Manchester Metropolitan University

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University, Bonsall Street, Manchester M15 6GX Inspection dates 4 to 7 March 2024

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Inspection judgements

The quality of education and training Good Good

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Inspection judgements

Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good Good

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

Trainees are proud to attend Manchester Metropolitan University. They appreciate the provider’s values of social justice and civic responsibility that are embodied within the ITE curriculum. Trainees are furnished with rich opportunities to contribute to the wider community, such as through the Manchester Metropolitan University’s Children Without Limits Saturday school, and a range of fundraising projects. Added to this, many trainees complete a diverse range of additional qualifications, which enhances their employability in the future.

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

Trainees at this provider are very well supported. They value the wide range of wraparound care that is available to them, both in the university and in their placement schools. Trainees welcome leaders’ consideration of their well-being and mental health. They know that there is always someone who they can contact if they need advice. Communication across the partnership, particularly between university staff, trainees and mentors, is a key strength.

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

Trainees experience a well-designed ITE curriculum through the university-based sessions. This ensures that they begin their school placements with a secure knowledge of appropriate classroom pedagogies, behaviour management strategies and how to support pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Trainees are prepared successfully for the realities of teaching through the experiences that they gain from carefully thought-out ITE programmes. Trainees in the primary and secondary age-phases understand the importance of systematic synthetic phonics in developing pupils’ reading fluency. Equally, trainees are knowledgeable about how to safeguard pupils and themselves.

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Information about this ITE provider

◼ In the 2023/24 academic year, the partnership trained a total of 968 trainees across the primary and secondary age-phases. There were 657 trainees in the primary age- phase and 311 trainees in the secondary age-phase. ◼ In the primary phase, the majority of trainees study towards a three-year Bachelor of Arts with Honours (BA Hons) undergraduate degree with qualified teacher status (QTS). In 2023/24, there were 510 trainees on the BA (Hons) in primary education with QTS route. There were 27 trainees on the BA (Hons) in primary education with mathematics. These trainees were trained in the three to 11 age-phase. There were 101 full-time trainees on the one-year Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) in primary education. 19 trainees on PGCE courses were following the School Direct fee- paying route. ◼ In the secondary phase, there were 271 trainees on PGCE courses in secondary subjects and 40 trainees on School Direct fee-paying routes. The PGCE subjects that

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Information about this ITE provider

trainees were training to teach in during 2023/24 were: art and design; biology; chemistry; computing; design and technology; drama; English; French; geography; history; mathematics; music; music with specialist instrumental teaching; physical education; physics; psychology; religious education; social science and Spanish. ◼ In total, the partnership works with approximately 366 placement settings across 24 local authorities. The current Ofsted inspection grades for those settings, where Ofsted is the inspectorate, range from outstanding to inadequate. ◼ In the primary age-phase, the partnership works with 217 schools in 17 local authorities. ◼ In the secondary age-phase, the partnership works with 149 schools in 23 local authorities.

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Information about this inspection

◼ This inspection was carried out by three of His Majesty’s Inspectors and seven Ofsted Inspectors. ◼ During this inspection, inspectors held meetings with the faculty pro-vice chancellor, d eputy faculty pro-vice chancellor, the head of School of Education and other leaders with oversight of ITE programmes. These leaders included: deputy head School of Education; director of ITE quality assurance and Ofsted compliance; and the programme leads for primary and secondary age-phases. ◼ Inspectors held meetings with a wide range of other university staff, including course leaders, lecturers, senior lecturers, academic tutors and the admissions team. ◼ Inspectors also held conversations with members of the strategic partnership board, including the chair. Inspectors met with representatives of the School Direct partnerships. ◼ Inspectors reviewed a wide range of documentation relating to the ITE programmes.

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Information about this inspection

This information included: subject and phase curriculum documentation; trainees’ files, assignments and their records of target setting; assessment documentation and mentoring records, and information relating to the Department for Education’s (DfE’s) ITT criteria and supporting advice. ◼ Inspectors scrutinised a range of documentation in relation to the leadership and management of the partnership. This included leaders’ self-evaluation documents, improvement plans, quality assurance documents, and minutes from meetings of the strategic partnership board. ◼ The inspection was carried out through in-person meetings, virtual meetings and on- site visits to partner schools. ◼ Inspectors visited one centre-based training session in the primary phase. ◼ In the primary phase, inspectors carried out focused reviews in early reading, art and design, design and technology, history, geography, mathematics and science.

