom practice.

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better?

Leaders use regular formative assessment to check what trainees know and remember and how well they apply this in their classroom practice. Audits of subject knowledge help to evaluate trainees’ confidence in teaching their specialist subject for the full secondary age range. To improve quality, leaders seek feedback from trainees and placement schools.

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better?

Leaders ensure that training gives mentors a secure understanding of the training programme and assessment requirements. Senior mentors in placement schools meet regularly with school mentors to discuss the progress of trainees. Training and quality assurance fall short of providing mentors with constructive feedback to improve quality further.

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(Information for the provider and appropriate authority)

◼ At times, senior mentors who check the quality of school-based mentoring do not carry out quality assurance in line with SCITT leaders’ expectations. As a result, mentors do not routinely receive feedback to improve mentoring further. Leaders should ensure that quality-assurance processes are fully understood and applied across all age-phases and subjects. ◼ At times, the secondary age-phase subject training lacks ambition when it does not draw upon a broad range of up-to-date research. Secondary age-phase mentors do not have as routinely clear knowledge of the subject-specific curriculum. This reduces the opportunities for expert colleagues to exemplify and model pedagogical learning to trainees within their specialist subjects. Leaders should ensure that the subject- specific curriculum in all subjects is based on recent education research. They should ensure that school-based secondary subject mentors are fully aware of this

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(Information for the provider and appropriate authority)

curriculum and provide expert subject exemplification.

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comply with the ITE compliance criteria?

◼ The provider meets the DfE statutory compliance criteria.

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ITE provider details

Unique reference number 70007 Inspection number 10275669

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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 8 June and 28 September 2015

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Inspection team

Annabel Davies, Lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector Julie Wright His Majesty’s Inspector Shona Findlay 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

Bullers Wood School for Girls 136709 Secondary Charles Darwin School 136545 Secondary Chislehurst School for Girls 136467 Secondary Ravenswood School for Boys 136517 Secondary Woolwich Polytechnic School for Girls 141163 Secondary James Dixon Primary School 143774 Primary St Mark’s Church of England Primary 141567 Primary Trinity Church of England Primary 141352 Primary Highfield Infants School 140082 Primary Pickhurst Infants School 137069 Primary 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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