AA Teamworks West Yorkshire SCITT

AA Teamworks West Yorkshire SCITT Riverside Mills, Saddleworth Road, Elland, West Yorkshire HX5 0RY

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Inspection judgements

Primary and secondary combined age-phase

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education and training Good Leadership and management Good Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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

Central training, school-based placements and academic input from the University of Huddersfield combine to create a high-quality provision for trainees. Trainees experience crucial content on areas including safeguarding and behaviour management in their first weeks of the programme. This helps to prepare them well for the realities of classroom life.

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

Leaders have developed a high-quality training programme that successfully serves both the needs of trainees and of the wider local area. Leaders’ long-established vision to nurture excellent teachers is tangible. It is a shared mission, reflected in the course programme, which has been co-constructed with partner schools, the trust’s English hub and the trust’s research school.

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

The programme provided helps trainees to understand the needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those who speak English as an additional language. Leaders have ensured that their newly developed systems and processes support the workload and well-being of trainees and their mentors. For instance, co- produced, reflective journals are valued over onerous paperwork.

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

There is highly effective communication between course leaders, mentors and trainees. Concise and timely weekly bulletins are used to inform all parties about weekly areas of focus. These help to keep everyone focused on trainees’ learning journey.

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Information about this ITE provider

◼ AA Teamworks West Yorkshire is a school-centred initial teacher training (SCITT) provider situated in the town of Elland in Calderdale, West Yorkshire. ◼ This SCITT offers initial teacher education (ITE) in the primary and secondary phases. ◼ There are 11 trainees in the primary phase and three in the secondary phase. ◼ The provider currently works with 35 school settings. This consists of 23 primary schools and 12 secondary schools. Partnership schools are spread across three local authorities: Calderdale, Kirklees and Leeds. ◼ Trainees study full time over one year. All trainees who complete their programme achieve a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) with Qualified Teacher Status. The PGCE is awarded by The University of Huddersfield. ◼ Primary-phase trainees qualify to teach ages five to 11 years. Secondary-phase trainees qualify to teach ages 11 to 16 in a range of subjects.

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Information about this inspection

◼ The inspection was carried out by two of His Majesty’s Inspectors. ◼ Inspectors met with the head of SCITT and senior leaders from the Great Heights Academy Trust, school mentors, subject course leaders, trainers and school leaders involved in the partnership. ◼ Inspectors also spoke with members of the SCITT partnership and the Great Heights Academy Trust Board, including the chair. ◼ In total, the team spoke with 13 trainees, six mentors and lead mentors and four early careers teachers as part of the inspection. ◼ Inspectors conducted focused reviews for the primary phase in early reading, history, geography and religious education. In the secondary phase, focused reviews were carried out in English and history. ◼ Inspectors examined a wide range of documentation concerning the leadership and management of the SCITT. This included information about governance, safeguarding arrangements and the recruitment of trainees.

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Information about this inspection

◼ Inspectors visited three primary schools and two secondary schools. During these visits, they visited trainees’ lessons and held discussions with senior leaders, school mentors and trainees. ◼ Inspectors considered the provider’s own trainee, mentor and headteacher surveys completed during the current academic year. They also considered trainees’ and SCITT-based staff’s responses to Ofsted’s online surveys for trainees and SCITT- based staff. ◼ Inspectors met with leaders to check how the partnership met the ITE compliance criteria.

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better?

Trainees benefit from exemplary training in early reading and phonics. Highly experienced and inspirational trainers lead high-quality training. This gives trainees a well-considered and powerful introduction to how to teach pupils to read using systematic synthetic phonics. Trainees then follow leaders’ intensive training and practice model to apply this training to their own teaching. Staff provide trainees with carefully structured tasks in both the primary and secondary phases to develop pedagogical skills and their confidence in the classroom.

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better?

Trainees develop their expertise from the well-conceived central training programme delivered by local and Department for Education approved national hub experts. Trainers’ passion for, and knowledge of, their subjects, and of relevant research, inspires trainees to flourish professionally. Primary trainees develop a strong understanding of the primary national curriculum. They become confident, for instance, in how to plan and deliver a well-sequenced series of lessons in mathematics, history or geography. However, in the secondary phase, the programme does not provide trainees with sufficient clarity on some aspects of the subject-specific knowledge that trainees need to acquire. While trainees are well prepared to teach their subjects in their host schools, their training does not provide them with sufficient insight into wider aspects of subject knowledge.

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better?

Subject experts deliver extremely well-designed sessions on equality and inclusion. Trainees learn how to break down the barriers to learning faced by disadvantaged pupils. Trainees thrive when they put into practice what they have learned about adaptive teaching, for example for those pupils who speak English as an additional language. They also learn the importance of assessing and identifying the additional needs of pupils with SEND in order to provide appropriate support for these pupils.

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better?

The centre-based training is aligned with trainees’ experiences on school-based placements. Leaders furnish mentors with the professional development that they need to enable trainees’ school placements to operate smoothly. Mentors provide consistent guidance to trainees and they check how well they are progressing through the ITE curriculum. For example, mentors and trainees use their regular professional meetings to establish meaningful weekly targets. Mentors help to sharp trainees’ proficiency in teaching in line with leaders’ expectations. They assess trainees against the ITE curriculum. Trainees progress well through the course as they benefit from a shared understanding of what to do to improve their practice.

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better?

Rigorous recruitment procedures help leaders recognise trainee potential and set the standard for the high calibre of professionalism the partnership promotes. Safeguarding is given a high priority throughout.

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(Information for the provider and appropriate authority)

◼ While the curriculum develops secondary-phase trainees’ specialist subject knowledge in the context of their host school, their wider subject-specific knowledge is less developed. Leaders should ensure that secondary trainees develop a wider understanding of the important knowledge and skills that pupils need to learn in the subjects that they teach.

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the ITE compliance criteria?

The provider meets the DfE statutory compliance criteria.

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ITE provider details

This inspection was carried out in accordance with the initial teacher education inspection framework and handbook , which 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 SCITT Phases provided Primary and secondary combined Dates of previous inspection 30 April 2018 and 15 October 2018

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Inspection team

Marcus Newby, Lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector Jessica Mackay, Team member His Majesty’s Inspector

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Annex: schools

Inspectors visited the following schools as part of this inspection:

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Name URN ITE phases

Bowling Green Academy 148202 Primary Carlinghow Academy 147584 Primary Moorside Community Primary School 134659 Primary The Brooksbank School 149531 Secondary The Mirfield Free Grammar 136674 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

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-

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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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