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Information about this inspection

◼ In the secondary phase, inspectors carried out focused reviews in art and design, chemistry, English, history, music and psychology. ◼ Across both phases, inspectors spoke with 149 trainees and 11 early career teachers. ◼ During the inspection, inspectors visited 16 schools, including a nursery school and a special school. ◼ Inspectors met with staff in partner schools. These included headteachers, senior leaders, professional mentors, subject and class mentors. ◼ Inspectors considered the responses to Ofsted’s surveys for staff and trainees. Primary phase report

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better?

The provider has established an ambitious and well-thought-out ITE curriculum. For example, it ensures that trainees learn about the foundational knowledge that children need to gain in the early years. This helps trainees to understand how the curriculum builds pupils’ knowledge from the early years to Year 6.

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better?

As a result of its careful thinking, the provider aligns its curriculum with the DfE’s core content framework. Trainees develop a secure understanding of how to design learning that helps pupils to acquire new knowledge. Trainees gain the essential subject knowledge across the range of primary national curriculum subjects, which ensures that they are well prepared for their future teaching careers.

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better?

The provider makes sure that trainees become competent teachers of phonics and early reading. This includes ensuring that trainees learn how to support weaker readers to catch up quickly with their peers.

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better?

The provider is equally ambitious for trainees’ wider learning. For instance, it ensures that trainees develop a secure understanding of the role of equality and inclusion in the classroom. Trainees learn to successfully adapt their delivery of school curriculums, so that pupils with SEND progress well in their learning. Trainees strive to help all pupils in schools to flourish.

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better?

In the main, trainees benefit from the extra help and guidance of knowledgeable, skilful mentors. However, some mentors set targets that are too broad and lack subject- specificity. These targets do not support trainees to build their knowledge across the ITE curriculum as well as they could. Consequently, from time to time, some trainees’ knowledge of the ITE curriculum is less secure.

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better?

The provider systematically checks that its staff have the subject and phase expertise necessary to deliver the ITE curriculum well. This expertise of university staff helps to ensure that the ITE curriculum is underpinned by a wide range of pertinent and up-to-date educational research. On occasion, the provider is less successful in helping trainees to know how to apply such research to improve their teaching practice.

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better?

The provider has established a wide range of ways to review the quality of the primary age-phase ITE programmes. However, on occasion, the provider is unclear about how best to use this information to improve the quality of education and training that it provides. This sometimes hinders the provider from identifying precisely where improvements are needed.

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better?

Overall, tutors and mentors assess trainees’ knowledge and skills carefully, including how they manage pupils’ behaviour. Trainees develop several strengths, such as an understanding of how to support the needs of pupils who speak English as an additional language and how to keep pupils safe. Trainees care deeply about social justice in modern Britain. They are passionate about putting this learning into practice.

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(Information for the provider and appropriate authority)

◼ The provider does not make s ure that some trainees understand enough about applying the most important educational research to their work as teachers. This affects how well some trainees can use this knowledge to improve their delivery of school curriculums. The provider should ensure that trainees can use and apply relevant pertinent research more confidently. ◼ Some of the targets that mentors set for trainees are too broad and do not build well on trainees’ learning of the core ITE curriculum. This means that some trainees do not deepen their subject-specific expertise as well as they could. The provider should ensure that mentors are fully equipped to develop trainees’ knowledge and skills through effective target setting. ◼ Some of the provider’s quality assurance arrangements do not delve deeply enough into the impact of the ITE curriculum. This means that, sometimes, the provider is not clear about how well the ITE curriculum is being implemented for trainees. The

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(Information for the provider and appropriate authority)

provider should make better use of the information it gathers to accurately identify the priorities for further improvement in the primary age-phase ITE programmes.

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compliance criteria?

The provider meets the DfE statutory compliance criteria. Secondary phase report

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better?

In the secondary age-phase, leaders have created an ambitious ITE curriculum, which covers the full range of the DfE’s core content framework. Skilled tutors, with relevant subject-specific expertise, have thought carefully about what trainees will learn in their university-based sessions. Up-to-date research permeates the curriculum, informing its design. Trainees develop a secure understanding of generic pedagogy that they then build on in subject-specific sessions. This ensures that trainees deepen their knowledge of their chosen subjects.

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better?

The provider has established strong relationships with schools across the partnership. This helps to ensure that trainees experience suitable contrasting placements. Leaders provide appropriate information to partnership schools so that, for the most part, mentors are clear about what trainees are learning in the university. However, on occasion trainees’ school- based experiences are not as successfully integrated as they could be with their centre- based learning. This hinders how well a small number of trainees build their knowledge across the ITE curriculum and apply their learning in the classroom.

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better?

Visiting tutors regularly sample the targets and feedback that mentors provide for trainees. However, leaders do not use this information as well as they could to make timely improvements to the quality of mentoring. As a result, there remain some inconsistencies in the quality of mentoring, which leads to a variable experience for some trainees.

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better?

The provider is in the process of strengthening its approaches to quality assurance. For example, course and subject leaders in the secondary age-phase work together to maintain oversight of curriculum development and content of the ITE programmes each year. External experts are consulted as necessary to assure the quality of curriculum breadth and subject specificity. However, some gaps remain in the provider’s quality assurance processes. Specifically, leaders do not gather enough pertinent information about the delivery of the ITE curriculum across centre- and school-based learning. At times, this limits how well leaders understand the full impact of their work and the areas that need to be improved for trainees.

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better?

Leaders have clear and effective systems in place to assess trainees. Assessment is directly aligned with the core ITE curriculum. Most trainees receive helpful information about their progress at key milestone points. When needed, university staff put in place additional support for those trainees who are not on track. This helps the majority of trainees to be well prepared to take up roles as qualified teachers.

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better?

University staff provide thoughtful pastoral care that trainees value highly. Leaders are mindful of trainees’ workload and individual circumstances. They provide a range of high- quality support to ensure that trainees can fully access the ITE curriculum. Trainees develop a range of positive professional behaviours, including how to successfully manage pupils’ behaviour and how to safeguard pupils.

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(Information for the provider and appropriate authority)

◼ In a small number of areas, the provider has not ensured that the different aspects of the ITE curriculum are as seamlessly integrated as they could be. This means that on occasion, some trainees are not able to apply the knowledge that they learn as well as they should when they are teaching in the classroom. The provider should review how each strand of the ITE curriculum is delivered so that it better supports trainees to apply, in practice, what they have learned. ◼ The provider does not check the quality of the delivery of the ITE curriculum sufficiently well. This means that the provider does not have a clear enough understanding of the full impact of the ITE curriculum on trainees’ learning across centre- and school-based training. The provider should ensure that its quality assurance processes generate accurate information about how well the ITE curriculum is delivered and where improvements are necessary.

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(Information for the provider and appropriate authority)

◼ Sometimes the mentoring support that some trainees receive is less effective than it could be. Occasionally, this hinders how well some trainees progress through the ITE curriculum. The provider should use the information that it gathers about the quality of mentoring more strategically to ensure that necessary improvements to mentoring are implemented in a timely manner.

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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 HEI Phases provided Primary Secondary Dates of previous inspection 18 May and 19 October 2015

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Inspection team

Elaine Mawson, Overall lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector Tim Vaughan, Phase lead inspector (primary) His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Amanda Downing, Phase lead inspector (secondary) His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Felicity Ackroyd Ofsted Inspector Dawn Davies Ofsted Inspector Valerie Elson Ofsted Inspector Susan Farrimond Ofsted Inspector Sonja Oyen Ofsted Inspector Alyson Spencer Ofsted Inspector Janette Walker 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 phase

Blessed Thomas Holford Catholic College 106376 Secondary Brereton Church of England Primary School 144832 Primary Chorlton High School 139148 Secondary Elton Community Primary School 141167 Primary King David Primary School 139497 Primary Lark Hill Nursery School 106016 Primary Levenshulme High School 141196 Secondary Manley Park Primary School 105472 Primary River View Community Primary School 136076 Primary Rolls Crescent Primary School 144913 Primary Rowan Tree Primary School 131295 Primary St Patricks Roman Catholic High School 105986 Secondary St Philips Church of England Primary School 105509 Primary The Albion Academy 146793 Secondary The Deanery Church of England High School and Sixth Form College 106534 Secondary

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Name URN ITE phase

West Didsbury Church of England Primary School 141967 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 phase

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 phase

government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Name URN ITE phase

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

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Name URN ITE phase

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

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